“Monty Python Meets The Muppet Show”

Larrikin Entertainment Ensemble, a professional non-profit theatre company in Whitehorse, Yukon, developed and showcased a new satirical cabaret with support from a Canada Council grant.

Getting audiences laughing in Whitehorse

The Ensemble partnered with the Yukon Arts Centre and Atomic Vaudeville, an award-winning performance company based in Victoria, to showcase North of the Sixtieth Parallel – A Zeitgeist Cabaret. The satirically comedic musical theatre was the brainchild of Larrikin Entertainment Ensemble’s artistic creative producer, Katherine McCallum, and Atomic Vaudeville’s Britt Small and Jacob Richmond. The Whitehorse theatre company wanted to create a cabaret that was similar in form to Atomic Vaudeville's cabarets, but with content unique to the Yukon.

Creating a cabaret with a distinctly Yukon feel

Working with 15 of the Yukon's finest and funniest writers, Small and Richmond helped craft the cabaret during a writers weekend in February 2019, then workshopped it over the next few months. The result was a cabaret that incorporated Yukon politics, culture, artistic expression and environmental idiosyncrasies to create what the Ensemble described as “Monty Python meets The Muppet Show.”