Bard’s wife crafts sandbox world that demands leaning in

Today’s horoscope

Moon Alert: Until 11 p.m. PDT tonight there are no restrictions to shopping or important decisions today. The Moon is in Capricorn.

Aries (March 21-April 19)

Steer clear of confrontation with authority figures this morning. Instead, get yourself ready for a productive four weeks ahead because you intend to work and get better organized. Oh yeah – you’re going to pull your act together so you can take it on the road.

Taurus (April 20-May 20)

Kinew’s message for PM: don’t back down

Let it be known that when Canada’s provinces and alcohol industries needed a defender, Canada’s first First Nations provincial premier was their greatest warrior.

This is, admittedly, a provocative opening line — referencing historical and cultural intersections and relying on a stereotype or two.

It’s impossible, however, not to see how important the nearly Canada-wide provincial-led ban on the sale of U.S. alcohol is to Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew.

It’s due to his stand on national matters like these that he’s become very popular — according to polls, the most popular premier in Canada — and has been empowered to take on the mantle of one of the captains of “Team Canada” on economic, political and domestic issues.

Bard’s wife crafts sandbox world that demands leaning in

“I long for the sea,” announces Anne Hathaway at the start of this 92-minute, one-hander drama by Winnipeg-born, Alberta-based playwright Vern Thiessen. Considering some of the circumstances of her life to be revealed, it will prove to be a shocking statement.

Hathaway, played by Winnipeg actor Debbie Patterson, is better known as the wife of William Shakespeare, to the extent that she is known at all. The Bard had three children with her, but he largely kept his distance throughout his career as it blossomed so fruitfully in the Stratford hothouse. Hence, the woman has largely existed in a cruel obscurity, even in the public imagination. (She barely figures in the whimsical Marc Norman/Tom Stoppard script of Shakespeare in Love.)

With this play, Thiessen seeks to rectify that state of affairs with a backstory that, among other things, suggests the living arrangement was due to Shakespeare’s homosexuality, an affirmation that the “Fair Lord” in many of his sonnets were indeed a reference to his lover.

Hathaway, for her part, is surprisingly worldly about such concerns; the arrangement allows her to indulge her own desires with a succession of willing men. At the same time, she proves to be a doting mother to the three children she had with “Bill,” including her daughters Judith and Susanna, and her auspiciously named son Hamnet. “Hamnet is a stupid name, don’t you think?,” says Anne wryly.

Frustration mounts as drug raids sweep problems out of downtown, into West End

West End business owners say their neighbourhood has been under siege for months, and some believe downtown police drug sweeps have made things worse by pushing more street disorder in their direction — and pushing customers away.

ER wait times have hit all-time highs in Winnipeg and are impacting nearly all aspects of hospital operations

On most days at Health Sciences Centre’s adult emergency department, all 58 treatment beds are filled with sick patients. Another dozen or so brought in by ambulance line the hallways on stretchers, with only one nurse to look after them.

Out in the waiting room, about 30 or 40 people — sometimes more — are slouched in chairs in pain or discomfort, waiting hours to see a doctor. Most have been assessed by a triage nurse, but many will have to wait 10 to 20 hours to be examined by a physician because there’s no room for them in the treatment area.

Some patients leave because they can no longer tolerate the excruciating wait, only to return days later, sicker than they were before.

Welcome to the emergency department at Manitoba’s largest hospital, where some of the highest-acuity patients seek medical care but now face delays that were unimaginable a few years ago.