A local love fest
The Good Will Social Club was lit purple on the night of Nov. 20 for the first live showcase of the House of Wonders roster.
Arts & Culture
The spectre of Shakespeare
This winter, Shakespeare in the Ruins (SIR) presents a remounted production of Shakespeare’s Will, written by Winnipeg-born playwright and two-time Governor General’s Award winner, Vern Thiessen. The play’s original run was in early 2020 during ShakespeareFest, the final iteration the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre’s Master Playwright Festival. It was filmed for the screen on the mainstage at Prairie Theatre Exchange with video direction by local filmmaker Sam Vint.
meadows, ‘wild flower’ — 4.5 stars
Beginning as the solo project of Isiah Schellenberg, former member of indie bands brite and notme, Winnipeg’s meadows has expanded its membership and established itself as one of the most exciting and prolific acts in the city. Among the three EPs released in the past year, its most cohesive is wild flower.
Exploring the ephemeral marks left behind
Arranged in a fairly straightforward manner around the perimeter of the gallery, the works in Traces begin to the left of the entrance, leading viewers clockwise around the space. There is a natural order and flow to the works and their relatively small scale invites patrons to come closer and inspect them, rather than forcing themselves into view.
Casper Skulls, ‘Knows No Kindness’ — 3.5 stars
Toronto-area indie rockers Casper Skulls are back from a four-year hiatus since their debut record Mercy Works, with their harsh edges dulled and their spirits wizened. Originally drawing comparison to noisy art rock legends like Pavement and Sonic Youth, their new album Knows No Kindness brings influence from ’70s folk rock and alt-country, with widescreen expansiveness and a renewed focus on songwriting and storytelling.
An awkward moo-ve
The popular phrase “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” is perhaps the best way to summarize the events that happened between July 2017 and May 2018 in Markham, Ont. On a July morning that fateful year, the residents of Cathedraltown — a residential neighbourhood of Markham — awoke to find a giant chrome cow on 25-foot tall stilts in the parkette that acts as a front lawn to some houses on Charity Crescent.
A sophomore foray into fantasy
Winnipeg-based writer and former Manitoban contributor Alex Passey has just released Shadow of the Desert Sun. Published in September, this “sword and sorcery fantasy” is Passey’s second novel to date.
Touching, ‘littleworlds’ — 2.5 stars
Littleworlds, the second album by Michael Falk’s solo project Touching, has grand aspirations. Falk points to dramatic, anthemic rock bands like Frightened Rabbit and Manchester Orchestra, freak folk auteur Richard Dawson and trip-hop legends Massive Attack as primary influences. A wide range of touchpoints, but oddly apt, in a sense.
The new face at the Cinematheque
Olivia Norquay, local horror aficionado and host of the feminist horror radio show BIKINI DRIVE-IN, is the most recent addition to the programming staff at the Winnipeg Film Group’s illustrious arthouse theatre, the Cinematheque. Since her hiring in April, Norquay has made her presence felt with a number of great showings and live post-screening discussions with her and BIKINI DRIVE-IN co-host Jill Groening.
Looking forward and looking back
After a theatre drought going on nigh two years, Prairie Theatre Exchange (PTE) has opened its doors to smaller, vaccinated audiences for the world premiere of The War Being Waged, written and co-directed by Manitoban playwright Darla Contois.