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Beyond Eden Bruce Ruddell's new rock musical is being premiered, with John Mann (of Spirit of the West fame) bringing his inimitable, melancholic voice to the project. Mann stars as anthropologist Lewis Wilson, who journeys to the Haida village of Ninstints in an attempt to save a set of waterlogged, beetle-infested totem poles. Inspired by the 1957 expedition made by local anthropologists and the legendary Haida artist Bill Reid to "save" totem poles from their ancestral island home and preserve them in an urban museum.

Vancouver Playhouse, until Feb. 6 (Vancouverplayhouse.com).

Debt: The Musical Sign-of-the-times department: Director Donna Spencer is premiering a 90-minute musical revue not about love, freedom, or post-colonial tensions, but how much it sucks to be poor. With ditties about life in a basement suite ("it's like economic natural selection") and going postal in the workplace ("you seem normal enough, but we need to know your tendencies"). Firehall Arts Centre, until Jan. 30 (Firehallartscentre.ca).

Mrs. Dexter and Her Daily Veteran playwright Joanna McClelland Glass befriended her Nova Scotian housekeeper over a nine-year period when she lived in Toronto. Her latest drama, which received its world premiere at the Stanley last week, mines that class-conscious relationship. Mrs. Dexter (Fiona Reid) and her maid Peggy (Nicola Cavendish) must part ways following Mrs. Dexter's divorce. The two have been sharing a Rosedale home for most of Mrs. Dexter's married life and, despite enormous differences, they've become accidental best friends. We see the final day of their paired existence from both the matron's perspective and the servant's. Reid and Cavendish are each highly acclaimed actors in their own right and are smartly matched to Glass's witty and intimate prose. Following this run, the cast flies to the National Arts Centre (where they are well-loved) for a further production, starting Feb. 17.

Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage, until Feb. 7 (Artsclub.com).

Push International Performing Arts Festival Hands down one of the top arts events in the city each year.

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Romeo and Juliet In Paris, the École Philippe Gaulier has been training the best students of clown and bouffon since its inception in 1980. One alumni, Catriona Leger, is completing her Master of Fine Arts at the University of British Columbia with appropriate aplomb. Leger's theatre-in-the-round production of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet takes a love story that's entrenched in our culture and plays up its more brutal elements. Insiders are speaking of this as more than a student production; Leger, already an award-winning director with 15 years of professional experience, has pulled together fire dancers, live music and a cast of 21 for her final school project. Starring students Meaghan Chenosky and Jameson Parker as the doomed, eponymous couple. Telus Studio Theatre, UBC, until Jan. 30 (Theatre.ubc.ca).