Winnipeg Jewish Theatre’s The Cut probes interfaith tensions

An IKEA nursery awaiting its tenant is the first stage into which visitors are allowed entry in playwright Jordi Mand’s The Cut.

We see an antique rocker and unmarked boxes strewn about, with a table lamp — an unofficial Ner tamid, eternal candle — sitting on the unblemished carpet in the centre of the room. Sarah (Hallie Seline) and Andrew (Wade Bogert O’Brien) have a lot to unpack as they settle into their own home: two shelves of biography waiting for a third.

The box of books from Sarah’s parents is opened early.

“Something From Nothing? Goodnight Bubbala?” Andrew laughs, turning the volumes cover-out on the wall of his future son’s room. “What are they building? A Jewish bookshelf?”

Exchange welcomes new gallery

Co-owned by Laura Porath and Mike Page, Lucent Gallery + Design Studio celebrates its grand opening, Thursday.

Theatre preview: pointy-eared actors to stage Shakespeare tragedy in Goblin:Macbeth

Although they star in an upcoming local production of the Scottish Play, goblin thespians Wug, Kragva and Moog left it to director Rebecca Northan to handle publicity and interviews.

Were they also scared to utter the real title — saying “Macbeth” inside a theatre is believed to be bad luck — aloud?

“The goblins don’t know anything about our superstitions,” says Northan, an actor-writer-improv artist who last season performed and directed Murder-on-the-Lake, an immersive murder-mystery, for the Shaw Festival.

Northan, who co-created Goblin:Macbeth with Bruce Horak and Ellis Lalonde, can’t speak for her folkloric co-workers, but says the Halloweenish trio were inspired to mount the show after being impressed by Shakespeare’s firm grasp on the realm of fantasy.

Flourishing improv fest ready to make the ‘Peg laugh

When the first Winnipeg Improv Festival happened in 2000, its organizers had no idea what they were doing, or what the festival should look like.

Oseredok's centrepiece mosaic is a testament to Ukrainian heritage

With impressionism, things can look messy when you’re eyeing the brush strokes up close. Stand back, voila, the piece comes into focus.

But with photomosaics, an image made up of hundreds of smaller photos, it’s the opposite. The closer you stand, the more images you see.

In the era of AI art, it’s all too easy to fire off a kitschy digital photomosaic. The internet is littered with mindless renderings showing, say, an image of the Statue of Liberty made up of a thousand Big Macs.

It’s another and rare thing to build a photomosaic by hand, with a genuine artist’s grasp of the form’s strange double life. This is what, for the past eight years or so, a collaborative team — in particular Edmonton-based creator and curator Larisa Sembaliuk Cheladyn, sculptor Royden Mills, Theodora Harasymiw and a group of volunteers — did for Ukrainian Voice: A Legacy Mosaic, one of four new exhibitions at the Oseredok: Ukrainian Cultural and Education Centre.

Women wearing appropriate clothes to gym not asking for men’s opinions

Prior to last Saturday, I was the blissful sort of person who could say “who is that, again?” when I heard the name Shane Gillis.

Now, I know him as the comedian who said “women just dress like whores now” at the gym during his opening monologue on Saturday Night Live — a show that fired him in 2019, by the way, for being racist and homophobic on a podcast yet continues to invite him back as a host for some reason.

Gillis also likened women’s short shorts (the kind one might wear to lift weights, say) to neon fishing lures.

“And don’t look. You’re not allowed to look. For real, don’t look, because they are filming,” he said.

Winnipeg Jewish Theatre play The Cut ponders realities of interfaith marriages

Jordi Mand isn’t scared to talk about circumcision — she doesn’t bristle at the mention of a bris.

Women’s hockey tale charms in Prairie Theatre Exchange production despite challenges

Before the stars come out to shine in Tracey Power’s national power play Glory, all that there is to see is an old barn, its wooden foundation exposed, with a sun-dappled expanse beneath it waiting to be transformed from earth to frozen playground.

Star Trek star helps bring music of franchise to WSO

John de Lancie knows a thing or two about obsessive fandoms.

“Back in the ’60s, and I certainly grew up in that, there was one fandom: sports. Those of us who read sci-fi and what have you, we were very much of a subculture, and Star Trek … provided a shade, a tent,” he says.

These days, the Hollywood actor — who reprises his iconic role as the mischievous Q in 60 Years of Star Trek & Beyond, presented by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra tonight — is no stranger to the Trekkie circuit.

