The Cultch

Saw The Rivals here and the acting was superb. I’ve never been here before and really like the set up. It’s a small and cosy theatre located in a residential area. Quite deceptive from the outside, looks quite small but opens up in the back.

I came here last week to see Sunya, and I had completely forgotten that I’d been there almost ten years earlier! I’ve now been here as an audience member AND as a performer. Good times!
I love this venue. It has so much character, and it’s such a beautiful little building. Not that this is relevant to most people, but if you’re tap dancing on the stage, you don’t get the best acoustics. For everything else, however, it’s delightful and adorable.
The stage is on the floor and isn’t raised, but the entire house is raked with a great balcony. Every seat has an excellent view of the stage, and you can take your pick of sitting right in front of the performers or farther back. Choose your own adventure!
Some truly incredible performances come through this theatre, and it’s a great local staple. If you’re looking for a great way to spend an evening, you should absolutely check this place out.

A beautiful theater, lits of space for entertainment and a nice little house bar to boot!
Too bad they decided to close the wine bar before the play, seemed kind of silly not to let patrons enjoy some bevvies before the shows!
A beautiful landmark in the Vancouver arts scene, you should make a point to see a play here at least once!

We have attended several performances at the Cultch, all very good. The most recent show was Obaaberima. It was powerful and moving. As many have already pointed out, it is a historic building, the theatre itself is intimate and not a bad seat in the house. We have always found the staff to be friendly and helpful. You feel good spending your money there.
Also, the productions are usually not over-​hyped «Broadway» type shows. It is so good to see this other side of performance arts in Vancouver.
We recommend it highly!

We had such a great time at The Cultch! The box office is outside so watch out you don’t miss it! We picked up our tickets and hustled our way into the theatre with a few minutes to spare before seeing Fish Eyes (sooo goood!)
The building is a masterpiece and the theatre is absolutely beautiful. We were in the «cheap seats,» but the layout of this space means there isn’t a bad seat in the house; we had a perfect view of the stage the whole time. It’s a very small theatre with a small stage, which was perfect for this show. I’ve also seen Waiting for Godot here, and although that’s a much more expansive show the stage never felt cramped.
We went to grab a drink at intermission and the bar area is quite large with a few tables to sit at, or lean against. The bartender was very busy but still cheerful, and patient when we weren’t sure what we wanted. The drinks are quite expensive, so do be prepared for that! It’s a little confusing as there are two bar areas, but the flow of people towards the larger of the two made it easy to work out which was open. The other looks more loungey and intimate with dim lighting and candles on the tables.
I love that The Cultch exists and that they have taken such clear care with the space. It’s really gorgeous and always a treat to visit! Coming from England I miss easy access to theatre, and having such a great one in my neighbourhood is wonderful!

I had a phenomenal time at The Cultch watching Mies Julie.
It’s such a beautiful venue, in a nice accessible neighbourhood. I just couldn’t believe it took me this long to finally go to a show there.
We had great seats, at a good price — and I am just looking forward to the next time I get to attend a show there!

Support live theatre!
Good prices, great shows, not a bad seat in the house, and a huge sense of culture and community — you’ll always feel at home. Can’t go wrong supporting good live theatre and local actors & artists!

My husband is fan of (pretty much) all things British. And Charles Dickens is close to the top of his Anglophilic list. So, when I found out The Cultch was putting on «Dickens’ Women,» a one-​woman starring the quite British Miriam Margolyes, the very weekend we were visiting Vancouver, I was on it like clotted cream on a scone.
The Cultch could not be easier to get to from downtown Vancouver: Georgia Street becomes the Georgia Viaduct becomes Prior Street becomes Venables Street, where the Cultch is located. The Google Maps directions I’d printed out in advance — suspecting (correctly) the GPS on our phones would not work in Canada — estimated the trip from our hotel on Robson Street to the Cultch would take 11 minutes. I don’t think it was even that long.
Finding parking was a whole other story. We got there — in the dark and the rain — only to find the blocks in the immediate vicinity of The Cultch are mostly restricted (i.e. resident) parking. However, we quickly learned if you persevere and aren’t afraid to walk a block or two, there is ample street parking available not too far away.
Once inside, we spent some time warming up and enjoying the theatre’s small café. We then made our way to our seats.
I found out about the play — and, thus, bought our tickets — just a few days before the performance. The show was, understandably, very popular and when I went to get the tickets, the only seats available together were restricted view. We decided to take a chance on these, and, for the most part, they worked out just fine.
We were in the back row of the balcony, but, it is a very intimate performance space, so we did not feel too far away. We saw 90% of the play with no problem. A couple of times, though, when Ms. Margolyes was at the very right of the stage, she was sort of beneath us and our view was not so great. But, considering we went into this with full knowledge of this possibility and had paid just $ 15/​ticket, we really could not complain. AND, when this happened, we just sat back, closed our eyes, and drank in Ms. Margolyes’ brilliant oration/​interpretation of Mr. Dickens’ work.
I am very happy to have found The Cultch, a lovely performance space that, clearly finds some top-​notch, off-​the-​beaten-​path shows to stage. I’ll definitely be checking out what is playing there when I am back in Vancouver.

Love how it’s a heritage building! The Cultch is hidden in a residential area.
The theatre has plush, red seats which were comfortable. It’s a small theatre that it feels very intimate, and you’d feel like you’re a part of the act even though you have balcony seatings.
The café was a bit crowded and unorganized, which caused a lot of budging for the lined-​up customers.
The show I saw was «Blind Date”— very hilarious and so much fun to see! I am confident that The Cultch would only produce top notch productions, and I don’t hesitate in recommending it to those who aren’t so sure if they want to go. Go! Support the arts!!!

