What’s Up: Beer & Brunch, Al Simmons, Miriam Toews, The Pluck of Water, Brew at the Zoo

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/09/2024 (674 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Beer & Brunch

• Good Neighbour Brewery, 110 Sherbrook St.
• Tuesday, Sept. 17, 6-8 p.m.
• Tickets $60 at pte.mb.ca

Prairie Theatre Exchange’s season kicks off Sept. 25 with Mark Crawford’s Bed & Breakfast, described as “a heartfelt comedy about ‘being out’ in small-town Canada, skeletons in the closet, and finding a place to call home.”

It follows a gay couple (played by Amir Haidar and Kyle Golemba) who find themselves running a B&B in a tourist town, but you don’t have to wait until opening night to enjoy some hospitality.

On Tuesday, Good Neighbour hosts a PTE event featuring a reception with music, a beer cocktail and an appetizer, plus a scene from the play, followed by brunch from Promenade Bistro and more beers from the brewery.

Only 32 tickets are available for the event. Tickets for PTE’s upcoming season — which includes Andraea Sartison’s mythical memoir Ponderosa Pine in November and storyteller Keith Barker’s Raised by Women in April — are available at pte.mb.ca.

— Jill Wilson

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Al Simmons’ Hatstravaganza

• Sunday, Sept. 15, 2 p.m.
• Tickets $15 at wecc.ca

Dig out your hats — the wackier the better — for Sunday’s matinee show by vaudeville virtuoso and beloved entertainer Al Simmons.

The afternoon kicks off with Sounds Crazy Instrument Petting Zoo, featuring a plethora of Simmons’ signature off-the-wall instruments created from everyday items like tubes, valves, caps and strings.

Transform your boring, run-of-the-mill head wear into an over-the-top hats, caps and fedoras at the WECC Hat Creation station before joining in the Wacky Hat parade in the theatre after the show ends. Simmons will also perform songs from his first album in 25 years, The Whistling Egg Man and Other Tall Tales, which was released last year. Prepare to have a laugh-out-loud time and don’t forget to hold on to your hats.

— AV Kitching

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Miriam Toews plaque unveiling

• The Public Brewhouse and Gallery, 301 Main St., Steinbach
• Friday, 7 p.m.
• Free admission

Neepawa has Margaret Laurence House, St. Boniface has Maison Gabrielle-Roy, and now Steinbach will pay tribute to the house where critically acclaimed novelist Miriam Toews grew up.

Toews lived at 58 Brandt St. as a teenager and the house served as inspiration for a cross-section of her work as well as a setting for her 2004 novel, the Governor General’s Literary Award-winning A Complicated Kindness. Toews’ other work includes novels such as All My Puny Sorrows and Women Talking, and Swing Low: A Life, a non-fiction book about her late father.

The plaque project was spearheaded by Steinbach author Andrew Unger, who created the satirical website the Daily Bonnet and then the Unger Review and whose books include the 2020 novel Once Removed and The Best of the Bonnet. Unger set up a GoFundMe for the plaque project in April, which was fully funded (to the tune of $1,600) in just 24 hours.

Those keen on seeing the plaque unveiled are to meet at the Public Brewhouse and Gallery (301 Main St.) at 7 p.m. on Friday. The group will then take a short walk to the Brandt Street home, with a quick stop at Toews’ childhood home on First Street.

Following the unveiling, folks will reconvene at the Public for readings of Toews’ work by authors including Josiah Neufeld, Jonathan Dyck, Erin Unger, Armin Wiebe and Sarah Ens. Admission is free.

—Ben Sigurdson

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The Pluck of Water

• Opens today, on view until Nov. 17
• 10 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturdays, 12-4 p.m. Sundays
• Galerie Buhler Gallery at St. Boniface Hospital

This group exhibition curated by Winnipeg-based artist and writer hannah_g borrows its title from the late Irish poet Seamus Heaney, who used the evocative phrase to describe tapping into an underground water source with a hazelwood fork in his poemThe Diviner.

“Heaney’s words also aptly describe the pull of the artworks in this exhibition, which have a kinship to divining rods bringing us to rills of meaning and connections, beauty and questions,” she writes in the exhibition essay.

The works on view by KC Adams, Alexis Auréoline, Jaime Black-Morsette, Sarah Crawley, Chantal Dupas, Laila Fazal, Noëlla Gauthier, Ariel Gordon, Ted Howorth, Jennine Krauchi, Mathew Lacosse, Erika MacPherson, Tracy Peters, Chuckwudubem Ukaigwe, Katherena Vermette and Diane Whitehouse are all connected by water, just as we are, hannah_g points out: as people living in a river city in a hydroelectric province, as humans who are mostly water.

Visitors are encouraged to contact the gallery ahead of time or make an appointment by emailing tgadd@sbgh.mb.ca. Visit galeriebuhlergallery.ca/ for more information.

— Jen Zoratti

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Brew at the Zoo

• Assiniboine Park Zoo, 2595 Roblin Blvd.
• Friday, 7 to 10 p.m.
• Tickets start at $55 at assiniboinepark.com

After a pandemic hiatus, Brew at the Zoo is back.

The after-hours, adults-only event pairs animal appreciation with unlimited samples of craft beer, cider, wine, spirits and non-alcoholic beverages.

Participating local breweries and distributors include Kilter, Good Neighbour Brewing Company, Little Brown Jug, Nifty, Dead Horse Cider Company, Shrugging Doctor Beverage Company and Sobr Market.

Certain animal enclosures will be accessible throughout the evening, including Toucan Ridge, McFeetors Heavy Horse Centre and the Tundra Grill polar bear viewing area.

Other activities include beer-tasting workshops, live music and games. Food will be available for purchase on site.

Premium tickets are $75 and grant early access to the grounds, as well as a complimentary food voucher. Designated-driver tickets are available for $30.

— Eva Wasney

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