Photo: Emily Cooper, via The Georgia Straight

East Van Panto: Hercules Extends York Theatre Run

By Date Spark team · Published October 15, 2026

East Van Panto: Hercules plays the York Theatre from November 18, 2026 to January 10, 2027, and its villain is Hades, a god with several thousand years of underground experience who has finally found a Vancouver project worthy of it: a subway. The Georgia Straight reported on October 7, 2026 that tickets were selling at record levels and the run had already been extended by a week, from January 3 to January 10, making it a rare underground project in this city whose delay was announced as good news.

Hades has a transit plan

The Cultch presents and Theatre Replacement produces this year's panto, which drops Hercules into a Vancouver where Hades is tunnelling his way to power through a megaproject called the Arbutus Subway System. Yes, check the initials: this is panto, a genre that has never knowingly walked past a bum joke, and this time the joke is built into the name of the infrastructure. Casting the ruler of the underworld as a transit villain is simply sound hiring, since nobody in literature has more experience running what goes on below street level.

Pedro Chamale wrote it with Marcus Youssef, Chelsea Haberlin directs and Veda Hille writes the music. They have at least picked a qualified opponent for Hades: myth already credits Hercules with rerouting two rivers to clean out a stable, which is the closest thing in the Greek canon to a civil-engineering credential.

Curtain times, seats and access at the York

Evening shows start at 7 p.m. and matinees at 2 p.m. at the York Theatre, 639 Commercial Drive, with official opening night on Friday, November 20. There are 2 p.m. matinees on December 24 and December 31, so you can boo a villain at full volume in the afternoon and spend the holiday evening pointedly not booing anyone at dinner. The extended run ends with a 2 p.m. show on January 10, a week past its original stop.

Seats run $64 in Section A+, $59 in A, $49 in B and $35 in C. For performances November 18 to December 10 and January 3 to 10, plus the December 13 matinee, children 16 and under pay a flat $49 in any section: $15 off in A+ and, as listed, $14 more than an adult in C, so in the cheap seats the cheapest ticket in the family belongs to the grown-up. Panto Packs are offered on those same dates, and the Cultch's page explains what one includes. Wheelchair seating is on the main floor, hearing-assistance devices are available and an elevator reaches the balcony and second floor, the only vertical transit in this story without a villain attached. There is no dedicated accessible parking on site.

Who should take the subway seat

This is for anyone who has followed a Vancouver transit project long enough to want someone specific to blame, because this one finally comes with a named villain. Two Section C seats come to $70, which makes a fair date for two people willing to say a rude acronym about their own city out loud. It is the only subway plan in town with a firm end date, and even that got pushed a week.