We saw Beckett’s ‘Waiting for Godot’ here in January. It was my first theatre visit in Vancouver, and I wasn’t sure what to expect, as it doesn’t seem to be a very widely visited venue. It was actually quite big — bigger than a normal studio setting, but still incredibly intimate. I was worried when we booked our tickets, as they were right on the side, but the seating is great whereever you are in the Cultch, and through the great setting and amazing acting, I felt completely involved in the performance.
As with most theatres the food and drink is ridiculously expensive — I think we spent more at the interval than we did on the tickets, although they did have a good variety of snacks and drinks. I saw that they also had a cute restaurant with great décor, although I can’t comment on the food as I didn’t try it.

The Cultch is so small and intimate, it truly has no bad seats in the theater. We sat in the balcony seats, but yet we were still less than 30 feet away from the stage.
The Cultch also gets bonus stars for bringing Nina Arsenault’s gripping one-​woman show, The Silicone Diaries to Vancouver. This narrative is a stunning look of one woman’s transformation of her body and using it as living art.
I can easily say that I would love to see another show at The Cultch.

A lovely and intimate theatre. I wouldn’t say there is a bad seat in the house. Everyone has a great view, even the balcony seats. Only downside to the arrangement is if you are in the balcony, and the person in the row behind you isn’t careful with their legs, you might get kicked in the head.
It was my first visit to The Cultch. It was much smaller than I’d anticipated, but in the theatre world, this isn’t a bad thing. The production we saw wasn’t the greatest, but that isn’t the theatre’s fault. I’m eager to return to The Cultch for other offerings in the future.

This is your somewhat no frills neighborhood theater and requires all the support it can get. The venue is not main stream and is at the north end of commercial drive. You need a combo of Sky Train + Bus or a good 10 – 15 walk to get here. There are actually two performance stages here the heritage and the somewhat new venue. The heritage has more capacity and but is intimate nonetheless. The newer place is smaller but has really good acoustics. The size of the venue is a boon for smaller performing companies as they can rent it out for less. Most of the shows run for a week max and there are a lot of one day events. During my short stint in Vancouver I saw 10 – 15 performances here so there are a lot of shows to go by. Agreed the performances can be hit or miss but you are paying a reasonable price. There are two areas for drinking/​dining The Café and the newer wine bar area. I will surely check out «The Cultch» as its called whenever I am in town.

I saw 1984 here with some friends a couple weeks ago and was really impressed by the venue. It’s a gorgeous space. My boyfriend and I got the cheapest tickets (about $ 13) but the sightlines were still great, we could see no problem.
Cozy red velvet chairs, two fully stocked bar areas for intermission fun, and interesting innovative shows. I’ll definitely check their line up and come back!

I had an incredible time here. Even though I had crappy nosebleed seats, the size of this venue means that no matter how crappy your seat is, you’ll still have a fairly good view of the stage. I appreciated that. My ticket was $ 15 and I saw an incredible play in a beautiful building.
The whole experience was A+. I can’t wait to return to the Cultch again and again.

A delightful space in Vancouver to watch both local and touring theatre performances. This renovated church has been a bastion of culture in the neighbourhood I grew up in since I was a kid, but it is only as an adult that I have fully grown to appreciate the space fully.
There a few places in Vancouver my butt would rather be than plunked down in one of the red velvet chairs, watching some indie theatre. Case in point — a recent performance of «Agokwe:Gay Love on the Rez» was a truly awe inspiring experience. I will be back soon!

I love the Cultch for it’s variety of programming as well as it’s intimate spaces. You can find anything from music to theatre to spoken word and dance to puppetry at the Cultch. Maybe it’s the Commercial Drive mandate to be a little quirky, because that’s what the Cultch is.
They have two performance spaces: the newly renovated Heritage Theatre, and the black box Vancity Culture Lab. The Lab seats about 50 people which makes for some very intimate performances, and the Heritage Theatre has plush seats with a balcony that wraps around the floor seating area. Shows run for about a week, so there’s always something fresh and exciting happening at the Cultch.
A fantastic deal if you’re 19 or under — the Telus youth pass is free, and it let’s you see any show at the Cultch (or Cultch sponsored event!) for only $ 2. ONLY $ 2! Even if a show is sold out, they still hold 10 tickets aside for youth pass holders, which is awesome. Also, they offer great youth intensive programs in all artistic disciplines that include mentorships by a rotating panel of locally based artists like Hannah Georgas that culminate in performance and showcase nights.

so I bought some tickets to a random show here and had no idea what to expect. This place is about 5 minutes from the Commercial Broadway skytrain, so I expected it to be a dump. Boy was I wrong… very nicely finished place — actually worthwhile for a date spot.
They have 2 bar areas (fully stocked) and a nicely furnished /​spacious theatre…
overall a great venue to enjoy the arts… go early and enjoy the experience.

I just saw Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf here … my frist time with the newly renovated theatre. It is a gorgeous smallish, very intimate, space, albeit with some problems with rails blocking the view in the balcony. Very solid production– the guy playing George was *terrific*- a very strong actor.
The centre has a couple little design weaknesses– same booth for purchases and will call, for example, necessitating a long line in the cold, but overall, it’s a beautiful space with a friendly crew.
I’ll be back, for sure.

The Vancouver East Cultural Centre is a beautiful venue at the corner of Venables and Victoria, more commonly known as The Cultch.
The building is a convert Methodist church, so it retains an ethereal essence that blends perfectly with the balconies and red velvet seats of the main theater. I’ve only seen one show here, but the programs generally include kids, adult, and even puppet shows. A slightly cheaper alternative to the Arts Club, plus i prefer the more eclectic line-​up of productions.