We are at the intersection of Black History Month and the first days of MLB’s Spring Training, with baseball on the horizon. It is a time for celebrating America’s most-storied game, and a time celebrating great black Americans. Baseball, earned through the privilege of its history serves as a uniquely qualified sport to tell the […]
Welcome back to Ben dela Creme’s Drag Race! Thanks so much for joining me. I’m going to get this out of the way at the top because Dela is going to win Snatch Game here and she’s going to continue her reign of congenial terror and I have finally figure out why I’m not here […]
In my lifetime, I don’t think I can remember a bigger Bollywood news story than Padmaavat. And that’s not just because I don’t care for the majority of the Indian film industry. From production day one to critical reception after release, this movie got attention to a level that rivaled the 2016 American presidential election. […]
The Canadian Opera Company’s current season is an intriguing examination of a problem from two angles. On one hand, they’re presenting their Rigoletto, last seen not-so-long-ago in 2011. It’s an aesthetically sublime, beautifully performed production of an opera with problematic subject matter. There’s also The Abduction from the Seraglio, an aesthetically dull, awkwardly performed production […]
Romaplasm is an album I’ve been waiting for for a long time. I don’t mean just as a followup to his landmark masterpiece, Obsidian (also my AOTY in 2013), but as well an album that so boldly embodies gay romance. It also happens to be set in a space-faring fantasy world, something I never realized […]
Two more pieces had their opening at Progress Festival on Valentine’s Day. While they couldn’t be more different, they did share something in common. Dis Merci When it comes to creating healthy inclusive communities, let face it, sometimes even our best intentions give way to tension and friction amongst neighbours. Sometimes we even end up […]
Jennifer Fell Hayes’ hauntingly beautiful new play Rosemary and Time explores the painful and joyous revelations that a middle-aged woman, Rosemary, makes about her past after a serendipitous meeting with a sister she had all but forgotten. With a backstory that could easily be a plot line on television’s Call the Midwife, Hayes explores the impact that relationships […]
The Shakespeare Bash’d production of Richard III at the Monarch Tavern was just the thing for one of these wintry February nights. In contrast to the weight of the play, the atmosphere is cozy as we walk into the space: the narrow space has been transformed into a stage – chairs line the sides of the […]