There's so much more to Canadian TV than ‘Schitt's Creek.' Here are 4 great shows that make us proud
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CBC
26 minutes ago
- CBC
MAGA-affiliated musician's Canadian concert permits denied
American musician Sean Feucht has had multiple event permits for his Canadian concert tour denied or revoked by cities and Parks Canada, as some oppose his affiliation with the MAGA political movement.
Winnipeg Free Press
2 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Bombers announce Grey Cup Week headquarters
The 2025 Grey Cup Festival is rapidly taking shape with the announcement of several new events set to take place at the newly named PlayNow Grey Cup HQ at the RBC Convention Centre. Jennifer Thompson, executive director of the Grey Cup Festival, highlighted the importance of having a centralized approach to the festival. 'PlayNow Grey Cup HQ will be the beating heart of Festival Week — a one-stop destination for fans looking to experience the best of what the Grey Cup has to offer,' Thompson said. 'From coast-to-coast culinary creations and iconic Canadian music, to unforgettable team parties and a gala celebration like no other, we're proud to create a space that reflects the spirit, diversity and energy of the CFL and its fans.' MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS Winnipeg Football Club president and CEO Wade Miller said Thursday that the club has already seen strong interest in recent weeks, confirming that 50 per cent of festival tickets for many of the events have already been sold. From Thursday, Nov. 13, to Saturday, Nov. 15, the downtown venue will host a series of adult-only events, including a new culinary experience, a gala, and an expanded concert series. Rheanne Marcoux, VP of marketing and communications for the Grey Cup Festival, emphasized the unique vision for Winnipeg's hosting duties, noting unlike previous years, the festival is being organized and executed internally. The organizing committee has taken notes from the last few Grey Cups in an attempt to identify best practices, prioritizing accessibility and visibility. 'We didn't want people to feel like they had to travel around the whole city to go from event to event,' Marcoux said. 'Once you're there, you're in the thick of it. But we also don't want anybody to be able to go anywhere in the city during Grey Cup week and not know that the Grey Cup is happening.' A significant addition to the festival lineup is the CIBC Taste of the CFL, scheduled for Nov. 14. This inaugural culinary event, inspired by Winnipeg's 'Taste of the Blue Bombers,' will feature top chefs from each CFL city. These chefs will compete by creating their interpretations of game-day cuisine, which fans can then sample and vote on. The Coors Light Concert Series and team party rooms will also be a central feature, offering three nights of entertainment, all of which are accessible with a single three-day social pass. Passes are available for purchase starting on Friday at 10 a.m. for $99, plus taxes and fees. Each evening will have a distinct theme and headline act: Thursday, Nov. 13 — Manitoba Night will feature The Watchmen. Friday, Nov. 14 — Kitchen Party Night will showcase Alan Doyle. Saturday, Nov. 15 — Country Night will be headlined by The Reklaws. (Note: these passes do not include access to the Brad Paisley concert, with those details to be released separately.) Thursdays Keep up to date on sports with Mike McIntyre's weekly newsletter. The festival will also host the Grey Cup Gala on Nov. 15. Organizers described it as a departure from a traditional formal dinner, promising lively entertainment and an engaging atmosphere. Tickets for the gala can be purchased individually or for tables of 10. Winnipeg Football Club president & CEO Wade Miller said they've already seen a strong interest in recent weeks, confirming that 50 per cent of tickets for many of the new events have already been sold through early access given to corporate partners and season ticket members. As for the Grey Cup game, 90 per cent of tickets have already been purchased. Further details regarding additional events, artist announcements and ticket sales information are expected to be released in the coming weeks. For ongoing updates and to purchase tickets, visit the official website Jeff HamiltonMultimedia producer Jeff Hamilton is a sports and investigative reporter. Jeff joined the Free Press newsroom in April 2015, and has been covering the local sports scene since graduating from Carleton University's journalism program in 2012. Read more about Jeff. Every piece of reporting Jeff produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Globe and Mail
