REVIEWS: High Performance Rodeo 2026

For Calgary theatre-goers, January holds the antidote to frigid post-holiday slumps: One Yellow Rabbit’s High Performance Rodeo, the city’s biggest performing arts festival. This year marks the 40th iteration of the interdisciplinary event and offers Calgarians a feast of over 30 shows across 12 venues from January 13 to 31. 

As a Rodeo newbie, I’m determined to dive headfirst, cover festival highlights, and complete the final step in my initiation to Alberta’s charged arts scene. My five reviews will be published below over the course of the festival.

Yee-freaking-haw!

SWAN? (The Studio at Vertigo Theatre)

Swan-ballerina Odette is cursed to a life of anthropomorphism on the shores of Swan Lake. That is, of course, until she finds a hero: her one true love. 

It sounds syrupy at the outset, but SWAN? is a far cry from the delicateness of Tchaikovsky’s ballet; the solo show is a frenetic, lewd, and sporadically dark reimagining of Swan Lake that plunges audiences deep into absurdist clownery.

Alberta-based creator-performer Lauren Brady is undoubtedly magnetic. Her pointe work is an inspired and graceful motif, and her handling of the disillusioned human side of Odette (who nurses a vape lifeline named Timothée Chalamet) is especially steady-handed. But SWAN?’s interactive moments are where Brady’s performance thrives. Her grounded and incisively spontaneous crowd work livened up an otherwise timid opening night audience in Vertigo Theatre’s modest end-stage black box. Brady owned the room — I would’ve watched her question audience members for hours, given the chance.

Aside from standout participatory beats, I left with a sense that SWAN? doesn’t quite know where to tether itself. The themes of feminine digestibility and corporeal agency that Brady grazes are stinging and relevant when they emerge, but are often eclipsed by a steadfast commitment to raunch. Given more elbow room, the play’s weighty thesis could become more accessible to audiences, which would make it easier for us to connect with Odette along the varied colours of her story.

Despite minor dramaturgical frailties, however, SWAN? is a riveting investigation of internalized misogyny that simmers with brilliance and edge.

High Performance Rodeo runs from January 13 to 31. More information is available here.

Eve Beauchamp wrote this review as part of Page Turn, a professional development network for emerging arts writers, funded by the Canada Council for the Arts and administered by Neworld Theatre.

Intermission reviews are independent and unrelated to Intermission’s partnered content. Learn more about Intermission’s partnership model here.

WRITTEN BY

Eve Beauchamp

Eve Beauchamp (they/them) is an award-winning Calgary-based theatre artist, playwright, and graduate of the BFA in Acting at the University of Ottawa. They are the co-artistic director of Levity Theatre Company and primarily create work that explores queerness, capitalism, and neurodivergence through humour, poetry, and storytelling. Currently, you can find them pursuing their Master of Fine Arts in Drama at the University of Calgary.

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