ON STAGE: UNO Festival
Where: Metro Studio Theatre (1411 Quadra St.) and Intrepid Theatre Club (2-1609 Blanshard St.)
When: April 27-May 7
Tickets: $20-$25 from Intrepid Theatre and Eventbrite
Intrepid Theatre’s UNO Festival will celebrate its 25th anniversary this week, which is a major milestone for an event dedicated exclusively to solo performance.
However, the quarter-century celebration will also bring the festival — in its current state — to an end. Intrepid Theatre will replace UNO Fest and its spot on the calendar next year with a festival of new work, offering a program much broader in scope.
“We’ve had lots of conversations about what is a good time to end things, about when things have reached their end and when it’s time to make room for something new,” said co-artistic and marketing director Sean Guist of Intrepid Theatre.
“UNO has run its course, but it feels really nice to end on the 25th anniversary and celebrate the history of the festival.”
To date, more than 300 artists have performed at the event, from across North America. This year’s edition features a strong roster of Canadian talent, including Tommi.B.Coyote, Dave Morris, Jamie Dunsdon, Kunji Mark Ikeda and Davina Stewart. Intrepid Theatre worked hard at finding the balance between keeping customers safe and returning to the pre-pandemic norm. Venue capacities are capped, and arranged with cabaret-style tables and chairs, in some instances.
“This feels like we’re back now,” Guist said of the festival’s return. “We are doing what we do best, which is telling stories and sharing stories together in the same room, with strangers. You laugh together, you cry together, your hearts start to beat together. You can’t do that online, and you can’t do that streaming.”
The festival is being staged over two weeks at Metro Studio Theatre and Intrepid Theatre Club, the first in-person performances under the UNO Fest banner since 2019. The event was entirely digital last year, and in 2020, it was adjusted at the very last minute, after COVID-19 restrictions forced festival programmers to switch gears to a livestream model.
In the absence of restrictions, the planning process was considerably easier this time out, Guist said. “The event in 2020 was launched, and tickets were on sale [when the shutdown occurred],” Guist said. “Three thousand festival programs arrived from the courier the day we closed the office.”
As with previous years, UNO Fest is modestly priced, with free (Paul Tedeschini’s audio play, Tripping Across the Finish Line) and by-donation performances (María Escolán and Regina Ríos’ double bill of in-development programming) available.
Guist said he will miss what UNO Fest offers up-and-coming talents, but he’s looking forward to exploring more opportunities next year with an entirely new creation.
“There is a bit of challenge to program only solo shows. It’s a bit limiting in terms of programming. When the festival started, 25 years ago, solo shows made a lot of sense; it was the next step for Fringe Festival artists, and they were very cost-efficient to tour. But curation was a bit limiting. After 25 years, we felt it was time to let it go, and come back with something new and fresh.”
