Universal Limited Performance Society is a collective based in Vancouver, BC, who works to uncover hidden stories in unusual locations. We work collectively to write and design our shows as experiences that are accessible to all.
For JAPANESE PROBLEM Yoshie Bancroft and Joanna Garfinkel set out to tell the unacknowledged story of the Japanese Canadian Incarceration at Hastings Park, interviewing the incredible, resilient survivors and families who are grappling with the legacy of the Incarceration. The creators believe that our country, province, and city’s legacies of racially-motivated uncompensated labour, exclusion and dispersal must never be forgotten.
JAPANESE PROBLEM premiered in September 2017, selling out a run at Hastings Park, and garnering exceptional reviews. JP was included in the Westender's 2017 Year in Theatre & Vancouver Presents' Top Ten for 2017 Theatre lists, was nominated for Significant Artistic Achievement and won the Critics' Choice for Innovation Award at the 36th annual Jessie Richardson Awards. JP has toured to Kaslo, Burnaby, Steveston, Victoria, Nanaimo, and was remounted in September 2018 at Hastings Park, followed by a tour to Toronto (Soulpepper), with more tour stops in the works for 2019.
Previously they built the pedicab adventure Tour in Vancouver (premiering as part of the Cultural Olympiad/HIVE 3), Victoria (TheatreSKAM), and Toronto (SummerWorks), telling the hidden histories of previous residents--from First Nations, to waves of immigration, to the current stories buried beneath previously-familiar neighbourhoods.
Mandate & Mission
Universal Limited creates and produces original work, prioritizing collaboration, rigorous research, and the use of our platform to share hidden histories and stories that would otherwise be missed. We reflect and represent the diversity of communities in our world through our art.
We will make accessible and affordable work that dismantles colonial art forms and divisions, while showcasing collaborative models of creation, and an inclusive and safe space for assembly and experimentation.
Values
Taking care: of each other, our audiences, and putting care into our work
Inclusivity: connection with and in our community
Engagement: our ethics are reflected in our communication, and in our choices, and our engagement in the delights of theatre
Experimentation: with form and structures, and with expectations
Rigour: to research, to our artistic integrity and to our creations
