Read the best parts of classic novels at Blue Met, clean up your neighbourhood or find love in the fruits and vegetables aisle.
For fans of the written word: the literary festival Blue Metropolis is on! There is programming for kids and adults alike.
Strictly for the grown-up crowd: the Naughty Bits Book Club at 10pm: five literary professionals will be reading aloud the sexy parts of famous books... including Anne Marie MacDonald and our 7th Parliamentary Poet Laureate, George Elliott Clarke.
On Saturday morning there's All Story, No Glory: the three ghostwriters sit down to talk about what it's like to deliver a good story but not see your name on the cover! Check out the programming here.
My colleague Jim Burke, the Gazette's theatre critic, will be hosting a sitdown Saturday afternoon with two writers, one a Palestinian and the other Jewish. Playwrights Stephen Orlov of Montreal and Samah Sabawi, who is from Melbourne, have edited an anthology of plays called Bridging the Diaspora Divide, by both Jewish and Palestinian authors. There will be scene readings as well. Break a leg, Jim!
Theatre:
Million Dollar Quartet opened this week at the Segal. It's a dramatization of the meeting of four musical minds: Elvis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins Jr and Jerry Lee Lewis sitting down for an impromptu session at Sun Records. For lovers for rock 'n roll and behind-the-music plot lines.
Bed and Breakfast begins at the Centaur to wrap up AD Roy Surette's final season: a gay couple decide to leave the big city to run an bed and breakfast in a small town. The show's author, Mark Crawford, is starring alongside his real-life romantic partner, Paul Dunn - and they play another nine roles in this comedy.
Sombre circus is onstage at La Tohu, with Il Ritorno holding a few more shows: it's inspired by the story of Odysseus, struggling to return home after years at war. The seven acrobats touch on tales of migration, loss and refugees, accompanied by a live band playing searing opera tunes. This is not for kids, but it's haunting - and the three female performers stand out beautifully. Presented by Circa, an Australian company that has toured all over the world.
Clybourne Park and Big Shot wrap up this weekend. Love both of these shows, which discuss racism and the travails of life in two very different ways.
Expo 67 started 50 years ago this week! Relive the glamour of the iconic expo either at the McCord Museum, which has an exhibit focusing on the fashion of the times. Or get close to the real deal and visit the Stewart Museum's retrospective of the tech at the Expo, 'A World of Dreams.' It's located on Ile Ste Helene, where the magic went down.
The Habs are out of the playoffs, so if you're cruising for some crushing competition, head to Mont-Royal arena for the 10th annual roller derby tournament, the Beast of the East. Sixteen teams from Eastern Canada go toe-to-toe with games spread over Saturday and Sunday. Want to know whether you should root for the Contrabanditas or the Cupquakes? Visit the tourney bracket here.
Time to tidy up! Les grandes corvées Montréalaises invites Montrealers to organize their own spring clean ups, from April 28 to May 7. Organize your or take part in one near you here.This one will focus on NDG Park.
Find some sugar (read: love) in the baking aisle! This caught my eye on Facebook... a singles event called Paniers Dating is taking place Saturday night at the IGA in Ahunstic. It's being organized by Celibataire Quebec and you can reserve online or by phone. There will be cooking demos, group games and speed dating.
There's a new event called Drunken Cinema Montreal that takes over Bar le Ritz in Mile Ex for movie fans who like to drink, and the second edition is this Sunday night. Come view slasher classic The Slumber Party Massacre (1987): a killer shows up to a high school pyjama party with... a power drill. One of the drinking games this time is: take a sip whenever a drill appears on screen.
