LIVE IN HELL to Run at Vancouver Fringe Festival 2026

Marita Michaelis will bring LIVE IN HELL, a darkly comic solo theatrical experience blending original music, clowning, puppetry, and audience interaction, to the 2026 Vancouver Fringe Festival. Performances will run September 11–20 at Performance Works (1218 Cartwright St., Vancouver, BC) as part of this year's festival lineup.

Described as "a show for recovering goody-goodies and lifelong baddies alike," LIVE IN HELL introduces audiences to a self-obsessed, contractually un-sexy She-Devil who welcomes them into her own personal hell—constructed piece by piece from the contents of an oversized cardboard Amazon box.

Part comedy, part tragedy, the production combines practical magic, crowdwork, original songs, and what it calls "trauma-informed puppet therapy" as the She-Devil unpacks both a makeshift hellscape and her own unraveling psyche. Throughout the performance, she wrestles with morality, celebrity, complicity, and the absurdities of contemporary life while finding unexpected comfort in her pet rat.

Winner of Playwrights Theatre Centre's Kathleen Flaherty Prize, LIVE IN HELL was developed during the 2025–2026 season with support from Playwrights Theatre Centre before being selected for presentation at the 2026 Vancouver Fringe Festival.

"LIVE IN HELL is a show that pulls audiences in with its dark humour, delights us with its DIY clown-punk aesthetic hellscape, and confounds our moral barometers," said Davey Samuel Calderon, Artistic Producer of Playwrights Theatre Centre and dramaturg for the production. "For audiences fed up with the world at large who still want to enjoy an explosive theatrical ruckus!"

Performer and choreographer Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg added, "In an absurd world, what better way to find catharsis and solace than through the devil herself? LIVE IN HELL speaks to the eroding discomfort of existence with the transformative power of unhinged comedic critique."

Michaelis serves as the production's lead artist as well as set, props, and Costume Designer, and stars as "The Devil Herself." The creative team includes co-creative producers and co-directors Lauren Han and Alexandra McDougall, dramaturg Davey Samuel Calderon, lighting designer Maddy Woodley, technical designer Avideh Saadatpajouh, and sound designer Justin Perdomo.

The production is supported by the City of Vancouver, Playwrights Theatre Centre, the Vancouver Fringe Festival, and individual donors.

The Vancouver Fringe Festival returns September 10–20, 2026, transforming Granville Island into a hub for live performance. The annual festival features more than 700 performances spanning theatre, comedy, dance, spoken word, and multidisciplinary works from artists around the world. Operating under an unjuried and uncensored model, the festival is committed to accessible live performance, with participating artists receiving 100 percent of the base ticket price from their shows.

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