Jay Shah
DevOps\Aerospace Engineer & Journalist
“🎸 Guitars. Ghosts. A Reckoning Decades in the Making. 🎸”
⚔️🎭
Vancouver’s theatre scene thrives because it doesn’t stick to one formula. Some productions, like those at Bard on the Beach, revisit Shakespearean classics and breathe new life into them. Others, like the ones featured in the PuSh20 Arts Festival that we explored recently, break the mold entirely, proving that theatre isn’t just about watching; it’s about experiencing.
In those same veins, Vancouver’s trusty Arts Club Theatre Company is back at it again; under the direction of Jivesh Parasram and the stellar cast; which I’ve thorougly broken down below, this production unearths the raw resilience of a people whose voices refused to be silenced; even when the world around them fell apart.
This time swapping rapiers for riffs and royal court conspiracies for a rock revolution. If The Three Musketeers swept you away with its swordplay and camaraderie, and the Pulitzer prize winning Primary Trust left you pondering the quiet, transformative power of human connection, get ready for something that cranks up the energy while carrying an emotional punch you won’t see coming.
It’s time to plug in, crank up the volume, and let history reverberate through the strings of an electric guitar.
🎟️ Get your tickets now at artsclub.com
Shredding into existence & turning up the heat with Cambodian Rock Band, a Canadian premiere that’s as much a gripping family drama as it is a high energy rock concert. Running from March 6 to April 6, 2025, at our beloved Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage, this production shakes up the stage with foot-stomping hits by Dengue Fever, classic Cambodian oldies, and a story that grips your heart as tightly as a power chord.
What happens when a Khmer Rouge survivor returns to Cambodia after thirty years, just as his daughter is preparing to prosecute one of the country’s most notorious war criminals?
In this instance Jaysuits; a full throttle, guitarsmashing confrontation with the ghosts of a silenced generation.
If you were swept up in my previous adventures I covered, don’t miss this next chapter, it’s time to trade in those musketeer hats and tiki bars for distortion pedals and a history lesson that hits harder than a bass drop. Right here, right in the heart of a city that celebrates bold, fearless storytelling.
⚡ The Setlist: What’s in Store? ⚡
No half-measures. No pre-recorded backing tracks. This promises to be the real deal. Every actor on stage is also a musician. That’s right! No orchestra pit, no hidden players. The cast IS the band.
So, what’s in the setlist?
🎸 Live Band. Live Drama. No Faking It.🎸
So while you’re wrapped up in the unfolding drama, those same actors will pick up their instruments and launch into a blistering rock number; no break, no reset, no moment to breathe. It’s all part of the story, fusing past and present through rebellion.
Think The Three Musketeers; if Athos, Porthos, and Aramis had Stratocasters slung over their shoulders.
⏳ Jumping Between Past and Present (Like a Guitar Riff on a Loop Pedal)⏳
One moment, we’re in modern day Cambodia, where a young lawyer, Neary, is piecing together evidence to prosecute one of the country’s most notorious war criminals. The next, we’re in 1975 Phnom Penh, where rock and roll is on the edge of extinction, a sound too rebellious, too free, to survive under the Khmer Rouge.
And at the heart of it all? Chum, a father hiding a past he can’t outrun. A survivor, a musician, a man who escaped, but left behind more than just his country. When his daughter starts digging for justice, he’s forced to confront the ghosts he tried to bury.
It’s like Primary Trust, but instead of quiet self reflection over Mai Tais, it’s reckoning with a history soaked in blood and long lost vinyl records.
⚖️ The Case Against the Past (and a Father’s Biggest Lie)
For Neary, this is the trial of a lifetime. A chance to hold a war criminal accountable. But when her father arrives in Cambodia, his past collides headfirst with her future.
Secrets unravel. The line between survivor and witness, victim and accomplice, past and present starts to blur. And as the story unspools, one question lingers in the air like the fading feedback of an amp:
How do you heal when your history was designed to be erased?
🎭 A Genre Mashup That Shouldn’t Work (But Absolutely Does)🎭
You’d think a play about war, genocide, and a family unraveling under the weight of history would be relentlessly heavy. But here’s the wild thing; it’s also funny. Not in a cheap, undercutting way (let’s scooby doo this crap *cough MARVEL cough*), but in the way that real life is.
