Happy Barbenheimer Weekend! Please tune in Sunday when I join Ken Connors on the CJAD 800 Trivia Show. Fab prizes to be had, things to be learned, from 9am to noon!
Comedy festival Just for Laughs gears up in earnest this weekend! I loved the lineup at Just for the Culture, with Alonzo Bodden anchoring a blistering lineup with Zarna Garg, Gianmarco Soresi and Judy Gold. Mike Ward anchors The Nasty Show, with Donnell Rawlings, Steph Tolev and Geoffrey Asmus, at Club Soda. Until July 29.
Nine comedians, 90 minutes: Legion of Stand-Ups will pack in a lot of talent in the intimate setting of the Comedy Nest. Catch beloved locals like David Pryde and Heidi Foss, and out-of-town talent like Arthur Simeon, Jonathan Pace and Jackie Joy. Friday and Saturday, 8:30 and 10pm.
Outside of JFL, the hilarious Aussie-Italian comedian Joe Avati brings his When I Was Your Age Tour to The Rialto, Saturday at 8pm.
The circus fest has wrapped, but there is still time to catch the free, half-hour outdoor show The Giant. A dozen Cirque Éloize acrobats clamber up-and-down a 50-foot-tall structure set up at the Esplanade at Place Ville Marie, their high-flying antics framed by the Ring. At 6 and 9:30pm, until July 30.
Final weekend to party at Festival Nuits d’Afrique, with a mix of indoor and free outdoor shows.
Senegalese group Les Frères Sissokho perform on the intimate Cabaret Nuits d'Afrique stage, Friday, 7:15pm. Algerian group AfirkA puts a modem carefree spin on the country’s traditional sound, at the TD-Radio-Canada stage, Friday 8pm. Cameroonian Afropop singer Valérie Ékoumè at the Loto-Québec stage, Saturday, 7pm. And, learn some reggaeton or Afrobeat dance moves at the free outdoor dance workshops. Until Sunday.
Le Grand Poutinefest has set up shop in the Old Port, with food trucks offering a range of poutines. Try it with popcorn chicken, pulled pork, shish taouk, General Tao chicken or duck confit. There’s even a vegan option! Kids can work off their poutines at the bouncy castles. The site opens at noon, until July 30.
The wildest short and feature films from the fantasy and horror universe will roll at Fantasia Festival, with screenings at Concordia and beyond. There’s Ireland’s Apocalypse Clown, where a funeral for a clown défunt spirals into chaos, Friday, 6:50pm and Sunday, 2:15pm at the JA de Sève theatre. Divinity, a ‘cult classic in the making’ about a pharmaceutical scion (Stephen Dorff) seeking immortality, gets its Canadian premiere, Saturday 9:45pm at the Hall theatre. African diasporic deity Mami Wata is the subject of C.J. Obasi’s latest thriller, Friday 4:15pm, at the JA de Sève theatre. Short films also pack a punch: bring the kids to an age-appropriate series of fun short films about exploration and our planet, Cinéma du Musée, Saturday 1pm, or Sound & Music, a lineup of audio-first shorts, including my friend’s Christina’s White Noise, Sunday 8:30pm at Cinéma du Musée. Until August 9.
Arriving in Quebec for the first time, Inside Dalí is a three-part exploration that takes you beyond the iconic Surrealist’s strange mustache. Born in Catalonia in 1904, Salvador Dalí is known for his melting clocks and affinity for telephones and lobsters. First, a 35-minute ‘immersion’ of his works in a room with 7-metre high ceilings, then a 360-degree experience in The Mirror Room, concluding with a more straightforward look at the artistt’s life. At the Arsenal Art Gallery in Griffintown, until September 4.
Orchestre classique de Montréal and artistic director Jacques Lacombe present Italy meets Argentina, a mixed program with music by tango master Astor Piazzolla and selections from Nino Rota’s film scores (The Godfather, Romeo and Juliet, La Strada). Theatre de la verdure in Lafontaine Park, Friday, 8:30pm. Free - make sure to arrive early!
Off Piknic presents Toronto electro duo Zeds Dead at Parc Jean-Drapeau, Saturday 4pm.
Heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold at the Bell Centre, Saturday 6:30pm.
Electro-rock trio Le Tigre parties it up at L’Olympia, Saturday 8:30pm.
Punk rockers Social Distortion will be joined by the BellRays at MTelus, Sunday 8pm.
A free ciné-concert: musicians Hazy Montagne Mystique and Pulsatilla provide an original live score to Guillaume Vallée’s Le bleu ne reviendra jamais bleu, with two short films as openers. Friday, 9pm at Place de la Paix, on St-Laurent above René-Lévesque Boulevard.
