Teen newcomers hope powerful poem opens minds

Escaping Syria as a child, Fawwaz (Ali) Al Hassan knows a thing or two about global conflict.

“I’ve gone through war, genocide, poverty, myself firsthand, and I know how bad and terrible it is for anyone, not just for people of my kind, but anyone across the world,” the 17 year old who immigrated to Canada 10 years ago said.

The Daniel McIntyre Collegiate Institute student co-wrote the spoken-word poem What We’re Meant to Be, along with Sami Suliman, 16, and Tobilola (Tobi) Olorunsola, 17. The trio recited it Monday at the Manitoba legislature as part of the Manitoba Council for International Cooperation’s international development week.

The teens, all newcomers to Canada, brought their own personal experiences to the poem, a journey across the globe.

Tad et Birdy: quand le jeu devient un langage commun

La nouvelle production jeunesse du Manitoba Theatre for Young People (MTYP), Tad and Birdy, mise sur la créativité pour aborder la peur, la curiosité et le courage. Présentée au 7 février à Winnipeg, la pièce partira ensuite en tournée dans plusieurs communautés manitobaines.

Dans les coulisses, Sarah Lamoureux, responsable de la régie, décrit un processus de création fondé sur la collaboration et l’expérimentation. Travailler avec une petite équipe lui permet de dépasser le rôle traditionnel de coordination pour participer activement à la mise en scène.

“Je peux suggérer des choses à essayer, et on a la chance de vraiment les explorer ensemble. Les comédiens nes aussi proposent leurs idées, parce que ce sont eux et elles qui sont sur scène.”

Cette liberté créative se reflète dans les choix scéniques. Lorsque le texte ne précise pas les accessoires, l’équipe invente. Des crayons géants, des cartes Pokémon et des objets du quotidien deviennent les moteurs d’un imaginaire partagé.

Mythical quest takes audiences on wild ride in The Lightning Thief

Manitoba Theatre for Young People plunges a full house of mortals into the shadowy underworld as it presents the Greek myth-infused The Lightning Thief.

The musical holiday production (90 minutes including intermission) is based on American author’s Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson fantasy novel series, featuring a heavenly, all-local cast that would make any god or goddess proud.

After being expelled from school for his “fifth time in six years,” 12-year-old Percy Jackson, a “half-blood” son born of a human mother, Sally Jackson, and Poseidon, god of the sea, embarks on a hero’s quest to rescue a powerful lightning bolt stolen from Zeus.

We follow Percy into Camp Half-Blood, where he learns he’s a demigod, before setting out with his half-blood chums Annabeth and Grover to various locales, including Las Vegas and Los Angeles, with all roads ultimately leading to Hades.

Play serves as prism for different politics, histories

If you can’t make it to opening night for the latest production from Theatre Projects Manitoba, don’t fret: there are five premières for The Only Good Indian, with each solo performance vastly different from the next.

Winnipeg Jewish Theatre’s therapy-set two-hander plays with reality

The public and private perils of online engagement crash through the screen and into a therapist’s office in Job, a nervy drama that explores the power of posts and the ethical responsibilities inherent to our respective postings.

Written by New York’s Max Wolf Friedlich and directed by Calgary’s Jack Grinhaus, the opening production of the Winnipeg Jewish Theatre’s season heads to the races with the brandishing of a starter’s gun in the warped offices of Bay Area psychotherapist Lloyd (Dov Mickelson).

Lloyd’s description of his typical patient — young people who are “hopeless and beyond help” — isn’t exactly inspirational.

Blundstone-booted Jane (Jada Rifkin) seems to have made the cut, having been placed on paid administrative leave after a viral meltdown by her employer, an unnamed tech giant on whose campus she’s enrolled as an adjudicator.

Ryan Reynolds suggests swapping phones with a MAGA supporter, checking out their algorithm

TORONTO - Ryan Reynolds says mounting tensions between Canada and the U.S. haven't changed anything for him as a Canuck in Hollywood.

The "Deadpool" star preached unity during an onstage conversation at the Toronto International Film Festival, when chief programming officer Anita Lee asked him what it was like being a Canadian in Los Angeles during this "elbows up" era of increased nationalism.

