Sarah Deshaies produces the Andrew Carter Morning Show. Every Friday at 8:20am, she tells you about the big, quirky and off-the-beaten-path events happening in Montreal. Here is this week's list, with links for more information so you can get out and enjoy the city! Submit your event to sarah.deshaies@bellmedia.ca.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day season! Join the crowds for the 199th Montreal St. Patrick’s Day Parade this Sunday! The procession shifts to de Maisonneuve this year, beginning at noon, at the corner of de Fort and heading east to end at Jeanne Mance and de Maisonneuve.
The Soulanges Irish Society’s Hudson Parade will progress down Main Street, Saturday 1 to 5pm.
The town of Rawdon’s St. Patrick’s festivities go all weekend, with a parade starting at 2pm at the beach, continuing along Queen and Church. Celtic rock band Irish Moutarde will close down the show with a performance .
And looking ahead to next weekend: The Châteauguay Irish Festival is Sunday, March 24, with the parade departing at 1pm, from Mitchell and Massey, travelling towards Maple and Mercier, ending up at the Agora, with a bagpipe concert, Irish dancing and food until 4pm.
From parades to… plays! There is a lot of theatre to take in this weekend. Let’s start at the Centaur: Torontonian Diane Flacks performs her one woman show about how she imploded her home life. Guilt (a Love Story) recounts her split from her wife, and the fallout on their children, as well as the community. Flacks reunites with collaborator Alisa Palmer as director; her performance includes a sandbox and a raccoon alter ego. The show opens Friday, running until March 30.
What’s it like to live in an area polluted by chemical plants? Siblings Vanessa and Beze Gray of the Ojibwe community of Aamjiwnaang First Nation have grown up to be environmental activists in their corner of southern Ontario. A playwright from Scarborough, Kevin Matthew Wong, shares their story in a documentary theatre piece that is engaging and open (watch out for the flying chocolate!). He expands the story to delve into colonialism, history and reconciliation, and the fight against t industry and profit. This is personal, powerful art. Teesri Duniya Theatre presents The Chemical Valley Project at their new Rangshala Studio, at Cité des Hospitaliers, 251 des Pins W. Until March 24.
Down the street, Infinitheatre has a few more presentations of new play Dominoes at the Crossroads, an adaptation of the novel by Montrealer Kaie Kellough. Three performers bring to life multiple vignettes about the search for complex identity and belonging in different times and places. 3680 Jeanne-Mance, on Friday, 8pm and Saturday, 2 and 8pm.
A petty drug dealer tries to restart his post-prison life in Stephen Adly Guirgis’s gritty The Motherf—er with the Hat. This is the second Girguis play directed by Rahul Gandhi. Friday and Saturday, 7pm and Sunday, 2pm at MainLine Theatre.
Lakeshore Light Opera presents Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta The Grand Duke. This is the last of the duo’s 14 collaborations (and only financial failure) and the first time it is being performed in the province. A troupe of actors stages a coup against a miserly old Duke in this lampoon of the upper class, which includes a song about “sausage rolls as a secret conspiratorial sign”. Friday, 7:30pm and Saturday, 2:30pm at Vanier College’s Theatre in St Laurent.
Message In A Bottle transposes 28 songs from Sting’s rich catalogue to contemporary dance. This production, from the prestigious British dance space Sadler's Wells, has been seen by over 100,000 people, and it stops off in Montreal this week. Choreographer Kate Prince’s 15 dancers perform to hits like Roxanne, Walking on the Moon and Fields of Gold, with an overarching story about the perils of the migrant journey. At Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, Friday and Saturday, 8pm.
Les Grand Ballets Canadiens present Cantata, a mixed program designed to invoke the multiple stages of love, including flirtation and conflict. Until Saturday at Theatre Maisonneuve.
Helen Simard’s Papillon is a mix of street and contemporary dance, with a trio of dancers performing to live music composed and performed by her husband, Roger White. At Usine C, Friday, 7pm.
Legendary NDG spot The Wheel Club moseys-on downtown! As part of its ongoing Detours exhibition, the new Centre des memoires Montrealaises is inviting local organizations to present one-off events, and the Wheel Club will present a beginner’s line dance workshop followed by music from country band Deep Rose Junction, Friday, 6:30pm. Admission to Detours is included in the ticket pierce.
Get ready for the solar eclipse coming on April 8! The Montreal chapter of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada hosts a double feature: first, a screening of a documentary about eclipse chasers in 2017, followed by a lecture from amateur ‘eclipsologist’ Robin Edgar on the Influence of the phenomenon on ancient cultures. Saturday, 7pm at the Penfield building, room P-204. (Enter from the Casgrain building.)
Old Montreal’s culinary event Happening Gourmand is back. Sup on three-course table d’hote menus set at $39, $49 and $59, or choose from a two-course table d’hote weekend brunch menu. Participants include Italian eatery Bevo, Kyo Bar Japonais, French brasseries Gaspar and Modavie, and Maggie Oakes. Until March 30.
Friday’s music picks: Roots-country sensation and Montreal native Allison Russell storms into town for the first time since her big Grammy win with a sold-out show at Le Studio TD, with opener Aysanabe. 8pm. Chicago rapper LUCKI at MTelus, 8pm.
