THEATRE PREVIEW

NOVEMBER 2026 | Volume 269

 

David Rabe's An Early History of Fire Comes to Vancouver as an Immersive Theatre Experience

Actor Alexander J. Skinner makes his directorial debut in an immersive Vancouver play with seven actors just feet away — 13 shows, Nov. 18–29, 2026.

David Rabe's An Early History of Fire, a Counterlight and Railtown Lab production, a raw, funny and fiercely human coming-of-age story by the Tony Award-winning playwright, runs November 18–29, 2026 in a new immersive staging in Vancouver's Railtown District — performed live by seven of the city's most compelling actors, unfiltered and just feet from the audience. The limited engagement is 13 performances only, in an intimate, creative space: Counterlight Studio. 

Tickets are on sale at www.counterlight.studio/tickets.

The production is an immersive theatre experience unlike any other in Vancouver: seven professional actors with screen credits including Godzilla, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Tron: Ares, Maid and Loudermilk perform live, unfiltered and just feet from the audience, in an intimate theatre space where the line between the story and the characters living it disappears.

"I don't want a museum piece about 1962. I want it alive: funny, dangerous, sexy, messy, and incredibly human," says director Alexander J. Skinner, an experienced stage and screen actor making his directorial debut, who also stars in the production. "These are people who love each other deeply and still manage to hurt each other. I want you to feel like you're sitting in the room with them. Not watching a play, but watching life unfold in front of you, and not being able to look away. Live theatre is the final frontier of storytelling, and this room lets us deliver that to Vancouver audiences."

Set in 1962 Midwestern America on the cusp of cultural revolution, An Early History of Fire follows Danny, a young man defined by working-class pride, childhood friendships and a father who cannot let go, who falls for Karen, a free-spirited young woman whose ideas challenge everything he thought he knew about love, loyalty and identity. Love, sex, ambition, class and identity become battlegrounds — questions as urgent for a generation of young Vancouverites today as they were in 1962.

The cast features Eric Keenleyside (Pop), who began at the Stratford Festival and brings nearly 50 years on stage and screen; Gabriel Drake (Terry), who has performed at London's National Theatre; Jelena Milinkovic (Shirley), known for Maid and A Million Little Things, making her stage debut; Aaron Paul Stewart (Benji) of Tron: Ares; Liv Rian (Karen); Julian Nelson (Jake); and Alexander J. Skinner (Danny).

Counterlight Studio is a new multidisciplinary creative space in the heart of Railtown district: built so that performance feels immediate, immersive and alive.

An Early History of Fire runs November 18–29, 2026 at Counterlight Studio, 397 Alexander St.  Railtown District, Vancouver. The exclusive venue address is provided with booking confirmation. Tickets are $35, with a $20 student and theatre-industry rate on November 24, at www.counterlight.studio/tickets. Follow the production at @counterlight.creative. 

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

Alexander J. Skinner has knocked around on sets from Netflix, AMC, The History Channel, & most recently shooting a pilot for Hulu. His work has spanned film and television across Canada, the US, and the UK, but he believes live theatre remains the "final frontier" of storytelling: intimate, unfiltered, and urgent.

An Early History of Fire marks Alexander's third stage production, his second as a producer, and his directorial debut.

Drawn to the restless energy of youth and the beautiful complexity of human relationships, Alexander found something deeply familiar in Danny. Much like Danny’s discovery of himself in the pages of The Catcher in the Rye, Alexander recognized pieces of his own life in Rabe’s writing — the longing, the contradictions, the struggle to reconcile who we are with who we might become.What compelled him most was the humanity of it all: people shaped by their  histories, desperate to love and be understood, yet so often unable to articulate what they feel without hurting those closest to them. At its heart, he sees the play as an awakening — a story about the extraordinary power of love and freedom to awaken us to the possibilities of our own lives.

With a deeply personal connection to the material and a clear vision for its staging, Alexander hastaken on the challenge of directing for the first time, with the hope, above all, for it to feel like life is happening in front of you

ABOUT COUNTERLIGHT STUDIO

Counterlight Studio is a multidisciplinary creative space in Vancouver's Railtown District founded by actor Alexander J. Skinner. Its expansive, creative space pairs a professional lighting grid and sound system with flexible staging and seating — giving audiences performance that feels immediate and immersive, and artists of all kind a blank canvas limited only by their imagination. Learn more at www.counterlight.studio and on Instagram at @counterlight.creative.

 

 

 

 

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