A Touchstone Theatre: Vascular Necrosis - a Queer Zombie Love Story
A dark comedy by Flying Start Playwright-in-Residence Jordyn Wood
Date/Time: Oct 18 2026, 2:00 pm to 10:00 pm
Vancouver, The NEST on Granville Island1398 Cartwright St 3rd Floor
Tickets
Cost: $20.00
Post Show Talkback on Tuesday, October 13 (Q&A with cast and crew)
This Touchstone Theatre and Glitch Theatre co-production blends zombie lore, queer romance, and dark comedy, turning the post-apocalyptic genre inside out. As Penelope (Gabrielle Nebrida-Pépin) navigates the uneasy territory between her former life and the afterlife she has come to inhabit, the play asks what it means to choose life in a world shaped by trauma, uncertainty, and profound change.
Vascular Necrosis comes out of Flying Start, Touchstone’s incubator program for early-career artists. It represents the culmination of a development process designed to take new work from its earliest stages to full-scale production. The program reflects Touchstone’s commitment to championing emerging Canadian and Indigenous voices and creating pathways for new plays to reach the stage.
For Wood, zombie mythology provides an unexpected lens through which to examine some very human questions: What makes a life worth living? What happens when the world we return to no longer feels like home? And what does hope look like when “getting back to normal” is no longer possible?
“At Touchstone we are interested in stories which consider what it is to be human, and what values we are prioritizing as we rattle forwards into the future,” says Anderson. “Vascular Necrosis looks at depression, trauma, disability, and queerness through zombie lore and end-of-the-world narratives. It asks why we might choose life on this planet and how that decision is entangled with both hope and despair.”
Funny, unsettling and deeply human, Vascular Necrosis puts a fresh spin on the zombie apocalypse, exploring what it means to rebuild a life in the aftermath of trauma.
SHOWTIMES: Oct 7 - Oct 18, 2026
Wed, Oct 7 – 7:30pm | PREVIEW
Thurs, Oct 8 – 7:30pm | OPENING
Fri, Oct 9 – 7:30pm
Sat, Oct 10 – 2pm + 7:30pm
Sun, Oct 11 – 2pm
Tues, Oct 13 – 7:30pm | Cast & Crew talkback
Wed, Oct 14 – 7:30pm
Thurs, Oct 15 – 7:30pm
Fri, Oct 16 – 7:30pm
Sat, Oct 17 – 2pm + 7:30pm
Sun, Oct 18 – 2pm | CLOSING