Lights, food, art! Montreal en Lumière kicked off yesterday with a wide array of foodie and cultural outings, including a lot of fun, free outdoor events around Place des Arts. There is the urban slide, a Ferris wheel and a hula hoop workshop, on Saturday and Sunday at 2 and 4pm. Indoors, there is the Festival de fromages, where you can taste dozens of fine Quebec cheeses.
A young amorous prince is torn between a white swan and a black swan in Tchaikovsky's classic ballet Swan Lake, brought to life here by the Polish National Ballet with music by the orchestra of Les Grands Ballets. Until March 2 at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier.
La Bete Noire Festival is a brand-new festival dedicated to horror theatre. Catch one of many short shows at MainLine Theatre, including one where a creepy puppet stifles a writer's creativity, a play dedicated to stage deaths, a Coven drag show by House of Laureen and Pornomedy, a talk show where the audience critiques horror pornography. Until Sunday.
Elsewhere in theatre, there's former Montrealer Rick Miller whizzing through 25 years of pop culture and history in BOOM X at the Segal. The Last Wife at the Centaur tells the tale of Katherine Parr, Henry VIII's last wife, and all the hard-fought ways she changed history. And at the Harold Greenspon Auditorium, the Cote St Luc Dramatic Society presents Almost, Maine, a curious collection of tales about people in a fictional, weird town.
Upstart storytelling series Colour Outside the Lines and its founder, Sara Meleika, present a fundraising show stacked with stand-up, improv and sketch comedy. The aim is to make it easier to promote diversity and support performers from a wider spectrum. Friday, 7pm at Montreal Improv.
150 guitarists of all ages and skills will fill one of Montreal's most famed landmarks to play a very quirky music list as part of the Montreal/New Musics Festival. Bach, Brady, Beatles: 150 Guitares will feature music from the Beatles, Johann Sebastian Bach and Montreal composer Tim Brady. Sunday, 3:30 to 5:30pm, at St Joseph's Oratory.
Our favourite musical satirists Bowser & Blue perform their new comedy show, Local, Organic and Sustainable at Westmount's Victoria Hall on Saturday at 7pm. Tickets here, at Victoria Hall or Westmount Public Library.
The Burlesque Academy Awards presents lots of shiny gold men and women under the guise of an Oscars-themed show! The nominees include Uma Gahd, Black Mamba, Lily Monroe and Baron Von Styck. Saturday at 9pm at the Wiggle Room.
And if you're gearing up for the actual Oscars, note that Cinema du Parc is screenig the live and animated short film nominees. That includes two Quebec nominees: Jérémy Comte’s Fauve and Marianne Farley’s Marguerite are in the running for best live action short. They are also screening the animated shorts, which include three Canadian nominees! Full schedule here.