3 hours ago
- Globe and Mail
Wait Until Dark is a drowsy, dull thriller in need of more thrills
Title: Wait Until Dark Written by: Frederick Knott, adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher Performed by: Kristopher Bowman, Sochi Fried, JJ Gerber, Martin Happer, Bruce Horak, Eponine Lee Directed by: Sanjay Talwar Company: Shaw Festival Venue: Festival Theatre City: Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont. Year: Runs to Oct. 5 What's frustrating about Wait Until Dark, the drowsy, dull thriller devoid of thrills now playing at the Shaw Festival, isn't really the acting. And it's hardly the sets or costumes, either: Both ably capture the wartime paranoia of 1944. Director Sanjay Talwar, too, does his best with the material and infuses the play with a quick pace that keeps the runtime mercifully short. But Jeffrey Hatcher's text, an adaptation of Frederick Knott's 1966 play – a story best known for the 1967 film adaptation starring Audrey Hepburn – is clunky and confusing, a confounding choice for the festival and a script that ought to swim with the fishes. At least on paper, the story is rife with suspense: Susan, a blind housewife (Sochi Fried) must outsmart three charlatans (Kristopher Bowman, Martin Happer and Bruce Horak) who are on the hunt for a doll filled with heroin. As it turns out, Susan's unwittingly had the doll in her possession all along – her husband Sam (JJ Gerber) was tricked into transporting it by a woman who has since been murdered. Natasha, Pierre and the revival of a lifetime at the Royal Alexandra Theatre Canadian Stage amps up the angst in outdoor production of Romeo and Juliet With only her wits and a petulant teenage neighbour (Eponine Lee) to save her, Susan is in quite the pickle. And, broadly speaking, such pickles tend to make for fascinating theatre. Not so here. Hatcher's script, which resets Knott's play to the 1940s, spends a curious amount of time explaining how the criminals communicate with one another – their system relies on opening and closing Susan's blinds, which are quite noisy, so Susan quickly senses that something's not right. By the time the central conflict of the play becomes clear, there's been so much extraneous explanation of how blinds work that the whereabouts of the doll and its illicit contents feel almost irrelevant to the stage business at hand. As well, much of the humour baked into Hatcher's text makes Susan – and more troublingly, her disability – the butt of the joke. 'You're a clever blind girl!' one of the gangsters cackles with surprise near the end of the play. In 2025, that remark lands with the dull thud of a dozen steps backward for disability representation in Canadian theatre. There are a few fine performances in Talwar's staging: Fried adds some depth to the flat-as-a-pancake heroine, and Bowman, Happer and Horak each play the bad guy with a convincing level of gruff rancor. Lee is perhaps the standout as bratty teen Gloria – she adds a lightness to Talwar's production that keeps the scenes, painful as they are, ticking along. As mentioned, Wait Until Dark, at the very least, is nice to look at. Lorenzo Savoini's naturalistic set encapsulates the gloomy damp of a basement apartment in Greenwich Village, complete with vintage appliances in the kitchen and antique light fixtures screwed into the walls. Working together with costume designer Ming Wong, Savoini conjures a living space that is both sanctuary and lair, full of tactile cues to help Susan get her bearings (against the wishes of her captors). The problem with a production whose strengths are almost entirely visual? The final 20 minutes or so of Wait Until Dark takes place in a near-blackout, save for a deep blue wash that presumably ensures the actors don't hurt themselves as they manoeuvre the stage (Louise Guinand is the lighting designer). A climactic cat-and-mouse sequence in the lightless apartment leaves Hatcher's script to carry the action of the play on its own merit – a tough ask, given there's hardly any. There are better shows to see at this year's Shaw Festival – Gnit, Tons of Money, Major Barbara – and better ways to enjoy Knott's original story. (I'd recommend the film.) But Wait Until Dark is well past its best-by date, and there's no amount of set-dressing that can mask the creaks in Hatcher's script.