In a nearly five-minute answer to the question, Reynolds said he's always held Canadian values, including conflict resolution, and he seeks "to learn, rather than win."

Reynolds is at TIFF to promote the new documentary "John Candy: I Like Me," which he produced.

Impro: Une finale époustouflante

La finale de la Ligue d’improvisation du secondaire tellement époustouflante (LISTE) de la Division scolaire franco-manitobaine s’est déroulée dans une ambiance festive le 18 mars dernier. Une soirée qui a vu l’équipe La verdure violente du Collège Louis-Riel l’emporter au bout de deux heures de match.

Comme à l’accoutumée, la compétition s’est tenue dans la bonne humeur au Centre culturel franco-manitobain (CCFM), dans la salle Pauline-Boutal.

Les gradins étaient remplis de parents, frères, sœurs et amis venus soutenir leurs participants favoris.

L’équipe Citrus improbus (maillot rouge) du Centre scolaire Léo-Rémillard entraînée par Roger Durand a affronté l’équipe La verdure violente (maillot vert) du Collège Louis-Riel, entraînée par Carine Roy. À l’issue de la soirée, l’équipe Piste de chameau, de l’école Pointe-des-Chênes, s’est aussi vu remettre le prix spécial époustouflant qui récompense leur esprit sportif.

Louis-José Houde fait un retour attendu à Winnipeg

Il en avait fait la promesse en 2019. Six ans plus tard, et une pandémie passés par là, l’humoriste sera de nouveau sur la scène de la salle Pauline-Boutal le 26 janvier au CCFM.

Normalement, ce retour dans la capitale manitobaine aurait dû se faire plus tôt que ça.

“En 2019, le spectacle avait été tellement agréable que vers la fin, encore sur la scène, j’avais déclaré que je reviendrais. Mon producteur l’apprenait au même moment. [rires] Donc, on avait pris rendez-vous pour avril ou mai 2020, et ce n’était pas arrivé …”

L’humoriste québécois se souvient notamment dans l’ambiance et de l’atmosphère qui régnait dans la salle Pauline-Boutal. “J’avais beaucoup aimé cette salle-là de par sa configuration. On n’a pas de salle comme ça à Montréal, il n’y a pas vraiment de scène dans mon souvenir. On est comme sur un plancher, avec le public en demi-lune. Pour l’humour, c’est extrêmement efficace, on entendait vraiment bien les rires. Je me sentais très proche des gens.”

Une relève pour le monde théâtrale francophone

Sur les planches du Théâtre Cercle Molière, six jeunes de 16 à 22 ans d’expression française vont pouvoir donner libre cours à leur imagination grâce à la pièce Un peu partout. Une pièce dont le message peut faire écho chez tout le monde.

À 18 ans, Isabelle est à la croisée des chemins, partir pour se découvrir ou bien rester. Ce sont ses réflexions que le public pourra suivre dès le 15 janvier.

Et qui de mieux que des personnes qui passent eux-mêmes par ce genre de réflexion pour écrire ce texte? Ce sont donc Mikaël Beaudry, Andreas Detillieux, Madison Nelson, Lizzie Rochon, Jordan Showers, Amélie Tétrault, accompagnés de leur guide Philippe Habeck, qui ont co-écrit et mis en scène cette pièce.

Il aura fallu 18 mois pour passer de la réflexion à la représentation, un beau travail pour Philippe Habeck, enseignant à la retraite. “Pour moi, faire du théâtre c’est la meilleure façon de parler avec le cœur. Le Festival théâtre jeunesse a toujours été ma plus grande passion.

Miss Shakespeare turns gender bias on its ear

Winnipeg Studio Theatre kicked off its season with the guts and glory of female empowerment in its all-women-led local premiere of Miss Shakespeare.

The two-hour musical — directed by company artistic director Erin McGrath and presented by Rainbow Stage — runs through Oct. 5 at the University of Winnipeg’s Asper Centre for Theatre and Film. Saturday night’s crowd eagerly lapped up its feminist ethos.

