Belfry Theatre
A Fernwood theatre for contemporary plays and local performance nights.
A 19th-century Fernwood church that has become one of the country's homes for new Canadian plays.
It started in 1974 when a UVic grad student began staging shows in an old Baptist chapel, and the building, a Thomas Hooper church whose restoration won provincial heritage awards, still does the heavy lifting: 280 seats wrapped close around the stage, the kind of room where a whisper lands in the back pew. The Belfry makes contemporary work with a serious bias toward new Canadian plays, and it has the national reputation to back it. It feels like the room Victoria saves for the writing that matters.
The move
Get a season subscription if you go more than twice; otherwise come for SPARK, the late-winter festival of newer, stranger, riskier work from across the country. Arrive early, the lobby chatter is half the night. Nigel Shawn Williams takes over as artistic director this September.
Go when
SPARK in March if you want the adventurous stuff, the four-play mainstage the rest of the season. A weeknight is calmer than a packed opening. Buy ahead, good runs sell out.
Known for
Perfect for