Culture: Royal Wood, After the Quake, Severn Suzuki

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Severn Suzuki on saving the planet, lives transformed by natural disaster, and the earthy goodness of Royal Wood.

Music // Royal Wood

Here’s our declarative statement of the month: Royal Wood is the best thing to happen to Canadian music since Joni Mitchell. He’s also one of the best-looking, best-dressed and best-named artists around. Now who is he, you ask? If you’re not a devotee of CBC Radio 2, you may not be familiar with the dapper singer-songwriter. His sound is a bit of a throwback to the early ’70s, with piano-driven melodies and simple acoustic guitar arrangements reminiscent of Don McLean, Harry Chapin and Tumbleweed Connection-era Elton John. From all reports, he’s a great live act too, so run – don’t walk – to get tickets to one (or both) of his two B.C. dates. Oct. 7, Alix Goolden Performance Hall, Victoria; Oct. 9, Rio Theatre, Vancouver; ticketmaster.ca.

Theatre // After the Quake

During the course of our lives, very few of us – at least in this part of the world – are immediately affected by natural disaster. But even from afar, as witnesses to devastation on TV, online or in print, there is an impact; lives get re-evaluated and fears confronted. That’s the animating idea behind Haruki Murakami’s collection of short stories, After the Quake, written in response to the 1995 earthquake in Kobe, Japan. Local theatre companies Rumble Productions and Pi Theatre team up to adapt two of Murakami’s stories, “Honey Pie” (originally published in the New Yorker) and “Super-Frog Saves Tokyo” (originally in GQ). Historic Theatre, Oct. 13 to 23, thecultch.com.

Festival // Vancouver International Film Festival

As the economy goes, so goes concern for the environment. That widespread observation is echoed by Severn Suzuki, daughter of David, in Severn, The Voice of Our Children, a French documentary that headlines the VIFF series Ecologies of Mind. The 30-year-old Suzuki introduces the film with reflections on a speech she made at the UN Earth Summit in Rio at the age of 12. In it she lambasted world leaders for their failure to be good stewards of the planet for their children – and 18 years later, now with a child of her own, not much has changed. Still, the Suzuki scion maintains hope: “If we can really make the connection between these ecological problems and the reality of what it means – that we’re talking about the future of our kids – I have to believe we’ll change our ways.” Sept. 30 to Oct. 15, viff.org.