The month of October will be upon us at the end of the week. To get started, here are some ideas for activities and outings.
Starting Friday, September 29, the population will have access to a range of free activities as part of Culture Days. On the menu: several cultural tours offered in all regions of Quebec. La Maison de Radio-Canada opens its doors on September 30 and October 1. A great opportunity to fill up on culture.
Salle de nouvelles is undoubtedly the play that is causing the most talk this theatrical season. And for good reason. This black comedy bitingly depicts the world of television and its excesses. At the heart of the matter: the character of the fallen news anchor turned prophet of the airwaves, Howard Beale, brilliantly defended by Denis Bernard. A production that provokes discussions and commands admiration. Who says better ? Chez Duceppe until October 7.
The Unicorn is receiving some nice visitors these days. Lakota, Cree and Dene actor and playwright Cliff Cardinal presents his show Shakeaspeare’s As You Like It, A Radical Retelling. The play, surtitled in French, received a more than laudatory (and more than deserved) reception at the last TransAmériques Festival. Expect to be pushed around, upset and to question a lot of assumptions. A piece that hits where you least expect it. Until September 30.
MAPP_MTL’s artistic projections light up the city until September 30. Back for an 8th edition, the Montreal International Projection Mapping Festival offers a digital block party, in the Mile End district, at the Van Horne Skatepark. At dusk, to the sound of electronic music, works by nearly 75 local and international artists are projected on the walls of neighboring buildings, including those of the iconic Van Horne warehouse. In the Quartier des spectacles, passers-by will be able to admire the work Soleil (Sun) by the Japanese Yoshirotten, composed of 365 images of the sun, drawn day after day during the pandemic. Also, Abenaki artist Mélanie O’Bomsawin will present Where the light settles, a series of microprojections on stones exploring the persistence of memory in the form of light, on Fridays and Saturdays until March 16 at the Age of Union Center.
Contemporary art and nature come to Laval’s advertising space until October 15. As part of the 4th edition of Zoom Art, 30 images of works of art by 15 artists, including Chih-Chien Wang, Katherine Melançon, Sarah Anne Johnson and Ludovic Boney, are displayed in bus shelters and billboards located near De la Concorde and Montmorency metro stations. Grouped around the theme “Secret Nature”, the works evoke both the power and fragility of nature and invite reflection on our coexistence with it. At the end of the journey, the public is invited to vote for their favorite artist.
In Solo by director Sophie Dupuis, Simon (Théodore Pellerin) is a makeup artist by day and star of the drag scene by night. Believing he has found love with Olivier (Félix Maritaud), he moves away from his loved ones and is drawn into a toxic relationship. “Despite these blunders, SOLO remains a flamboyant, touching and liberating film. The Sophie Dupuis touch is the marriage of sensitivity and freedom. This filmmaker lets her heart speak in every shot,” writes journalist Luc Boulanger in his review published on September 15.
Simple comme Sylvain tells the story of Sophia (Magalie Lépine-Blondeau), a university professor in a boring relationship and Sylvain (Pierre-Yves Cardinal) a handyman hired to do renovations on the recently purchased chalet by Sophia and her partner. While everything separates them, the two protagonists will become lovers. “The finely crafted dialogues of Monia Chokri, steeped in her typical humor, sometimes cynical, always effective, form the framework of this story full of tenderness and self-deprecation about thwarted loves, physical and platonic, as well as the hypocrisy of certain social constructions,” explains columnist Marc Cassivi in his review published September 22.