Saturday’s music picks: English indie rockers Bombay Bicycle Club at Beanfield, 8pm. Canuck DJ Excision at Place Bell, 7pm. Electronic producer INZO brings his Visionquest tour to Newspeak, 10pm.
Sunday’s music picks: Industrial rock pioneers Ministry at MTelus, 7pm. Puerto Rican rapper Don Omar at Place Bell, 7pm. Take a trip to Italy through the ears of Strauss: Orchestre Métropolitain performs Italian Dream, a mixed program that starts with Strauss’s Don Juan and ends with Aus Italien, sandwiching some Mozart and Kaika Saariaho. Sunday, 3pm at Maison symphonique.
One of our faves, Derek Seguin, is headining at The Comedy Nest, with support from Rachid Badouri, Wassim El-Mounzer, Marianne Mandrusiak and more! Friday and Saturday, 8 and 10:30pm. Fans of video game Stardew Valley will get a kick out of GFN Productions’ Festival of Seasons concert. A chamber orchestra will perform arrangements from the sim game’s beloved soundtrack, Sunday, 3 and 7pm at Cinquieme Salle.
Several shows on tap at Montreal Improv in St Henri, including Improv Against Humanity, a naughty show inspired by the infamous card game. I’ll be hosting! Saturday at 9:30pm.
At burlesque headquarters The Wiggle Room: owner Frenchy Jones hosts All That Glitters: A Night of Classic Burlesque Friday, 9pm, with Butterscotch Blondie, Lily Monroe, Miami Minx and Roxy Torpedo.
Saturday, 9pm is Heroes Vs. Villains, with Tristan Ginger, Yikes Macaroni, Wild D’Lilah and Kinky Karma duking it out in a battle royale. On Sunday, 8:30pm: Ready to Bloom is a spring celebration and showcase of varying arts, including burlesque, music, dance and spoken word, with Moonshine Sunshine, Butterscotch blondie, Big Daddy and more.
ONGOING EVENTS
The Arsenal in Griffintown has relaunched a mega-popular dance extravaganza that melds circus and electronic music over a sprawling landscape. Brigitte Poupart’s Jusqu'à ce qu'on meure (Until We Die) opens with the sound of a crash, with dancers spaced out in separate vignettes. The action is fluid, moving from corner to another, with the dancers mingling through the crowd. Daring acrobatics, lasers and spacy monologues follow, ending with a triumphant tone and dance party. Until March 24.
The Montreal Science Centre hosts a gallery of hilarious animal photos from every continent in the first Canadian appearance of the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards. The images, captured by professional photographers, are divided into six climates, including polar regions, tropical forests and the savannah. Pair your outing with a visit to one the Centre’s ongoing exhibitions or an IMAX film. Until March 24.
Explore the beauty and diversity of our natural world in Root for Nature. This new, 90-minute show is a “nature hike” indoors, conceived as a powerful piece of edutainment inspired by the COP15 biodiversity talks hosted by Montreal in late 2022. This collaboration between National Geographic and OASIS Immersive Studios will take place in the same location as the UN conference, at the Palais des congrès. Also at the venue: Dreaming of Asia is a stunning exploration of Chinese and Japanese culture, making its North American premiere at OASIS Immersions. French digital art studio Danny Rose has crafted four different experiences, including a look at shadow puppet theatre.
The Horizon of Khufu: A Journey in Ancient Egypt is a virtual reality experience that brings you into the giant pyramid in Giza, a 146-metre high pyramid built nearly 3,000 years before the Common era. Noted Egyptologist Peter Der Manuelian will be your guide. Studio PHI has brought in this for a North American first. Until May 31, in the Old Port at 2 rue de la Commune.
The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts explores how nature inspired two great artists of the 20th cnetury. Georgia O’Keefe and Henry Moore: Giants of Modern Art is an exhibit curated by the San Diego Museum of Art; it recreates both artists’ studios down to minute detail. Admire O’Keefe bodacious flowers and landscapes, contrasted with Moore’s sculptures inspired by stones and bones, and his Helmet heads. Until June 2.
The Arsenal hosts Immersive Disney Animation, which spotlights House of Mouse characters and music, including movies like Frozen, The Lion King and The Little Mermaid. At Arsenal Contemporary Gallery until May 4.
Visit the ongoing 14th edition of Luminothérapie, a display of outdoor light installations in and around Place des Festivals, including the larger-than-life flower installation Astera. Bring your skates (or rent a pair) for a turn around the refrigerated rink at Place Tranquille. The rink has an interactive projection nightly at 6:30pm: Au Bord du Lac Tranquille captures the flora and fauna of the St Lawrence, playfully moving along with your feet.
The McCord Stewart Museum’s excellent and informative Indigenous Voices of Today: Knowledge, Trauma, Resilience. The show profiles the 11 nations living within the borders of Quebec, with testimonies and carefully curated objects. Two of the McCord’s current shows include Becoming Montreal is about the depictions of the city in the 1800s, and Wampum: Beads of diplomacy, which displays over 40 wampum belts from different collections, underscoring their symbolism and history.