Skip to content

Arts Club's The Shoplifters is coming to Burnaby

If you're looking for stocking stuffers, now's a good time to buy tickets for this touring production, which lands in Burnaby in February
Arts Club Theatre, Shoplifters
Raugi Yu, Dean Paul Gibson and Patti Allan in the Arts Club on Tour production of The Shoplifters. Set and costume design by Ken MacDonald. The production is onstage at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts Feb. 8 and 9.

There’s nothing like a night at the theatre to shed some light on the winter darkness.

The Shoplifters, a Canadian comedy by Morris Panych, is touring the Lower Mainland this winter, and it’s stopping in Burnaby on Feb. 8 and 9. It’s being brought to the stage by the Arts Club Theatre Company.

The play follows Alma (Patti Allan), a career shoplifter who prefers the “five-finger discount” over any senior citizens’ deal. When a grocery store theft with her anxious sidekick (Agnes Tong) goes awry, her elaborate life of petty crime is halted by an overzealous security guard (Raugi Yu) and his affable mentor (Dean Paul Gibson).

The Shoplifters is about small people with small lives – people who want something and will do anything to get it,” said Panych, the playwright who also directs the production, in a press release. “I’m really fascinated with what’s happening in the world right now, with people being left behind, and I wanted to write about that.”

For Arts Club’s artistic director, Ashlie Corcoran, the chance to present something by Panych was an opportunity she couldn’t pass up.

“One of my seminal Arts Club experiences growing up was seeing Morris Panych’s shows,” she said in the release. “The Shoplifters is a funny and idiosyncratic script, with fantastic characters and rhythm. I am thrilled that Morris and his partner, Ken MacDonald – an incredible designer – are taking the play on tour. They have been hugely important in our company’s history, and I am excited to share this show with a wider audience.”

The Lower Mainland tour runs from Jan. 9 to Feb. 9, with the Burnaby shows at Shadbolt Centre for the Arts, 6450 Deer Lake Ave., on Saturday, Feb. 8 and Sunday, Feb. 9 at 8 p.m.

Tickets are available through tickets.shadboltcentre.com, and more information can be found at www.artsclub.com.