Its quasi-historical protagonist, Judith Shakespeare (played by a spunky Rhea Rodych-Rasidescu), is the Bard’s real-life daughter “born with a poetic soul.” Judith lives in the shadows of her famous father during the repressive 1600s, when women were relegated to becoming wives and mothers, rather than pursuing their own passions.

Judith yearns for her own identity as a self-actualized creative powerhouse, and cobbles together the “Gossips,” a merry band of like-minded women who surreptitiously meet each week in the bowels of The Cage tavern to create a play. They spar, share stories, and dream, risking public humiliation if they’re discovered treading the boards like their male counterparts.

Satirical musical tackles health-care woes in bite-sized chunks

They say laughter is the best medicine. Throw a little song-and-dance into the mix and you get Larry Saves the Canadian Healthcare System — an 11-part web microseries that humorously addresses Canada’s ailing medical system through music and satire.

Sara Kreindler, a professor of community health sciences at the University of Manitoba, spearheads the show, drawing from her extensive research.

“It’s about starting a conversation,” says writer-composer Kreindler, who has a PhD in social psychology. “Whether you’re a health-care provider or just someone curious about the system, I want viewers to come away feeling empowered to hold our elected leaders accountable for addressing the underlying issues.”

Through the character of Larry, played by Winnipeg actor Toby Hughes, viewers embark on a journey navigating the complexities of health-care policy.

Gripping drama Elle brings outdoor hardship to PTE's indoor stage

The medium of theatre doesn't necessarily lend itself to a story of survival in the wilderness.

There's a reason The Revenant was a movie and not a Broadway play.

And yet the historical drama Elle, an adaptation of the Governor General’s Award-winning novel by Douglas Glover of the same name by Toronto actress Severn Thompson, manages to be an engaging, gripping piece of work... even in the civilized Prairie Theatre Exchange environs in Portage Place.

Over the course of 90 minutes (without intermission), Thompson connects us to an extraordinary character, based on Marguerite de la Rocque de Roberval, a headstrong young Frenchwoman tantalized to a trip to Canada in 1542 by exotic tales of naked natives and strange customs.

Imaginative production delivers excellent encore performances

When Brush Theatre first brought its flagship production, Doodle POP, to Winnipeg in 2022, the South Korean company was an unknown entity locally.

Not anymore: with its third visit to the Manitoba Theatre for Young People in five years underway, the highly imaginative troupe has scribbled its way into the memories of a generation of theatregoers.

While adult audiences might not appreciate a professional theatre company programming similar shows with such frequency, MTYP hasn’t hesitated to extend return invitations to Brush, which blends miming, clowning, drawing and dazzling projections into unique and approachable stage concoctions, driven by participation from a rapt, ever-changing audience.

A kid only gets one chance to see their first theatre performance, and Doodle POP is just about as fun and engaging an introductory experience one can dream up.

PTE play shines a light on cultural harms caused by forgeries

Drew Hayden Taylor explores art authentication with his signature wit in The Undeniable Accusations of Red Cadmium Light, a play inspired by the ongoing challenges to the artistic legacy of Anishinaabe painter Norval Morrisseau.

Belated Lunar New Year party a feast of Korean culture

For the last month, Andrea Kitano has been spending her weekends hosting hanbok fashion shows at shopping centres across Winnipeg.

Actor connects multiple storylines in RMTC’s telecommunications drama Rogers v. Rogers

Inviting audiences into the inner sanctum of a dysfunctional dynasty, playwright Michael Healey’s Rogers v. Rogers does for the Canadian telecommunications industry what Adam McKay’s The Big Short did for subprime loans: surveying a national economic ecosystem that feels destined to take advantage of consumer’s best interests while lining the coffers of a controlling billionaire class.

Harlequin Costume seeks to sell building, ‘staggering’ collection; dancewear store to continue under same name

Looking to buy a building in downtown Winnipeg? Get in touch with the owners of Harlequin Costume.

If you’re interested in purchasing thousands upon thousands of costumes, you’ll want to talk to them, too.

Scott and Jan Malabar are selling their building at 375 Hargrave St., where the husband and wife have operated their costume, dance and formal wear business since the 1980s.

