Contemporary Performance Takes Centre Stage
Victoria’s performing arts scene is proving once again that it’s vibrant, bold, and pushing boundaries. Celebrating its 10th anniversary, Impulse Theatre’s annual Peek Fest returns this November, bringing an ambitious roster of multimedia performances, workshops, and artistic incubators to local stages.
Running from November 2 to 21, 2026, the festival’s curated Presentation Series features four cutting-edge works from acclaimed artists across Vancouver Island and the Salish Sea, tackling dualities in art, relationships, and identity.
Festival Lineup & Highlights
1. Entre Chien Et Loup by James Gnam / Plastic Orchid Factory
Date: November 5
Overview: Choreographer and dancer James Gnam returns to his hometown of Victoria after 20 years with a brand-new work. Combining sound, light, and media, Gnam crafts a shifting perceptual landscape where the boundaries between presence and absence, body and environment, and the familiar and the unknown begin to blur.
2. Sumiko in Nature: Concept to Realization by June Fukumura
Dates: November 12 & 13
Overview: Hailing from Vancouver, comedy artist June Fukumura brings a satirical solo performance examining art and capitalism. The show follows character Gloria Fukomachi, who promises to reveal the secrets of grant-writing success using June's real-life application—only for the workshop to spiral into a meta-theatrical fever dream.
3. Double Bill: Fruit/Seed/Bear & Cobalt
Dates: November 19 & 20
Fruit/Seed/Bear (Kerri Flannigan): A multimedia animation telling a story of queer family-making. Through candid interviews and conversations, the film navigates the tender, awkward, and intimate journey of a DIY pregnancy through sperm donation.
Cobalt (Shion Skye Carter): An intimate, vibrant solo work exploring aesthetic minimalism, gentle provocation, and oscillating portraits of identity. The piece reflects the craving for radical self-acceptance within a queer body at odds with rigid, traditional cultural expectations.
Peek Fest 2026 Workshop Lineup
Poem / Performance (with Adam Kinner)
Date & Time: Tuesday, November 3 | 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Location: Intrepid Studio (1609 Blanshard St)
Details: Uses a simple writing score to convert ideas and text into poetic fragments that form the basis for short performance experiments.
Eco-Centric Creative Process
Date & Time: Sunday, November 15 | 2:00 PM
Location: SKAM Studio (846 Broughton St)
Details: Focuses on eco-centric approaches to artistic creation and process.
Folding / Unfolding (with Shion Skye Carter)
Date & Time: Tuesday, November 17 | 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Location: SKAM Studio (846 Broughton St)
Details: Explores choreographic practice by embodying calligraphy, handmade paper, and memory stored within the body.
Orientation Around an Object
Date & Time: Wednesday, November 18 | 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Location: SKAM Studio (846 Broughton St)
Details: Examines where practice and identity intersect, featuring a sharing of an emergent work using the violin as a deconstructed movement practice, object-based exploration, and an introduction to the Anchoring Accessibility research project.
Queering the Fest: 2SLGBTQiA+ Artists and Featured Works
Kerri Flannigan (Fruit/Seed/Bear): Victoria-based interdisciplinary artist Kerri Flannigan presents Fruit/Seed/Bear as part of the festival's double bill. Flannigan's practice centers on narrative-driven performance, visual art, and installation, frequently examining family histories, queer coming-of-age, and body geography.
Luka Garvin: Performing artist Luka Garvin participates as a 2026 Artist-in-Residence. Garvin's creative portfolio spans multidisciplinary physical performance, drag, and contemporary movement.
tony adams: Selected as a mentee in the festival's Performance Lab program, adams works alongside mentor Leslie Ting on non-traditional physical theatre and contemporary performance development.
danielle Mackenzie Long: Partnering with Shion Skye Carter in the 2026 Artist-in-Residence cohort, Long brings dance and collaborative movement research to the festival space.
Inclusive Festival Initiatives
Peek Fest structures its administrative and artistic access specifically to prioritize 2SLGBTQiA+ practitioners, alongside Indigenous, Black, racialized, and disabled arts workers. The festival provides dedicated paid stipends reserved for 2SLGBTQiA+ creators and arts managers to support equity in local performance ecosystems.
Event Details & Ticket Information
Dates: November 2–21, 2026 (Presentation Series dates vary per show)
Venues: The Greenhouse, Intrepid Studio, and Open Space (Victoria, BC)
Presenter: Impulse Theatre
Tickets & Full Schedule: Available now at www.impulsetheatre.ca
Whether you're looking for satirical comedy, contemporary dance, or deeply personal multimedia storytelling, Peek Fest offers something fresh in the margins of contemporary performance.