And he’ll be meeting at least a few Trekkies tonight, as the WSO’s concert delves deep into the franchise’s musical heritage and lore. 60 Years of Star Trek & Beyond weaves the famous classical themes that inspired Star Trek’s sound with music from the franchise itself, along with new compositions by Nick DiBerardino, who joins de Lancie onstage for a theatrical and philosophical back-and-forth.

What's Up: Clara Hughes, Moving / Still: Animation, Rumble in the Burt, Send+Receive, Lotai as Chappell Roan, Scream & Halloween

Clara Hughes book launchMcNally Robinson Booksellers, Grant Park (1120 Grant Ave.)Tonight, 7 p.m.FreeOne of Canada’s most decorated Olympians returns to her hometown tonight to launch a new memoir about her healing journey, the roadblocks along the way and the search for new beginnings.Clara Hughes, who was born in Winnipeg and now lives on Vancouver Island, launches her new memoir Learning to Breathe at 7 p.m., when she’ll be joined in conversation by Shelagh Rogers, the former host of CBC Radio’s The Next Chapter.

Learning to Breathe is Hughes’s second memoir, following the publication of 2017’s Open Heart, Open Mind. Her latest sees the six-time Olympic medallist detail her use of psychedelic-assisted therapy to deal with physical and emotional ailments, navigating menopause, forging new relationships and more.

Hughes is the only athlete to win multiple medals in both the Summer and Winter Games (in cycling and speed skating, respectively), and is a member of both the Order of Manitoba and the Order of Canada. She’ll discuss Learning to Breathe with Rogers before signing copies at the store. The free event is also available to stream on McNally Robinson’s YouTube page.

— Ben Sigurdson

Women’s hockey pioneers face off on PTE stage

You probably haven’t heard of the Preston Rivulettes, but nearly a century ago, they were considered by many to be the best hockey team in Canada.

Mayoral candidates share faves, test knowledge in Free Press culture quiz

It’s been said that politics is downwind of culture. However true that is, where politicians stand on hot-button cultural debates such as artificial intelligence, whether they prefer sports over arts and what local restaurants they patronize can offer a window into their sensibilities and outlooks.

The Free Press invited the four leading mayoral candidates among decided voters — according to a recent Abacus poll — to take part in a cultural quiz. (Kevin Klein, who was polling second, did not respond.) While most of the questions are lighthearted, they speak to some of the personalities behind the heated rivalries over budgets, buses, business taxation and beyond.

What was the last book you finished?

● Scott Gillingham: I’m almost done Winnipeg author Paul Vincent Jacuzzi’s book Blind Eyes. It’s a Dalton Drake novel.

Théâtre Cercle Molière opens season with hijinks-filled comedy

For the opening production of her programming tenure at Théâtre Cercle Molière, artistic director Marie-Ève Fontaine knew that she wanted to highlight the eternal work of her company’s namesake.

Free Press columnist transforms into killer clown for escape-room adventure

‘Would you ever try being a killer clown?”

This question came to me from my friend Lisa McMillan who, with her husband Chris, owns Killer Noob Escapes on Century Street. The escape rooms at KNE are immersive and narrative-driven and, oh yeah, horror-themed.

This seems like a good time to mention I don’t do horror. I hate clowns — who doesn’t? — and I don’t like being startled. I don’t visit haunted houses, mostly for the safety of others. My fight-or-flight reflex sometimes skews more fight, and I worry I’m a Fear Puncher.

But being on the other side of things? That, maybe, I could do. So I accepted Lisa’s challenge.

Phoneless concert a beautiful chance to bask in moment

Outside the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, digital billboards flashed fans their singular photo op for the night: “I took this photo before I saw Phoebe Bridgers: The Lost Tour 2026.”

It is, as it is for so many other people, my only documentation of a concert by one of my favourite artists. The American singer-songwriter — who I discovered at the Winnipeg Folk Festival in 2018 — has had a meteoric rise in the past few years, winning three Grammys in 2024 as one third of Boygenius, the indie-rock supergroup rounded out by Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker, and opening for Taylor Swift on select dates of her titanic Eras Tour.

Now, Bridgers is touring in support of Lost Weekend, her third album and first since 2020’s Punisher. It’s a feat of a record, a richly textured meditation on loss and grief, written in the aftermath of the death of her dad, with whom she had a complicated relationship.

So she is in a position to not only play multiple sold-out arena shows, but also insist that those shows be phone-free.