Shakespeare in the Park's touring summer production is Cymbeline. Artistic director Amanda Kellock has tweaked the Bard’s play about the ancient Celtic King Cunobeline. This historical, tragic comedy-romance checks many boxes: Cymbeline is facing not only a royal succession crisis and a Roman invasion, but there’s also secret marriage, kidnapped princes, and seduction and assassination plots threaded throughout the play. See Cymbeline at Morin-Heights Saturday and Hudson’s Greenwood Centre on Sunday. (Friday's show at Westmount Park is cancelled due to weather warnings.) The tour continues at various venues until August 6.
A Vietnam war draftee discovers the counterculture movement in Hair, the colourful and classic musical now being presented in French at Espace St-Denis until July 30.
Canada’s biggest classical music party the Festival de Lanaudière continues its summer season at the outdoor Fernand-Lindsay Amphitheatre in Joliette. The dancers from Les Grands Ballets will perform their choreography to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (to recorded music), Friday, 8pm. Saturday, 7pm. Leonardo García Alarcón and his Cappella Mediterranea make their Canadian debut with Monteverde’s operatic take on Orpheus, Saturday, 7pm. The Ensemble Constantinople ‘bridges’ two worlds in Leonardo Da Vinci: From East to West, Sunday 2pm. The Festival continues until August 6.
Get cozy at Hurley’s Bar on Crescent with The World's Smallest Comedy Night. Friday, 8pm.
At Montreal Improv in St Henri, check out a variety of shows, including Cupid's Arrow: Summer of Glove, a delicious murder mystery that will unspool live, Friday 8pm.
Completely Irrelevant combines improv and stand-up, Friday, 8pm at L’Option Musique, 3671 St-Laurent.
Energy! is the theme this weekend at The Wiggle Room. On the bill, Rose de Flore, Tristan Ginger, Joy Rider and Enshantay, with hosting by host-performer Frenchy Jones. Friday and Saturday at 9pm.
The Goal Initiatives Foundation holds its annual, family-friendly soccer tournament and fundraiser. Participate in the games, or get a fresh cut or tattoo. Sunday, 11am to 4pm at Molson Stadium. Funds go to local youth soccer teams and training camps.
Westmount’s Victoria Village commercial association hosts a street fair with sidewalk sales, a dog photobooth and music and magic performances, from Friday to Sunday.
The McCord Stewart Museum’s excellent and informative Indigenous Voices of Today: Knowledge, Trauma, Resilience profiles the 11 nations living within the borders of Quebec, with testimonies and carefully curated objects.
Over at the Botanical Gardens, admire the roses, clematis and water lilies. See which other flowers are in bloom this week.
SOS Vortex is the ‘little brother’ to the SOS Labyrinth in the Old Port. Enter the vibrant time vortex of a mad scientist while learning about ecology and climate change. The structure is made of recycled containers, with eye-catching colours and Pop Art esthetic. At the CF Carrefour Laval parking lot (corner of Daniel-Johnon and Le Carrefour) until October 29.
The Infinite virtual reality experience returns to Montreal at a different location, with new, immersive footage shot from the International Space Station. Over the course of an hour, the exhibit puts you shoulder-to-shoulder with astronauts like David Saint-Jacques, taking you through their day orbiting the Earth. A jaw-dropping V-R treat! At 2 de la Commune Street West in the Old Port.
Cirque du soleil is presenting its 20th “big top” show, Echo. Fifty-one artists bring this ode to nature and creativity to life, with thrilling acrobatic acts, controsion and animal-masked antics. Echo is a bit of an esthetic departure from the visual over-the-topness you might have come to expect from a Cirque production. Visually, the bowler hats and blue skies brought Belgian surrealist René Magritte to mind. The stage is dominated by a large, white cube that moves and interacts with performers - with a super-sized, unexpected transformation before intermission. I adored the banquine and human cradle acts with Color Paper People, and the soaring 'fireflies' - a duo that are lifted into the air by their hair. Until August 20 in the Old Port.
Pointe-à-Callière Museum in Old Montreal just launched Egypt: Three Millennia on the Nile. This exhibit traces life both ordinary and royal on the legendary river, dating from the start of human settlement to the Roman conquest. Some 320 items will be displayed in an exclusive agreement with the Museo Egizio in Turin, including jewelry, statues, tools, sarcophagi and more! Until October 15.
Get your hockey fix down at the Montreal Science Centre, where they have just launched Hockey: Faster Than Ever, an action-packed exploration of the science and culture, technology and triumph of the sport. Experience what it is like to be in an NHL locker room and the corridor that leads to the ice, test your slapshot and get acquainted with some of the legendary stars of the Canadiens franchise. Until September 10.