Because sometimes, even when the world is burning (literally in L.A at this moment of writing), people laugh, argue, make bad jokes, and cling to whatever joy they can find.
One moment, you’re watching a gut wrenching revelation about survival. The next, you’re witnessing a bandmate crack an absurd joke between songs. Then, just when you think you can breathe again, the past crashes in like a drumbeat you can’t ignore.
A pulse-pounding, heart-wrenching, unexpectedly hilarious rollercoaster. Quote me on that!
🎶 The Soundtrack to Survival🎶
What do you do when your government tries to erase your music?
You play louder
The Khmer Rouge nearly wiped out an entire generation of Cambodian rock artists—but their songs survived. Hidden. Smuggled. Passed down. And now? They’re back, played live on stage by a cast that understands the weight of every note.
You’ll hear:
🎸 Classic Cambodian rock from the ‘60s and ‘70s—songs once considered too dangerous to exist.
🎤 Hits from Dengue Fever—a modern band keeping this lost sound alive.
💥 Music as rebellion, music as memory, music as defiance.
🎶 The Sound Before the Silence: Cambodia’s Rock Revolution🎶
Every great movement begins with a sound. A vibration. A pulse that ripples through time, shaping the culture around it. In the 1960s, Cambodia’s music scene carried that energy, an explosion of psychedelic surf rock, soulful ballads, and raw, untamed expression. The country stood on the edge of a modern era, and its musicians poured their voices into the sound of the future.
This was not imitation. The influences were there; French yé-yé, American rock ‘n’ roll, Latin rhythms, but each song carried a heartbeat that belonged to Cambodia alone. Singers like Sinn Sisamouth, Ros Serey Sothea, and Pan Ron created something original, something impossible to ignore.
Guitars rang out in the streets of Phnom Penh. Bands filled dance halls, weaving electric riffs into lyrics about life and rebellion. This energy could be felt everywhere, from radios in busy markets to late night celebrations under neon lights.
Then, the music faded.
A Silenced Generation
In 1975, the Khmer Rouge entered Phnom Penh. Their vision did not include art, free expression, or the echoes of a modern world. Cities emptied, families were forced into labor camps, and voices that once sang of dreams were removed from history.
Ninety percent of Cambodia’s musicians disappeared. Songs that had once filled the airwaves became artifacts of a world that no longer existed.
Yet, music is memory. Even when governments erase names, even when recordings are destroyed, the melodies live in the people who once heard them.
Hidden tapes, smuggled records, whispered lyrics passed between generations—this is how sound survives.
Reviving a Lost Sound
San Diego. 2011. Lauren Yee stood in a crowd, watching a band perform. The music moved through her, unfamiliar yet deeply powerful. That concert, that moment, led to years of research, uncovering a world nearly lost to history. This was not a story of silence. This was a story of survival.
Dengue Fever, the band Yee first heard that night, had already begun reviving Cambodia’s rock legacy, blending classic sounds with modern influences. Cambodian Rock Band took that journey a step further. Through live performance, the show brings the lost music of an era back to life, placing it in conversation with the stories that must be told.
🎭 Meet the Rebels: Cast & Creative Powerhouses🎭
A Arts Club production like this does not come to life without a creative force willing to challenge expectations and harness the full power of live music. The artists at the helm of this show do not hold back. They lean into the raw energy, the history, the untold stories, ensuring that this production is more than theatre—it is a revival.
🎬🎬 From Shakespeare’s Vienna to 1970s Cambodia: A Director Who Bridges the Past and Present 🎬
Every show has a heartbeat, and for this adaptation, that pulse is driven by Jivesh Parasram. A director, playwright, and interdisciplinary artist, Parasram has built a career on exploring identity, culture, and the weight of history. His work refuses to fit into neat categories, much like the show he now directs.
