.jpg.bee6da21545b36ee147b8b8fe68bc87e.jpg)
Events
Events happening today
-
ALL
DAY
January 17, 2020 February 15, 2020
Omid Afarinzad, Lauren Brinson, Rande Cook, Mona Hedayati, Jordan Hill, Clare Lannan, Leanne Olson, Liam, O’Sullivan, Dani Proteau, Graham Wiebe
Opening Friday, January 17 at 7pm
Exhibition tour directed by Rande Cook: Saturday February 1 at 1:30pm.
Gallery Hours: Wed to Sat, noon to 5pm
Forever & For Never arose out of the possibilities created by the forced proximity and specific focus of graduate research. Ten strangers from near and far convene and overlap for a brief period of time on an island located off the westernmost part of Canada. What do they see from this temporal and conceptual window? And in what language, visual or otherwise, do they choose to make their reportage? The artists who make up this enquiry have committed to a sort of fantastic experiment where addition is naturally seen to create expansion even as outcomes remain uncertain. The work in this exhibition—emanating from so many distinct sources—nonetheless shares concerns, as bodies situated inside material problems and the mutability of human existence. There are ripples of disquietude over resources and their extraction and hope for regeneration in the stories of our separate and recombined histories. Forever & For Never is a transitory record where things come together to break apart and recombine somewhere between the past and future.
Upcoming Events -
3
AM
January 17, 2020 03:30 AM January 26, 2020 08:00 AM
O My God
Bema Productions presents the Canadian comedy premier of “O My God” at Congregation Emanu-El Synagogue.
“O My God” by the Israeli playwright, Anat Gov. “O My God” is directed by Zelda Dean, and performed by Christine Upright (the therapist), Rosemary Jeffery (God) and Jesse Wilson. Jesse will play the autistic son of the therapist, and is himself on the autism spectrum.
THE STORY: God walks into a therapist’s office suffering from depression. The therapist asks, “How long have you felt this way?” God says, “Two thousand, two thousand, five hundred years. Give or take.” “You’ve been depressed for two thousand years and only now you’ve come to therapy? What were you waiting for?” asks the therapist. And God says, “I thought time would heal.” After two thousand years, a swift session of cathartic therapy can help unpack our festering problems.
THE PLAYWRIGHT Anat Gov, who died of cancer at 58, was born in 1953, and was a graduate of the famous Thelma Yellin High School of the Arts. She was briefly a student in Tel Aviv University’s theatre department. She dropped out to become a successful playwright and television writer, wife of a well-known Israeli entertainer, mother of three and grandmother of two.
At Congregation Emanu-El Synagogue, 1461 Blanshard Street, Victoria V8W 2J3. Tickets are $23 each available from Ticketrocket at https://www.ticketrocket.co/Event/Details/115482. Eight performances only:
Thursday January 16, 7:30 pm
Saturday January 18, 7:30 pm
Sunday January 19, 3:00 pm
Tuesday January 21, 7:30 pm
Wednesday January 22, 7:30 pm
Thursday January 23, 7:30 pm
Saturday January 25, 7:30 pm
Sunday January 26, 3:00 pm
Upcoming Events
January 17, 2020 03:30 AM
The YCSO performing at Pagliacci’s
The very darkest, shortest days of the year may be past, but it’s still cold and dark. Klezmer music is helpful at this time of year. It’s the soundtrack of hope mixed with angst, of bright darkness and dark brightness. It’s never all one thing; klezmer bakes life’s contradictions and oxymorons right into the music. So why not wallow joyfully with the Yiddish Columbia State Orchestra (YCSO), Victoria’s own klezmer combo, at their official 20th birthday party at Hermann’s Jazz Club on January 16?
The YCSO ’s founder, vocalist and accordionist Marion Siegel, told Chek News in 2018, “I had a concept of playing klezmer music, and I’m a Jewish mother; I like to feed people. I called up the best musicians in the city and said, ‘You wanna have really good dinner [at Pagliacci ’s] and play some music a couple times a week? ’” The band’s weekly gig at the Downtown eatery every Sunday evening has been an institution for decades, with tourists and locals alike revelling in the high-spirited, swing-infused tunes. “[It’s] a Jewish band playing in an Italian restaurant in a Victoria town,” Siegel quipped. “How could you be more Canadian than that?”
Guitartist Avram Devon McCagerty says most people encounter the YCSO at Pagliacci’s. They’ve only played Hermann’s once before in these 20 years. “We decided to put on a show to celebrate…We love Hermann’s, we want to support it. We love playing Pags, but [the audience is] eating. Sometimes they come for us, sometimes for the spaghetti—‘come for the noodle, stay for the noodling.’”
I ask McCagerty whether his personal decision to embrace the Jewish faith came before or after his tenure with the YCSO. At one of their wedding gigs, he was chatting with “Rabbi Harry,” and “my mother had just told me that her mother’s mother was Jewish. During a very long band break, and many, many drinks, we were schmoozing,” McCagerty says. “He said, ‘We’ll go for coffee and see where you wanna go with this thing.’”
The band is made up of Jews and gentiles. I love that trumpet player Michael Mazza is Italian, but his last name is pronounced “matza,” like the flatbread. Joining Mazza, McCagerty and Siegel are Nick La Riviere, Julian Vitek, Dave Klassen, Chandra Crowe, and cousin Rod McCrimmon. “Jewish means ‘family,’” McCagerty insists, “so you can marry in.”
Doors at 5:30, show at 7:30, Hermann’s Jazz Club, 753 View St, $15. Reserve tickets at hermannsjazz.com.
—Mollie Kaye
Upcoming Events
