What a treat. Glengarry Glen Ross is a contemporary classic, and this production realizes the script’s power with precision and wit.

There are treats aplenty at this year's festival, including a delicious satire of musical theatre, compelling acting in Confessions, and the unmissable sheer energy of Flamenco Flamenco!

It’s no secret that the Fringe circuit has lately lost its edge, with experimentation making way for middle-of-the-road. However, these 14 shows are technically accomplished, and many are prepared to dare.

In this Theatre Under the Stars production, the supporting actors outshine the leads, with Tamara Vishniakoff delivering a sweet-voiced and soothing Mary and Andrew Byerlay putting on a showstopping and confidently camp Herod.

Orphans

Goodness

So Many Doors

By Darren O’Donnell. Directed by Chris Abraham. Produced by Crow’s Theatre in association with Mammalian Diving Reflex. At the Waterfront Theatre on Friday, June 6, as part of the Magnetic North Theatre Festival. No remaining performances

Created and performed by 7 Fingers. At the Arts Club Granville Island Stage on Friday, June 6, as part of the Magnetic North Theatre Festival. No remaining performances

By Andy Jones and Michael Jones Sr. Directed by Lois Brown. At Presentation House Theatre on Thursday, June 5, as part of the Magnetic North Theatre Festival. No remaining performances

Townsville is a strange place. Its inhabitants are young, inarticulate, and confused, but talented. The town mascot is a sickly albino elephant named Sylvia. The community leaders decide to honour Sylvia by hosting a talent competition, which prompts a couple of disgruntled citizens to take drastic action.

The characters in Anita Rochon's play, part of the Magnetic North Theatre Festival, are paralyzed by apathy, which she uses to simultaneously mock the creative impulse and celebrate its redemptive power.

For a first-time playwright, Kevin Loring is making quite a splash, and his play concerning truth and reconciliation in the Native community is one to watch out for in the Magnetic North Theatre Festival.

The Museum Project

Somewhere inside The Pillowman there’s an allegory that redeems its relentless brutality. But the deeper meaning that emerges isn’t enough.

La vue d’en haut

By Adam Rapp. Directed by Kelly-Ruth Mercier. A Speckled Birds Equity Co-op production at Havana Theatre on Friday, March 7. Continues until March 22

By Robert Bolt. Directed by Jeremy Tow. Produced by Midnight Theatre Collective, in association with Pacific Theatre. At Pacific Theatre on Thursday, February 7. Continues until February 23

By Peter Quilter. Directed by Christopher Newton. An Arts Club Theatre Company production at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage on Friday, February 1. Continues until March 2

By Robert Hewett. Directed by Geordie Johnson. A Playhouse Theatre Company presentation, in association with the Blonde Project. At the Vancouver Playhouse on Thursday, January 17. Continues until February 2

Peter Anderson and Melody Anderson update the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale with clever lyrics, dazzling costumes, and breathtaking masks

I loved Debbie Does Dallas, but it’s about teenage girls selling their bodies for cash. What’s happened to my politics?

Juan Carlos Velis, who cowrote the script with his father, Alfonso Velis Tobar, plays a number of different men who have left their homelands for the promise of a better life: the sombrero-and-poncho-clad Paco lives in a cardboard box. Buttons makes the illegal border crossing from Mexico into the U.S. by crawling through a sewer full of cockroaches, bats, and mosquitoes—with fresh sewage pouring in every 90 minutes. Jesus is in prison for a far more serious crime than just being an illegal immigrant. Johnny tells the story of his arrival in Vancouver as an 11-year-old refugee, after seeing his entire family shot by government guards in El Salvador

Bent is a love story set in an environment where love is impossible. This production deftly captures both the play’s brutality and its message of human transcendence

It's 1950, and director Billy Wilder is pitching the role of Norma Desmond, Sunset Boulevard's washed-up silent-film star, as a comeback opportunity for Pickford, who hasn't made a movie in 10 years. Wilder becomes Pickford's attentive audience as she reflects on her past.

Driving Miss Daisy is the perfect escape from our miserable weather: it's as warm and sweet as a ray of southern sunshine.

Text by Patrice Desbiens. Original concept by Roch Castonguay. Directed by Robert Bellefeuille, Esther Beauchemin, Roch Castonguay, and Robert Marinier. A Théâtre de la Vieille 17 production, in collaboration with the French Theatre of the National Arts Centre. At the Vancouver East Cultural Centre on Friday, October 12. No remaining performances

By Jeff Gladstone. Directed by Jack Paterson. Musical direction by Joanna Chapman-Smith. A Fugue Free Theatre production. At Playwrights Theatre Centre Studio. Continues until October 13.

