THEATRE

Bliss This

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Bliss, Wildside Theatre Festival, Centaur Theatre. On until January 14

by Natalie G.
13.01.2012

Pinned on the theme of a celebrity obsession, Bliss starts out lightly and amusingly enough before incrementally submerging the viewer into a darker, more confusing world where reality is a concept much like beach sand in a clenched fist.

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THEATRE

Eyes Wide Open

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Blink Blink Blink, Wildside Theatre Festival, Centaur Theatre. On until January 14

by Natalie G.
13.01.2012

In this one-woman “tragi-comedy,” Kirsten Rasmussen, as one-part Sara Tonin and five-parts bunny, takes you on the fast-paced, brilliantly executed journey of Sara and Benjamin Bunny into a young woman’s world behind the personality she presents at her workshops.

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DANCE

Dance in Their Pants

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The Bouge d’ici dance festival celebrates its third year with an expanded lineup of workshops and performance for both diehard dance fans and the simply inquisitive

by Kati Belanger
12.01.2012

Montreal’s most approachable dance festival is back for its third edition. Bouge d’ici is the brainchild of choreographer and St-Ambroise Fringe Festival director Amy Blackmore. The festival aims to showcase emerging dance talent and reach out to new audiences by offering a wide range of performances and workshops.

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THEATRE

Brilliant Stage Noir

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Requiem pour un trompettiste, at Espace Libre

by Alex Woolcott
11.01.2012

A criminally clever coup de théâtre, Claude Guilmain’s Requiem pour un trompettiste manages the amazing feat of being both an homage to film noir and a timely expose on corruption in politics. And all of it is couched in an intricate technical dance of music, dialogue and deft timing.

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FILM

Feel Good, It Ain’t

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American Psycho vibes haunt Shame.

by Sarah Fletcher
10.01.2012

A naked man wanders his apartment as a woman’s voice pleads with his answering machine. It’s Steve McQueen’s star sex addict, Brandon Sullivan, painfully indifferent and in dire need of a trim. It’s not his fault he’s emotionally unavailable. Maybe it all started with that untoward blow to the head.

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BOOKS

Grand Dames

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Midsummer Night in the Workhouse, by Diana Athill, and The Things We Fear Most, by Gloria Vanderbilt

by Elise Moser
08.01.2012

It is surprising that there are not more well known editors-turned-writers. Toni Morrison is the great one; Diana Athill is another shining example, best known for her lively memoirs, especially Stet: An Editor’s Life. With the exception of a 1967 novella, she appears to have published no fiction except Midsummer Night in the Workhouse, her collection of short stories, written in 1958 and just reissued as a very attractive paperback. Her mastery of the language makes it a very smooth read, but it is far from inspired.

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THEATRE

Amour, amour, quand tu nous tiens…

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Pourquoi pas? Théâtre Jean-Duceppe

by Mélanie Grondin
06.01.2012

Y a-t-il un âge limite pour être amoureux? Y a-t-il un moment où « l’amour de vieilles fesses molles », comme le nomme un des personnages, devient dégueulasse et horripilant? Surtout pour les jeunes qui visualisent le tout en frémissant? Eh bien, selon le dramaturge ontarien Norm Foster, auteur de la pièce Pourquoi pas?, la [...]

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OCCUPY CHRISTMAS

Compassion is the New Currency

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Keeping the faith

by Kathryn Harvey
02.01.2012

For those who missed out on a Christian education, or have forgotten the words, the carol Away in A Manger tells the story of the birth of Jesus in a stable in Bethlehem. Like the Occupiers today, Jesus and his parents were part of the 99%. They were poor citizens of an indifferent Empire. Ordered by government decree to leave their home in Nazareth and travel to Bethlehem, Joseph and a pregnant Mary were made homeless because Rome was preparing a census for taxation purposes. Some things don’t change. The man whose message of peace and love would inspire billions over the centuries, was himself poor and homeless when he entered this world.

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OCCUPY CHRISTMAS

Occupy the Future

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Resistance is futile

by Marianne Ackerman
01.01.2012

There’s a great line in one of George Walker’s plays about growing older. A character – somebody’s crusty mother – remarks that as we age, we either get more like ourselves, or less. “I’m going for the more,” she snaps. Me too. Is there really any other choice?

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OCCUPY CHRISTMAS

Occupy your Heart

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As Christmas as you wanna be

by Shawn Katz
31.12.2011

My relationship with the Christmas season has never been an obvious one. My family are what I like to call good secular Montreal Jews. Being “Jewish” conjured up the holy pantheon of bagels, smoked meat, Leonard Cohen and Mordechai Richler more than the traditional mythology of Moses. Of course, we did have our Hannukah gatherings. As years went by, they morphed ever so suspiciously into Christmukah hybrids, replete with cranberry sauce and a giant turkey wrapped in strips of bacon. Delicious, but I digress.

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OCCUPY CHRISTMAS

Accumulation of the Useless

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Think big, shop local

by Heather Leighton
30.12.2011

Occupy Christmas: International Day of Action has been a welcome initiative for many of us. The holiday season is a hectic, stressful time for working families who end up spending well beyond their means on gifts, meals and entertainment. This spending spree now extends beyond the holiday season and into the New Year, as lining up outside big box stores for big ticket items has become a popular new tradition in the past decade. The real winners in all this are the corporations, credit card companies and banks. Otherwise known as 1%.

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OCCUPY CHRISTMAS

We Wish You An Oblivious Christmas

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You know the joke about Interrupting Cow. Here comes Interrupting Christmas.

by Michael Mirolla
29.12.2011

Don’t get me wrong. I like Christmas (or whatever the latest politically correct designation might be). I just don’t appreciate the fact it gets in the way. Difficult to put in 16-hour days with people waving bottles of fine wine, single malt, and five-star cognac under your nose. Even more difficult to keep up the jollity when you’re slipping further and further into the quagmire known as “the deadline” or “the pit of postmodern time.”

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OCCUPY CHRISTMAS

Protestant? Sure

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Occupying the Protestant School Board of Greater Montreal

by Eric Hamovitch
28.12.2011

All of my immediate family members were born in Montreal, but because we were raised as Jews, our observance of Christmas consisted largely of getting into the family car on a fine evening in late December and driving around certain neighbourhoods to admire the extravagant displays of ornamental lighting that some householders had taken the trouble to put on show. This was not the whole story of Christmas, of course, and school filled in some of the gaps in my knowledge.

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OCCUPY CHRISTMAS

Tout le monde en fête

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You say Christmas, I say Milad Majid

by Joseph Elfassi
27.12.2011

A Québec employer summons two employees from different cultural backgrounds, and apologises for a Christmas card that was sent around the Office — which he is sure has offended both of them.

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OCCUPY CHRISTMAS

Little Brother, Remember the Christmas?

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Short story

by Mark Paterson
25.12.2011

Remember the Christmas when you got into Mom’s purse? They caught you in the closet, lipsticks and keys and coins and tissues on the floor, encircling you like a wreath. You were building a little pyramid of pills, your fingers chalky with pink dust.

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