Jordyn Wood’s Vascular Necrosis reaches Vancouver world premiere after Flying Start development

Evelyn Chew, Gabrielle Nebrida Pépin and Marguerite Hanna in a promotional image for Vascular Necrosis.

Photo credit: Chelsey Stuyt

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Vancouver playwright Jordyn Wood’s Vascular Necrosis reaches its world-premiere production this week, beginning with an Oct. 7 preview at The Nest on Granville Island and continuing through Oct. 18 in a co-production from Touchstone Theatre and Glitch Theatre.

The production marks the mainstage culmination of Wood’s time in Touchstone’s Flying Start program, a two-year development initiative for underrepresented early-career playwrights and devisors. Touchstone commissioned the work through the program, pairing its development with dramaturgy, workshops and mentorship before a professional premiere. Daniela Atiencia, who worked with Wood during that process, directs the production.

Wood is a Vancouver-based playwright, theatre artist and producer and serves as company producer at Glitch Theatre. They hold a BFA in Theatre Performance from Simon Fraser University’s School of Contemporary Arts. Before the Touchstone production, Vascular Necrosis had staged readings at Vancouver’s rEvolver Festival in 2023 and through Realwheels Theatre in 2024.

Glitch Theatre’s synopsis follows Penelope, who has died by suicide, returned as a zombie and is trying to re-enter society with the help of fictional “de-necrotizers.” Touchstone and Glitch describe the play as a queer dark comedy that uses zombie and post-apocalyptic conventions to explore mental illness, grief, belonging, chronic illness and the aftermath of the pandemic.

Those ideas have been developed over several years. Flying Start is designed to move an early-career creator from commission through dramaturgy and workshop development to a mainstage world premiere, and Vascular Necrosis is the current result of that process for Wood. The play’s 2024 staged reading came through Realwheels Theatre, the company that later became Glitch Theatre, where Wood now serves as company producer.

Gabrielle Nebrida Pépin plays Penelope, with Evelyn Chew as Charlie and Marguerite Hanna as Bela. Brynna Drummond and Terrence Zhou appear in multiple roles. The design team includes Paula Viitanen Aldazosa on set and props, Emily Friesen on costumes, Jonathan Kim on lighting and David Mesiha on sound and video, with Lisa Goebel serving as intimacy director.

The world-premiere run continues through Oct. 18 at The Nest, 1398 Cartwright St. on Granville Island. Glitch Theatre’s audience advisory notes intense themes involving death, suicide and grief, along with discussion of cancer and overdose and depictions of violence and sexuality.

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