Quasimodo, or The Bell Ringer of Our Lady of Paree By James Fagan Tait. Directed by Sherry J. Yoon. A Boca del Lupo production. On Squamish Reserve No. 6, underneath the Burrard Street Bridge near the Burrard Civic Marina, on Saturday, August 11. Continues until August 25

By Michael Golamco. Directed by Josette Jorge. A Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre production. At the Firehall Arts Centre on Friday, July 29. Continues until August 3

Call it the little play that could.

Timon of Athens is one of Shakespeare's stranger plays, featuring one of his most bizarre heroes. Timon is a wealthy Athenian who is generous to a fault. When all his feasting and lavishing of gifts leaves him bankrupt, the friends who have so eagerly accepted his bounty deny his requests for help. Timon retreats to a cave in the woods, changes his name to Misanthropos, and rages bitterly against all humanity. He doesn't even get to die on-stage.

Written by James Elmore, Patrick Foley, Leith Harris, and Jason Logan. Composition and musical direction by Earle Peach. Remount staged by John Cooper. A Carnegie Opera Project presentation. At the Firehall Arts Centre on Thursday, June 21. No remaining performances

The Magnetic North Theatre Festival, an annual showcase of contemporary theatre from across Canada, won't be in Vancouver until next June, but the city made its presence felt at this year's event, which wrapped up in Ottawa on June 16: nearly half of the festival's shows were by Vancouver companies.

By Michael Springate. Directed by Carey-Jo Hoffman. A Craning Neck Theatre production. At the Waterfront Theatre on Friday, May 11. Continues until May 19

Deception is an art, and being deceived can be a gift. That's one part of the moral of The Triumph of Love, an 18th-century French comedy by Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux that's being dusted off and given a stylish 1930s look by Vancouver's Blackbird Theatre. The company, which is devoted to the classics, presents the work at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre from Friday to next Saturday (May 18 to 26).

By Susanna Uchatius in collaboration with the cast. Directed by Susanna Uchatius and Stephen Drover. A Theatre Terrific production. At Performance Works on Thursday,May 3. Continues until May 12

By Rosemary Georgeson, Savannah Walling, and a team of Downtown Eastside–involved writers. Directed by Kim Collier. A Vancouver Moving Theatre presentation in association with urban ink's Fathom Labs and the Carnegie and Roundhouse community centres. At the Russian Hall on Friday, April 20. Continues until April 29

By Claudia Dey. Directed by Diane Brown. A Ruby Slippers Theatre production. At Performance Works on Saturday, April 7. Continues until April 22, then runs at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts from April 25 to 28

Jonathon Young has played lots of eccentrics, from inventor Nikola Tesla (in the Electric Company's Brilliant!) to an obsessively silent vaudevillian (in his own The Palace Grand). Now the Vancouver actor is getting ready to step into another unruly mind: that of the title character in Trout Stanley, which opens Saturday (April 7) at Performance Works.

Created by Rick Miller and Daniel Brooks. Directed by Daniel Brooks. A WYRD and Necessary Angel production. A Vancouver East Cultural Centre presentation. At the VECC on Thursday, March 29. Continues until April 7

By Brad Payne. Directed by Eileen Sproule. A Broken Spoke Theatre production. A Tremors Festival presentation. At Performance Works on Friday, March 16. No remaining performances

By Leon Aureus. Directed by Jack Paterson. A Firehall Arts Centre production. At the Firehall Arts Centre on Wednesday, February 28. Continues until March 17

CBC, FOB—if these acronyms don’t mean anything to you (and the first has nothing to do with our esteemed national broadcaster), then you’re obviously not a banana boy.

A Midnight Theatre Collective production at Pacific Theatre on Friday, February 2. Continues until February 17

By Lucia Frangione. Directed by Kerry VanderGriend. At Pacific Theatre until December 30

Book and lyrics by Richard Ouzounian. Music and orchestrations by Marek Norman. Directed by Sarah Rodgers. At the Gateway Theatre until January 7, 2007

10 Days on Earth A Ronnie Burkett Theatre of Marionettes production. At the Vancouver East Cultural Centre until December 17

Adapted by Kim Selody from the novel by Kenneth Oppel. Directed by Carole Higgins. At the Waterfront Theatre until December 30

Directed by David Diamond. A Headlines Theatre production. At the Japanese Hall until Sunday, December 10