When: Friday to SundayTheatre SKAM will expand its offerings this weekend to include international artists and full-length performances for the first time ever during SKAMpede, the theatre company’s annual outdoor performing arts festival.
The festival features a dozen theatre companies, including SNAFU Society of Unexpected Spectacles, Salty Broad Productions, and the Paris-based Compagnie SHIFT SHAPE, which is co-directed by Victoria’s Kathleen O’Reilly and New York’s Anya Opshinsky. O’Reilly, who studied acting at the University of Victoria, returns to SKAMpede with high hopes for her company’s physical comedy, ROVERS: Mimes on the Run. The hour-long production is unusual for SKAMpede in that the majority of offerings are less than 30 minutes in length and from almost exclusively Greater Victoria companies.
In 2021, amid restrictions due to the pandemic, SKAMpede altered its approach, which to that point had guests travelling as a group by bike or on foot to their respective performances. Last year, patrons met at the venue and ventured afterward back to a central hub in Songhees Park Plaza, where further performances were staged.