Ionesco’s Cabaret
A Frenzy For Two & The Leader
Produced by Theatre Conspiracy in association with Pi Theatre
Presented by Rumble Theatre
July 23rd - 25th, 2026
Where: Progress Lab, 1422 William St. Vancouver, BC V5L 2P7
details
Come one, come all to Ionesco’s Cabaret!
Society is collapsing. The crowd is losing its mind. Someone brought wine.
For 3 nights only, Progress Lab transforms into an absurdist cabaret featuring Eugène Ionesco’s Frenzy for Two, and The Leader, alongside the debut audio/visual novel installation Lost Hands by Tim Carlson.
Part double-bill, part art party, Ionesco Cabaret’s is a playful encounter between friends and foes, entangling audience members in love-collisions, mass persuasion, and social unraveling.
Come for the theatre. Stay for the existential dread.
Starring
Nyiri Karakas | Khoa Mai | Sophia Radford | Christiaan Westerveld
The Leader (1953) directed by David Mesiha
The Leader is coming. The crowd cheers. Everyone loves him. No one knows why…
Sharp, chaotic, and unsettlingly familiar, this dark satire is a portrait of mass hysteria, adoration and blind devotion. Witness how easily power and persuasion takes hold—and how seductive it can feel as it happens.
Frenzy for Two (1962) directed by Richard Wolfe
A tortoise and a snail. Different or the same?
A high-stakes collision of love, ego, and survival. As the world fractures outside, a couple clings to conflict instead of connection, picking fights over nothing, while chaos creeps closer and closer to their door. A front-row seat to a relationship unravelling while everything else burns.
Lost Hands (Photo Installation) by Tim Carlson
Lost Hands is an audio/visual novel by Tim Carlson/feral.i.d. Produced by Theatre Conspiracy. Echoing themes in Frenzy for Two and The Leader, absurdly worrisome narratives play on multi-channel speakers while a slideshow of absurdly worrisome found objects provide evocative documentation of said worrisome absurdity. Created with literary/philosophical support from Richard Wolfe.
CAST
Nyiri Karakas [Performer]
is a theatre artist from the North Shore. Nyiri pursued a Masters in Acting at East 15 Acting School, in London, UK, where she was part of a residency at Shakespeare’s Globe. Theatre credits: Dance Nation (The Search Party); Heroes of the Fourth Turning (Mitch & Murray Productions); Medicine (Pi Theatre); Gaslight (Western Canada Theatre/Chemainus Theatre Festival); Sense and Sensibility (Arts Club); Children of Fire (Nightwood Theatre/Aluna Theatre); The House of Bernarda Alba (Modern Times Stage Co./Aluna); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare Bash’d); The Penelopiad (Hart House Theatre). Film/TV: Tiny Pretty Things (Netflix).
Sophia Radford [Performer]
is an actor and musician. She is thrilled to be involved in this project! Sophia holds a BFA in Theatre (Performance) from the University of Victoria, and has performed across Western Canada. Select credits include: Waiting for the Parade (Pivot Theatre), The Guardsman (Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre), and The Audition (Theatre Inconnu). You can catch her next in Blackbird at the Vancouver Fringe.
Christiaan Westerveld [Performer]
has appeared on stage in An Intervention (Mitch and Murray Productions), At Sea, Staring Up (JUTE Theatre), Polygraph (Pi Theate/Theatre Le Seiziéme) The Leisure Society (Peninsula Productions), Suburban Motel: Featuring Loretta (Punchback Theatre) and Don’t Forget Your Pants (Share Theatre). He has also written (Best Of Men, How Much Are Those Feelings In The Window?) and directed (A Steady Rain) plays at the now closed Havana Theatre on Commercial Drive. His film and television credits as an actor include The Flash, The Man In The High Castle, Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina, Van Helsing, DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow, Supernatural, Animal Control and Woody Woodpecker. He is a QUT graduate of the Bachelor Fine Arts Acting program.
Khoa Mai [PERFORMER]
Originally from Portland, Oregon, Khoa Mai started his acting journey in Vancouver Canada, after a decade working in the construction industry. His trade gave him an intimate knowledge of people and the real world. Then his real passion was ignited when he learnt and trained through film and plays at the Phillip Granger Conservatory. “I never thought about the theatre. It was a foreign, strange and uncomfortable place. Then, all of a sudden, something clicked and it was like I didn’t want to be anywhere else”.
creative team
David Mesiha [The Leader | Director ]
Richard Wolfe [Frenzy for Two | Director]
Tim Carlson [Lost Hands | Creator]
Kayleigh Sandomirsky [Stage Manager]
Parjad Sharifi [Lighting Designer]
Emily Friesen [Costume Designer]
Emma Knox [Props Designer]
Claine “Gorgoth” Lamb [Sound Designer]
Artyom «Arty» Urdabayev [Projection Designer]
Brianna Bernard [Technical Director]
Funding and support
This project has been made possible through the generous support of, the British Columbia Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, Metro Vancouver, the City of Vancouver and the Government of Canada.