This isn’t the first time I’ve encountered his work, fellow Jaysuits. Last summer, I watched as he tore open Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure at Bard on the Beach, turning it into a neon lit, Footloose-inspired fever dream of dance and humor. The Howard Family Stage became Vienna’s wildest nightclub, well, until the music stopped, the dancing was outlawed, and the city’s moral hypocrisy came crashing into focus.
Furthermore, Parasram’s Take d Milk, Nah?, a powerful one-man show, was a deep dive into the hyphenated existence of being Indo Caribbean Hindu Canadian, blending a dash of comedy and personal storytelling into something both intimate and universal. He explored themes of belonging, colonial displacement, and the struggle of existing between multiple diasporas.
That connection hits close
I was born and raised in Kenya, but my ancestry, my roots, trace back to India. The paths my ancestors took, the cultures that shaped them, the histories they carried; those stories still move through me. And now, here I am, in Canada, navigating yet another space where identity is not singular, where heritage is not a fixed point but something fluid, constantly shifting, constantly being redefined.
These are not abstract ideas for Parasram. They are lived experiences. His directorial approach forces us to reckon with the systems that dictate who holds power and who suffers under it (particularly poignant at the time of writing). And that’s exactly the kind of charged, socially conscious storytelling he’s brings time and time again.
Every moment of this production is shaped by his philosophy of questioning what it means to exist in multiple identities at once. Here, those questions drive the entire production forward.
Music carries history. Silence does, too.
This is the tension he works within, shaping a production that not only acknowledge the past but brings it crashing into the now.
🎸 The Performers Who Play & Slay🎸
This stage does not separate actor from musician. This cast does not step in and out of roles. A production fueled by music requires performers who do more than act and this cast moves through history with instruments in hand, carrying the rhythm of a time that was almost erased.
- Kayla Sakura Charchuk (Pou/S-21 Guard/Keyboard) – A Vancouver-based artist whose journey into music and theatre started at the age of three. From rock anthems to emotional ballads, her performances deliver both intensity and vulnerability. Previously seen in CATS and We Will Rock You, she is bringing that same electrifying presence to the stage here.
- Nicco Lorenzo Garcia (Duch) – A first-generation Filipino-Canadian actor whose work spans television, film, and theatre. He carries a Dora Award for his performance work, and his appearances in projects like Slip, Painkiller, and Topline have made him a force on screen. But here, on stage, he is stepping into one of the most complex roles in the production, capturing a character who exists in the shadows of history.
- Jay Leonard Juatco (Leng/Ted/Cadre/Electric Guitar) – A guitarist who does not play music—he wields it. Every note, every chord tells a story, bringing an authenticity that merges seamlessly with the emotional landscape of the play.
- Jun Kung (Rom/Journalist/Drums/Percussion) – A self-taught multi-instrumentalist who started his professional career at 14. By 15, he was working as a session drummer, and today, he has produced and toured with legends like Jacky Cheung, Eason Chan, and Faye Wong. He moves between worlds; Hong Kong, Australia, China, North America. Kung’s approach to music is both technical and instinctive, making him the perfect force to drive the pulse of this production forward.
Kung has one mantra:
“Practice, practice, and more practice.”
On stage, it shows.
- Kimberly-Ann Truong (Neary/Sothea) – A powerhouse in both theatre and television, Truong has built a career on breaking boundaries, and amplifying diverse voices. Seen in productions like Run the Burbs, Sex/Life, and Kim’s Convenience. Her presence on stage is magnetic, her performances charged with authenticity, making her the perfect choice to play Neary, a woman unearthing the past while fighting for the future.
- Raugi Yu (Chum/Electric Bass Guitar) – An artist who understands storytelling from every angle. As an actor, director, and teacher, Yu is a presence both on stage and behind the scenes. His career has spanned television, theatre, and coaching, with roles in productions like Mr. Young, JPod, and Da Vinci’s Inquest. He believes in curiosity, in learning from others, in staying open to new perspectives; and all of that shapes his performance as Chum
History doesn’t sit in silence. It moves through music, through memory, through theatre that refuses to look away.
🚀Be there when the sound returns🚀
📅 Cambodian Rock Band runs from March 6 – April 6, 2025.
📍 Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage, Vancouver.
🎟️ Get your tickets now at artsclub.com
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