“What is ‘vertigo’?” asks Jack Grinhaus, the Artistic Director of Calgary’s Vertigo Theatre. “It’s a feeling of unease, of being off-balance,” he says, answering his own – albeit-rhetorical – question. “We want to lean into that,” Grinhaus continues, describing the feelings he hopes to evoke in audiences via the crime, noir, suspense, and thrillers he has programmed for Vertigo Theatre’s just-announced 50^th-anniversary season.

Vertigo Theatre started in 1976 under its original name: Pleiades Theatre. In 2003, it became Vertigo and moved to its current home at the base of the Calgary Tower. Vertigo remains Canada’s only professional theatre company dedicated to producing a full season of plays in the rather-broad mystery genre.

Grinhaus attributes Vertigo’s singular status to the fact that, historically, there was “a sense of the lowbrow” attached to works classified as mysteries or thrillers. So, while other theatres avoided producing such popular fare, Vertigo was left to excel at developing and staging them.

While the works of famed British mystery writer Agatha Christie formed much of Vertigo’s programming during the theatre’s early years, Grinhaus says that shifted as the decades passed. “It’s more complicated to do her work now,” Grinhaus says, noting the “Queen of Crime’s” often-large (and, thereby, expensive) casts, lengthy run times, and shows that now seem “dated” in terms of race and gender.

As such, today’s audiences can expect a true theatrical buffet each season – one that even includes comedy – while Vertigo still stays true to its mandate of being “Canada’s national theatre for intrigue and mystery.”

Vertigo’s 50^th-anniversary season kicks off in September with the world premiere of The Lodger. Based on a novel by Marie Belloc Lowndes, The Lodger became internationally known via Alfred Hitchcock’s 1927 movie. Canadian writer Susie Moloney and Canadian playwright Vern Thiessen have updated the setting of The Lodger to the 1970s.

“The Lodger is extraordinary suspense,” says Grinhaus. The plot revolves around a couple who take the titular lodger into their home and then realize he may be a serial killer on the loose.

A Sherlock Holmes caper is up next with the North American premiere of Sherlock Holmes: The Hunt for Moriarty. “Over the last 30 years we’ve done more Sherlock than Agatha Christie,” says Grinhaus, adding he considers Vertigo just as much a theatre of crime as of mystery. “Sherlock Holmes balances both those worlds,” he says.

Hot off an appearance at Ontario’s legendary Stratford Festival, The Veil will be Vertigo’s first show of 2027. “It has been a huge hit in Toronto,” says Grinhaus of the one-man show, describing The Veil as a “deal-with-the-devil” play inspired by the likes of classic horror writer Edgar Allan Poe. It’s about a lawyer who will do anything – including inheriting a curse – to make partner at a law firm and the consequences of that.

Following The Veil, The 39 Steps returns to the Vertigo stage after it became one of Vertigo’s bestselling productions back in 2017. The show, which Grinhaus describes as a “comically-done spy thriller,” sees four actors embody some 150 characters. Like The Lodger, The 39 Steps has an Alfred Hitchcock connection, as Hitchcock also turned the original novel by John Buchan into a movie back in 1935. But Grinhaus asserts Patrick Barlow’s stage adaptation has become an entity in its own right with a focus on comedy, incredible staging, and mind-boggling cast acrobatics to quick change between characters.

The season concludes with a made-in-Canada story. “We didn’t want to jump into our 50^th - anniversary season without a show that will end our season with a bang,” says Grinhaus. And that “bang” will come courtesy of the world premiere of The Midnight Torch: A Detective Murdoch Mystery.

If that name sounds familiar, it’s because Murdoch Mysteries is a Canadian television series that has been airing for nearly two decades and is currently on CBC.

“The series has this incredible following,” enthuses Grinhaus, noting the people behind Murdoch Mysteries approached Vertigo Theatre about a possible stage adaptation.

“The first thing we talked about with the Murdoch people was, ‘How do we make a Mousetrap – (an Agatha Christie classic) – for Canada?’” explains Grinhaus. “That’s something I’ve always been obsessed with… It’s time Canada started inventing her own heroes,” he adds.

The script for The Midnight Torch has been four years in the making. Grinhaus hopes that after its Calgary debut, it will have a life across North America and beyond.

In addition to Vertigo’s primary BD&P Mystery Theatre Series – which it’s called and that takes place in the main Playhouse Theatre – Vertigo will offer audiences a special presentation on its secondary Studio stage. In late February / early March of 2027, Calgary theatre ensemble 8ROJO will present its production of Last Candle.

“My dream has always been to do an off-Vertigo series. It could be an opportunity for smaller, local companies to present their works and would offer something for audiences who want to see things done a little differently,” explains Grinhaus of how Last Candle fits into his future vision for Vertigo.

Grinhaus describes Last Candle as “a Faustian tale based on a Brothers Grimm story involving Death.” It will be a completely non-verbal, visual presentation.

While the 50^th-anniversary season doesn’t kick off until September, there are still opportunities to catch two shows this spring at Vertigo – the remaining two on Vertigo’s 49^th-season playbill

Until April 12, The Killing Snow is on stage in the Playhouse. It’s an Agatha Christie-esque tale that sees a handful of travellers stranded together under one roof in the midst of a rural Ontario snowstorm. As people start to die, the question arises, “Who is the killer in our midst?”

Finishing the 49^th season is the North American premiere of the courtroom drama The Verdict. Playing from May 9 to June 7, The Verdict – about an alcoholic lawyer who takes on a malpractice case – was made into a 1982 film starring Paul Newman.

“We want to make sure there is something for everybody,” Grinhaus concludes, noting that audience members span in age from 15 to 90. Regardless of the show in question, Grinhaus says audiences can always expect Vertigo to deliver “high-octane plots with deep, rich characters and complex stories,” so they “don’t sit back and don’t relax” …a Grinhaus phrase well-known to Vertigo regulars.

To book tickets and to secure your subscription for Vertigo’s 50^th-anniversary season visit vertigotheatre.com.

Kathleen Renne