The asking price for the building, which sits a few blocks south of the Exchange District and a short walk from Central Park, is $995,000.

Stage-fighting the system in touching madcap comedy 'Holland'

One of Winnipeg’s funniest playwrights and an ensemble of five of the city’s strongest comic actors spin gold from parental rage in Holland, a guns-blazing production full of righteously madcap decision-making at the Tom Hendry Warehouse.

Hommage vivant à une pionnière du théâtre franco-manitobain

Du 22 octobre au 1er novembre 2025, le Théâtre Cercle Molière donnera vie à la figure emblématique de la francophonie manitobaine, Pauline Boutal.

Pour le centenaire du TCM, l’ancienne direction a choisi d’inaugurer sa saison avec la programmation d’une pièce “100 % Manitoba,” comme le dit Marie-Ève Fontaine, nouvelle directrice artistique et co-directrice générale de l’établissement.

Il s’agit de Pauline Boutal, entre les toiles et les planches, œuvre de théâtre écrite par l’une des plus importantes figures de la littérature franco-canadienne de l’Ouest actuelle, Lise Gaboury-Diallo, et mise en scène par Simon Miron, également franco-manitobain.

Le spectacle retrace en deux actes les faits saillants de la vie de Pauline Le Goff Boutal (1894-1992), illustratrice, artiste-peintre, costumière, comédienne, metteuse en scène et première directrice artistique du TCM, qu’elle a dirigé pendant 27 ans.

The Orange Notebooks navigate love, longing and a quest for a lost child

He turned. He looked back, precisely when he seemed to have the cosmic solution in his hands — and that was his terrible undoing. That was Orpheus’s mistake.

Susanna Crossman reimagines turning and looking back here, in a kind of experiment in genre. The Orange Notebooks is an adventure story, to be sure, but it is also part aching memoir, part lyrical poetry, part polychromatic kaleidoscope, part surreptitious “found footage” but, most thoroughly, part primordial myth.

Crossman seems to dwell, as her writing does, between worlds. She grew up in the U.K. in a “utopian commune” about 50 years ago but now resides in France, writing (both essays and fiction), lecturing and practising arts therapy. Her 2024 memoir, Home Is Where We Start, set a lingering tone of journeys, nostalgia and psychological reflection.

The Orange Notebooks reprises that tone, beginning with the pretense that we are being handed a set of journal reflections written by our protagonist, “Anna,” who herself lives in liminal spaces. She too was raised in England but grew to adulthood as a server on an English Channel ferry, married a dashing Frenchman with an exotic name, Antton (the two Ts a vestige of his Basque heritage) and eventually settled with Antton in a lovely rural French home, both as teachers.

Indigenous stories given wings by peers, playwrights

Six Indigenous storytellers are sharing new works with local audiences this week through Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre’s Pimootayowin: A Festival of New Work.

Taking Reel Pride in transformation

Reel Pride isn’t entering a mid-life crisis.

At 40, the annual Winnipeg LGBTTQ+ film festival appears as forward-looking as ever — though at the moment, its president, Ray Desautels, is feeling reflective about its arc.

“The festival started at a time when … you didn’t see LGBTQ characters on television, and if you did, they were shown in a very poor light or very stereotypical way,” he says.

“It’s become more, I think, a gathering place for queer people and queer arts … It’s more of an arts festival, not necessarily just strictly the film festival that it used to be. So we’re a gathering place for the queer community and its allies and supporters.”

Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg set Emmy record with comedy wins for ‘The Studio’

After making a career of playing lovable underachievers, Seth Rogen is officially an overachiever: his show "The Studio" set a new Emmy record for the most wins by a comedy, racking up top prizes including best series.

The Vancouver comedian and his longtime collaborator Evan Goldberg dominated the comedy categories at Sunday's awards bash, when they also collected directing and writing trophies for their Apple TV Plus cringe comedy.

“It's getting embarrassing. I really appreciate it, in all honesty,” Rogen said with his trademark chuckle while accepting the best comedy series award.

“I’ll do my best attempt at sincerity here – if you watched our show, if you appreciated our show, if you voted for our show, especially, thank you very much. I'm legitimately embarrassed by how happy this makes me.”