The Rover | Page 5

Oh Syria My Syria

Interview with Montreal-based Syrian activist Afra Jalabi

by Zeshaun Saleem
05.04.2013

“I wish to enter paradise only once,” said the 7th century prophet Muhammad upon gazing at the Damascus mountainside. According to legend, he refused to step foot in the ancient city as it might undermine his one chance to enter heaven. At the crossroads of the Orient and Occident, Asia and Africa, Syria is home to some of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.

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THEATRE

Deux par deux rassemblés

Quartett, de Heiner Müller, Théâtre de La Chapelle, jusqu’au 13 avril

by Mélanie Grondin
04.04.2013

Hier, j’ai appris à quel point la mise en scène peut être importante dans la présentation d’une pièce. En effet, le texte peut être bien écrit, le jeu des acteurs peut être impressionnant et les décors peuvent être frappants, mais la pièce peut demeurer laborieuse si la mise en scène ne lui rend pas service. C’est le cas de la plus récente présentation de Quartett, de Heiner Müller, jouée au Théâtre de La Chapelle par Les songes turbulants et mise en scène par Florent Siaud.

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THIS IS HAPPENING WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT

You Are What You Read

The March Edition

by Ashley Opheim
03.04.2013

I vividly remember the first time I consciously read a book on my own, at the tender age of seven, and the feeling of ecstatic excitement that this act instilled in me.

I see now what it was about reading that grabbed me—it showed me that the world extended beyond my own reality. This was infinitely exciting for me as a young girl, for it was in completely in line with my own wicked imagination.

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FILM

The Long and Winding Road

A look at Derek Cianfrance’s The Place Beyond the Pines

by Devon Gallant
02.04.2013

Featuring Ryan Gosling as a motorcycle stuntman turned bank robber, Derek Cianfrance’s The Place Beyond the Pines immediately conjures comparisons to Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive. And, for the first five minutes, Beyond the Pines does seem to be in the same vein as Refn’s thriller. However, what follows is something so unexpected that it will completely defy your expectations. The trailer for Beyond the Pines sells the film as a high speed thriller. However, it is much more focused on the actions that shape peoples’ lives than any high speed chase.

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THIS IS HAPPENING WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT

Gavin Thomson

Talking with the prose editor for Scrivener Creative Review

by Ashley Opheim
01.04.2013

I met Gavin in a particularly contemporary way— via an article published on the Internet. We had been interviewed about some of our views on writing and both our voices had emerged in the same space. Gavin is a McGill student and also the prose editor for Scrivener Creative Review, a literary publication devoted to [...]

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BOOKS

The Mysterious Harry

The Metamorphosis: The Apprenticeship of Harry Houdini, by Bruce MacNab, Goose Lane

by Donovan King
31.03.2013

Bruce MacNab’s account of Houdini’s fascinating yet problematic 1896 tour of Atlantic Canada sheds light on the often overlooked early years. Carefully retracing the route, MacNab revisits almost every town, performance hall, hotel, prison, archive, basement and attic associated with the master magician.

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TRENDS

I Don’t Just Like Loi 101, J’adore It!

Bonjour Hi! Not everyone has their petit culottes in a knot about language

by Eman El Husseini
30.03.2013

When my family and I immigrated to Quebec, my siblings and I were forced into French school and boy am I grateful. Without it, I wouldn’t be fluent in three languages (although with an accent making me sound foreign to all three). As a working comic, I travel often to the US and the Middle East. Because of Loi 101, people I meet are totally impressed with mon français. They assume I have some sort of high society education. They obviously a) have never heard the Quebecois accent, and b) don’t know I’m a college dropout – and to be honest I’m in no hurry to tell them.

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FILM

Hard Time

Eugene Jarecki’s latest documentary, The House I Live In, is difficult but essential viewing. Cinéma du Parc, opening March 29

by Matthew Hays
29.03.2013

From early in the screening of The House I Live In, I got the powerful sensation of familiarity. I was entering into a documentary by filmmaker Eugene Jarecki. And that’s a very good thing; Jarecki is quite simply a genius at analyzing complex issues, at showing us how the personal and political are intricately interwoven.

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DANCE

Strange Fruit

The Light Between, Fondation de danse Margie Gillis, Danse Danse, to March 30

by Cerys Wilson
28.03.2013

Veteran dancer and choreographer Margie Gillis returned to the stage Tuesday night with The Light Between, a collaboration with fellow dancers Marc Daigle and Paola Styron, choreographer Holly Bright, and painter and sculptor Randal Newman. Gillis, combining lightness of step with a thrashing upper torso, again showed herself to be a dancer of great sensibility. Her signature Rapunzel-esque hair, gathered in a long, swinging braid, moved, at times, like an extra appendage.

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FILM

Wind-Powered Film

Landscape and Technology: The Films of Chris Welsby, Cinéma Quebecois, March 30+31

by Tom Llewellin
28.03.2013

Since his start in early 1970s London, Chris Welsby has spent his career searching for a compromise between nature, technology and the passage of time. A retrospective screening of his work at the Cinémathèque Québécoise this weekend in association with Double Negative will look at some of his best-known 16mm shorts from his early years, tackling the filmmaker’s relationship with the natural world.

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FILM

Let Slip the Dogs of War

The Act of Killing, Joshua Oppenheimer, Cinema Excentris, March 28

by Leila Marshy
27.03.2013

Remember when you made that touchdown in high school? Or your first job? Or the time you saved a dog from drowning? Remember your first kiss? Remember that village you massacred? Whoa minute, as they say in French. There’s something wrong with this picture. Welcome to the surreal reality of modern-day Indonesia, where the gangsters and thugs are pop stars and their greatest hits include rape, pillage and torture.

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BOOKS

Montreal Story

Saleema Nawaz's Bone & Bread launches at Le Depanneur then Drawn and Quarterly, 7 pm, March 28

by Marianne Ackerman
27.03.2013

There’s a whiff of Nora Jones in the Saleema Nawaz story. Indian father, North American mother, brains, beauty, and now success, at 34. Born and raised in Ottawa and a Montrealer by choice, the prize-winning short story writer makes her debut as a novelist this week. So far the buzz is deafening.

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THEATRE

I’m Your Mannikin

Dance Me To The End On/Off Love, Granhøj Dans, Centaur Theatre, to April 14

by Jim Burke
26.03.2013

While theatre stages groan under the weight of juke-box musicals and tribute acts, Danish company Granhøj Dans offer a more challenging, and ultimately quite brilliant, take on the life and work of Montreal’s very own godfather of soulful introspection, Leonard Cohen.

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STAGE

The Punch Line

Coming out funny to Mom and Dad

by Eman El Husseini
26.03.2013

Telling my parents that I finally found out who I truly am was not a pleasant experience. Their Middle Eastern culture dictated that they wanted a more traditional life for their daughter. But I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t conform to the norm. The path I have chosen to live my life may be unconventional and insecure but I cannot imagine living it any other way. Sorry, Mom and Dad, I’m a comedian.

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THIS IS HAPPENING WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT

Aqueous Yes

Interview with Alex Manley

by Ashley Opheim
25.03.2013

Alex Manley is not only a writer of literature, he is also a journalist who has covered everything from the death of print, internet poetics, the problem with the new twenty dollar bills, Margaret Wente’s shenanigans, Lana Del Rey, to the legacy of Steve Jobs. Which makes me wonder, is Alex the Tom Wolfe of [...]

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