The Lemon Bucket Orkestra celebrated three years of performing (sometimes in odd places) with a sold-out show on March 16 at Lee’s Palace. But the frequent buskers have always loved playing in public, so they’re collaborating with fellow merrymakers Samba Elégua on a free-for-all event called Folk the Winter Parade. The traveling show will depart from the FreshCo parking lot behind the Gladstone Hotel. It will make its way to a secret location, where there will be a surprise.
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Folk the Winter Parade
Catch 23 Improv, the long-running “improv comedy deathmatch,” has been on hiatus since March 1. Now the show returns to Comedy Bar with a bevy of past champions, hosted by BiteTV‘s Jason Agnew.
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Catch 23 Improv
The Wavelength Music Series’ 557th event (for those counting) is a record release party for Shotgun Jimmie, the deceptively redneck moniker for Jim Kilpatrick’s musical output. Kilpatrick’s 2011 album, Transistor Sister, was longlisted for the prestigious Polaris Prize. He’ll be unveiling his new LP Everything Everything at this event, joined by friends Gregory Pepper & His Problems, Baby Eagle, and Dave Schoonderbeek.
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Wavelength Presents: Shotgun Jimmie Album Release
If you’re looking to expand your cultural knowledge of Latin America, look no further than the aluCine Festival. This showcase of all things Latin American features a wide variety of events, including film screenings, art installations, and workshops.
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aluCine Latin Film and Media Arts Festival
When’s the last time you attempted to reconceptualize the dimensions of space? If it’s been a while, you might consider checking out a new exhibition called I Thought There Were Limits, which aims to do just that. This particular exhibit is unique in that the artwork forms a relationship with the site itself (in this case, the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery). The work on display is brought to you by curator Julia Abraham (as part of the MVS degree in Curatorial Studies at the University of Toronto). The artists include Karen Henderson, Yam Lau, Gordon Lebredt, Kika Thorne, and Josh Thorpe.
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I Thought There Were Limits
Tonight (March 19), the second-annual Sound Image Music Photography Contest and Exhibition kicks off with a party. Judges Stephen Carlick (Exclaim! photo editor), Lucia Graca (creative director of Analogue Gallery), music photographer Barrie Wentzell, and Broken Social Scene’s Brendan Canning will start the evening by announcing the contest’s winner. The two-week-long exhibition features work from Courtney Lee Yip, Brian Patterson, Jess Baumung, Kevin Calixte, Roger Cullman, Vanessa Heins, and more.
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Sound Image Music Photography Exhibition
Soup Can Theatre presents a short-run double bill of two classic works that were both ahead of their respective times. Samuel Barber’s contemporary opera A Hand of Bridge focuses on themes of jealousy, unrequited love, marital infidelity, and bisexuality. Sartre’s No Exit finds three strangers in Hell, faced not with eternal torture, but with the pain each others’ words, thoughts, and actions inflict. A Hand of Bridge will be backed by a live 14-piece orchestra.
This listing originally said, incorrectly, that both No Exit and A Hand of Bridge will be accompanied by an orchestra. In fact, only A Hand of Bridge has that distinction.
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A Hand of Bridge and No Exit
If there’s one thing that’s particularly impressive about Second City’s new mainstage show, The Meme-ing of Life, it’s how well balanced it is.
As the title implies, Meme-ing is nominally a show about the internet, and certainly there is a fair bit of internet-centric humour. (One sketch, about a boy who falls into a YouTube-induced coma that can only be cured by reading, is particularly on point.) That said, it isn’t just a series of jokes about cat videos. Instead, it’s a well-thought-out show that manages to offer something for pretty much everyone, without stretching itself too thin.
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The Meme-ing of Life is an Epic Win
fu-GEN Theatre Company presents the Canadian premiere of Lauren Yee’s cheeky and insightful play, Ching Chong Chinaman. The ultra-assimilated Wong family don’t quite fit the Asian-American stereotype: teenaged Upton ignores chores and homework to play video games, and his sister Desi’s math scores are less than stellar. Upton’s solution to both problems? Hire an Asian indentured servant with an American dream. Starring Zoe Doyle, Brenda Kamino, Oliver Koomsatira, Richard Lee, Jane Luk, and John Ng.
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Ching Chong Chinaman
It’s hardly news nowadays when an actor disrobes onstage, giving an audience a glimpse at what’s underneath a costume. It’s another thing entirely when the theatre itself strips down to its bare bones.
For Canadian Stage’s production of THIS, by Melissa James Gibson, a Canadian playwright gaining popularity in New York City, artistic director (and director of the play) Matthew Jocelyn and set designer Astrid Janson did just that to the historic Berkeley Street Theatre in Corktown.
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THIS Reveals a Theatre’s Bones
We could watch funnyman Pat Thornton do standup for hours and hours. In fact, we have—several times. The comic headlines all this week at Yuk Yuk’s Toronto alongside some hilarious guest performers.
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Pat Thornton at Yuk Yuk’s Toronto
