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This article was published 05/05/2022 (1281 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba Metalfest rages on

When: May 13-14, doors at 6 p.m.
Where: Park Theatre
Tickets: $30 cover or $50 for a two-day pass

Manitoba Metalfest — the annual celebration of loud, heavy and hardcore music — returns to the Park Theatre next weekend after a two-year hiatus amid the pandemic. The two-day festival features a mostly Canadian and largely local lineup.

Headlining Friday night is thrash metal band Razor, from Guelph, Ont. Also joining the bill is Exciter, Striker and Outre-Tombe; as well as Winnipeg’s Zombie Assault, Entity and Regurgitated Guts.

Montreal’s Juno Award-winning group Kataklysm will headline Saturday, along with Cryptopsy, Sunless (from Minneapolis) and local acts Inhumed, Murder Capital, Perlocution and Hopscotchbattlescars.

This year marks the 17th edition of Manitoba Metalfest. The event, which was founded by producer and Park Theatre booking agent Cory Thomas, typically showcases local talent alongside metal bands from across the world at small and medium-sized venues in the city. Single tickets and festival passes are available for purchase at Eventbrite.

— Eva Wasney

Shumka celebrates 60 years of dance

When: May 5, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Centennial Concert Hall
Tickets: $33-$95.50, including fees

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has turned Shumka’s delayed celebration of 60 years of Ukrainian dance performances into a timely reminder of the country’s culture and how influential it has become in Canada.

The Edmonton-based professional company brings its whirlwind dance style — Shumka is “whirlwind” in Ukrainian — to the Centennial Concert Hall tonight as part of a Western Canadian tour that’s been on hold owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.

During those 60 years, Shumka has performed before Queen Elizabeth II, several U.S. presidents, has been part of many opening ceremonies of sporting events across Canada and has danced alongside legendary singers such as Julie Andrews and Andrea Bocelli.

The hopak is considered to be Ukraine’s national dance, and Shumka will perform its acrobatic version, Echoes of Hopak, as well as a new work, Mosquito’s Wedding, which the company describes as a whimsical love story based on a Ukrainian folk song, in tonight’s program. The evening will include a film, Promised Land, which is a tribute to 130 years of Ukrainian immigration to Canada.

Tickets are available at centennialconcerthall.com.

— Alan Small

Patterson brings dad jokes, memoir to McNally

Mother’s Day may be this weekend, but this Friday Steve Patterson hopes you’ll spare a couple thoughts for the dads out there.

The comedian and host of CBC Radio’s The Debaters will be in Winnipeg at McNally Robinson Booksellers’ Grant Park location for the hybrid (virtual and in person) launch of his comedic memoir Dad Up!: Long Time Comedian. First Time Father on Friday at 7 p.m., an event co-presented by the Winnipeg Comedy Festival.

Patterson’s book was released in June 2021, but restrictions prevented the Toronto-based comic from doing a proper book tour at the time. In Dad Up!, he chronicles life growing up the youngest of five boys, his foray into fatherhood and the pitfalls of trying to conceive (he and his wife/manager Nancy now have two children).

“I had to be conscious that it wasn’t just going to be a memoir about me, it was going to be about dadding in general, the family experience,” Patterson told the Free Press in a phone interview at the time of the book’s initial release. “The fact that I included parts about our difficulties having children was not something I had intended to do, but my wife encouraged me to. And I’m glad I did — that part seems to be resonating with people.”

For the launch of Dad Up!, Patterson will read from the book and talk all things fatherhood with host Katie-Ellen Humphries, a Vancouver/New York-based writer and comedian and frequent guest on The Debaters.

The event is free — anyone interested in attending in person should review McNally Robinson’s guidelines before doing so. For those who prefer to watch/laugh from home, the event will be streamed on YouTube.

— Ben Sigurdson

Tomson Highway’s classic returns to Royal MTC

The Rez Sisters
Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre

When: Until May 28
Where: John Hirsch Mainstage
Tickets: $30.50-$82.75

Pelajia Patchnose is dreaming of life beyond Wasaychigan Hill Indian Reserve. So, too, are her rez sisters, each with their own struggles, hopes and sorrows. So, when news comes that The Biggest Bingo in the World is coming to nearby Toronto, the seven women head out on the road trip of a lifetime — mystical trickster Nanabush in tow — in search of a life-changing payout.

First produced at Native Earth Performing Arts in Toronto in 1986 and at the MTC Warehouse the following year, The Rez Sisters, the acclaimed drama by celebrated Cree playwright Tomson Highway, returns to Royal MTC’s John Hirsch Mainstage this week.

This production features an all-Indigenous and Métis cast, and will be the Royal MTC directorial debut for actor/playwright Tracey Nepinak, who performed in a Stratford Festival production of The Rez Sisters last year.

Tickets are available at royalmtc.ca or by calling the box office at 204-942-6537.

— Jen Zoratti