By Anais Mateusz West

Co-produced by Anais Mateusz West and the frank theatre company

Presented by the Cultch as part of Warrior Festival

March 4-8, 2026

Showtimes: 7:30pm Wednesday - Saturday and 2pm on Saturday & Sunday

The Cultch’s Vancity Culture Lab, 1895 Venables St, Vancouver, BC

Queer vampires and Slavic folklore converge in Tomboy (Chłopczyca), a kinetic dance-theatre performance exploring gender, memory and cultural belonging. This new work, written by Jessie Award-nominated playwright Anais Mateusz West, is a trans coming-of-age story with a dark, supernatural twist.

After learning that as a teen, their best friend was attacked by a boy from their Polish immigrant community, a non-binary historian remembers their shared adolescence. But with each recollection, the sequence of events becomes more ambiguous, the choreography of memory more complex. Through repetition, they unravel the narrative they’ve constructed of themself, the boy, and their predatory bond. Were his actions his own, or was he cursed by a monstrous and mythic inheritance?

By exploding cultural dance and genre conventions, Tomboy redefines horror, eroticism and masculinity.

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Artistic Team

Playwright/Collaborator: Anais Mateusz West

Choreographer/Collaborator: Oh Augustine

Dramaturg/Collaborator: Joanna Garfinkel

Performers: Rae Takei, Calder White, and Emily Jane King

Costume & Scenic Designer: Jaewoo Kang

Sound Designer: Roxanne Nesbitt

Additional Sound Design: Sasha J. Langford

Lighting Designer: Alexandra Caprara

Technical Director: Jamie Sweeney

Stage Manager: Jasmin Sandhu

Assistant Stage Manager: Alexa Fraser

Intimacy Director: Lisa Goebel

Accessibility Coordinator & Consultant: V/Veronique West

Access Zine Graphic Designer: Ashleigh Giffen

Voice Coach: Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg

Voice Actors: Teresa Berdys, Alek Cisak, Julia Kuzka and Piotr Wieczorek

Audio Engineer: Piotr Wieczorek

Cultural & Linguistic Consultants: Karo Hanula, Chris (Krzysiek) Hanula, Julia Siedlanowska, and Piotr Wieczorek.

Frank Theatre Producer: Karter Masuhara

Promotional Photography: Kimberly Ho

Tomboy (Chłopczyca) was developed through Odd Meridian Dance's CONJURE Residency at MORROW Studio, Sage Theatre’s IGNITE Festival and Rice & Beans Theatre’s DBLSPK Program.

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Funders and Partners

Canada Council for the Arts, BC Arts Council, City of Vancouver, Metro Vancouver, The Hamber Foundation, The Vancouver Foundation, The Parachute Fund, Rice & Beans Theatre, Playwrights Theatre Centre, Odd Meridian Arts, Major Matt Mason Collective, and the Federation of Russian Canadians of BC.

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Artists Who Contributed to Development Workshops

Fay Nass, Joylyn Secunda, Kira Radosevic, Stephanie Wong, Matthew Winters, Camille Legg, Franki Reed-Schuyler, Fil Wiatrak, Tanya Marquardt and Kimberly Ho