Well, I had a good run. After more than two years of successfully dodging COVID-19, it finally caught up with me on the May long weekend.
I’m triple-vaxxed (I was, unfortunately, booked for my second booster on the day I first experienced symptoms) and the flu-like experience was horrid but short-lived. However, I was left with lingering vertigo that made it almost impossible to do anything even mildly diverting: I couldn’t read, cook, watch TV or even do my daily Wordle without feeling nauseated.
Luckily I have a sweet cat to talk to, a sweet boyfriend to deliver whatever I need (yes, I needed McDonald’s cheeseburgers) and the sweet, sweet sounds of 30 Rock, a sitcom I have watched so many times that I no longer need the visuals to enjoy it. (It has been pointed out that my time might have been used more productively by listening to an audiobook, to which I say “pffft.”)
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In fact, “watching” it blind made me appreciate parts of it more. Alec Baldwin deserves all the kudos for his portrayal of NBC head honcho Jack Donaghy, but I don’t think Tracy Morgan’s unhinged, marble-mouthed delivery has been praised highly enough.
It does raise the question, though: what did people do when they were sick in the olden days, when they were too dizzy or unwell to stitch samplers or crochet antimacassars or play the pianoforte?
Vaccines, food delivery, endlessly streaming 30 Rock — we truly live in miraculous times.
Jill Wilson
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The national touring production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory comes to the Centennial Concert Hall next week, June 7-12. The musical based on Roald Dahl’s classic children’s book is modelled on the Broadway production helmed by Tony winner Jack O’Brien and features songs from the 1971 film along with new compositions by Hairspray’s Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman. Tickets are at centennialconcerthall.com.
Sick and Twisted Theatre presents the Useless Eaters Cabaret until Sunday at Prairie Theatre Exchange. The 90-minute show features a roster of disabled artists presenting performances that includes burlesque, spoken word, short films, puppetry, drag and more. Pay-what-you-choose tickets at sickandtwisted.ca.
The cabaret is part of Pride Winnipeg programming, the annual celebration of the LGBTTQ+ community. The centrepiece of the party is the annual Pride Parade, which kicks off Sunday at 11 a.m. at Memorial Park, but there are a host of other events throughout the weekend, including Carole Pope of Rough Trade at the Pyramid Cabaret on Friday and a packed lineup of entertainment on two stages at The Forks on Saturday and Sunday. See pridewinnipeg.com for details.
Calgary-born singer-songwriter Jann Arden has a two-night stand at Club Regent Event Centre on Monday and Tuesday. The pop performer is touring in celebration of her induction to the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, and will play hits from her Juno-winning career and new tracks from her album Descendent, which came out in January. Tickets are $65-$100 at casinosofwinnipeg.com.
Recommended
In the days on either side of my vertiginous period I managed to read several books and watch several shows. Of these, I recommend Elizabeth McCracken’s latest book of short stories, The Souvenir Museum. McCracken is, in my opinion, an underrated American writer, with a dry sense of humour and a keen eye for human foibles that she captures with an effortlessly elegant style.
I also very much enjoyed Jennifer Egan’s The Candy House, although its patchwork, multi-point-of-view plot and tweaked-reality future setting is disorienting when you’re a bit feverish. A Pulitzer winner for A Visit From the Goon Squad, Egan is a master of character (and some of those characters will be familiar to readers of her earlier work).
Last month, I was lamenting to my friend Teghan the lack of romance in modern rom-coms, which are more like high-concept Three’s Company episodes, all misunderstandings and unlikely circumstances and no sense of real people getting to know each other. She recommended Starstruck on Crave
as the antidote and she was bang-on. The show, created by and starring utterly charming New Zealand comedian Rose Matafeo, has a slightly unlikely premise — an aimless millennial adrift in London meets and sleeps with a famous movie star without realizing who he is — but the action takes place over a year, so you’re very invested in their tortured relationship, and the chemistry between Matafeo and Nikish Patel as the actor is zingy. Sweet, funny and dead romantic.
