We are back again in 2014 with our recommendations for cultural outings. To stay abreast of what is happening on the arts scene in town and outside of it, we read plenty of scripts, scour festival brochures, and, mostly, we see lots and lots of performances. Every couple of weeks, we will share our favourite ones with you.
 Usually Beauty Fails at the PuSh Festival  Usually Beauty Fails at the PuSh Festival  Mani Soleymanlou in One  Mani Soleymanlou in One |
January is for arts lovers as it brings back the PuSh Festival and its internationally acclaimed productions. Other than The Dragonfly of Chicoutimi, the breathtaking production we are co-presenting with PuSh and SFU Woodward’s, we would like to suggest two other productions in the festival from Quebec for your viewing pleasure.
USUALLY BEAUTY FAILS
Colourful, irreverent and sometimes crazy, Frédérick Gravel’s works are, much like their creator, everything but boring. With Usually Beauty Fails, the rock star of the Montreal dance scene invites you to a series of choreographies linked by the theme of beauty. Sometimes intimate, sometimes exhibitionist, dancers move to classical or pop music in a series of numbers that follow one and other but that never look alike. Gravel host this soirée and peppers it with his own secrets and his lovable irony while eight of Canada’s best dancers (we have a particular fondness for the athletic Brianna Lombardo) explode onto the stage to share everything that they have to offer with the audience. The party starts January 28th at the Goldcorp Centre for the Arts.
ONE
Presented from January 29th to February 4th at the Cultch, One is an invitation to travel. Alone on stage amongst 40 chairs, the playwright and performer Mani Soleymanlou, who we can also see in The Dragonfly of Chicoutimi, retraces for us his fabulous journey around the globe. A baby in Tehran, a child in Paris a teenager in Toronto and an adult in Montreal, this very appealing character questions his identity and his roots at each stop of his very unordinary journey as well as what he takes with him and what he leaves behind. As he stands in front of us today, he asks: Who am I? An Iranian, a Frenchman, a Canadian or a Quebecker? Embark on a voyage to the heart of this man and to a rich array of cultures and languages that have seasoned his travels. |
