Seven things you should do this week include As I Lay Dying, Hank Bull, The Wild! and more.
As I Lay Dying
Jan. 19–Feb. 12, Fri.-Sun. 2 and 8 p.m., also Tues.-Thurs. 1:30 and 7:30 p.m.
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BMO Theatre Centre
Tickets and info:
From $29,
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Published in 1930, William Faulkner’s gothic tale was banned for its unflinching look at family, abortion, and God. Toronto-based Theatre Smith-Gilmour, known for delivering raw, stripped-down versions of hard-hitting classics, is in its element here. A family journeys with the corpse of their matriarch to her burial place, encountering experiences both harrowing and absurd along the way. On a bare set with minimal props, the company conjures all manner of scenes through movement, light and sound. Earning wide critical acclaim, the show’s many fans include Michael Ondaatje, who says: “You will swear you have seen live horses and rivers in flood and barns on fire, as well as the strangest and most heartbreaking family.”
Mere Phantoms: Garden of Earthly Delights
Jan. 19–21, 7 to 9:30 p.m. every 20 minutes
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CSA Space
Tickets and info
: $10,
When the door shuts and lights turn off at a tiny Main Street gallery, visitors become part of a multimedia shadow play inspired by a Hieronymus Bosch painting. With light wand in hand, they’ll encounter weird and wild characters as they venture from jungle to the city — and decide for themselves whether Montreal duo Mere Phantoms have created a fantasy or a nightmare.
Dine Out Vancouver Festival
Jan. 20-Feb. 5
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Various locations
More info
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Canada’s largest food festival offers three-course menus at 284 restaurants for $20, $30 and $40. It’s an opportunity to try new eateries (Cacao, Mission, Ritual and House Special, to name a few) as well as a few iconic restaurants that have joined Dine Out for the first time, including Bishop’s, Vij’s and Acorn. The fest also features scores of adjunct events, including World Chef Exchange, a series of standout dinners pairing a local and international chef; Secret Supper Soirée, during which participants travel back to the ’30s for an evening of classic cocktails and canapés at an undisclosed speakeasy; and an after-hours tasting of the best of Granville Island Market.
Hank Bull: Connexion
Opening reception Jan. 19, 7 to 9 p.m.; runs to April 6
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Burnaby Art Gallery
Free
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A longtime key player at Canada’s earliest artist-run centre Western Front and the founder of Vancouver’s Asia-focused Centre A gallery, as well as a conceptual artist and suave man about town, when Hank Bull declutters, the stuff becomes a nationally touring exhibition — it’s that cool. This show is not a retrospective; instead Connexion shows us a life of an artist. An array of hundreds of things – photographs, slides, videos, documents, technology, sources of inspiration, and yes, some art he has made himself or with others — this exhibition proposes that art is all and everything, while advancing an expanded notion of the artist as a connector of people.
Sunday in the Park with George
Jan. 20 to Feb 12, 8 p.m.
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Jericho Arts Centre
Tickets and info:
$30-35,
Award-winning director and actor Ryan Mooney takes on a fun challenge with Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Pulitzer Prize-winning musical. A mid-play time-jump requires each actor to play two different but connected characters. So Brandyn Eddy stars as the master painter George Seurat, an artist obsessed by work but who did not sell a single piece during his lifetime, as well as George’s grandson, a sculptor. Martha Ansfield-Scrase is Seurat’s lonely lover Dot and then she plays Marie, his elderly daughter. The play’s big question is: Does the artist matter? Can you just look at a painting or do you need to know the person who painted it?
Out of Sight: Eadweard Muybridge and Harold Edgerton
Jan. 21 to March 5
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Surrey Art Gallery
Free; more info:
As the title suggests, Out of Sight brings together the work of two photographers — Eadweard Muybridge and Harold Edgerton — whose images focus on what can’t be seen. Both artists developed technological solutions to explore concepts of time and movement using specialized cameras and photographic processes. Muybridge (1830-1904) became an international celebrity for his stop-motion images of people and animals, and was a major influence on the birth of motion pictures. Edgerton (1903-1990) captured extremely small and fast movements such as a bullet travelling through a playing card.
The Wild!
Jan. 20 and Jan. 21, 8 p.m.
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Commodore Ballroom
Sold out
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It takes a trashy, debauched celebration of rock to upstage Steel Panther, whose insane hair-metal parody act is a regular sellout here — but Kelowna four-piece The Wild! has the massive party vibes (and youthful naiveté) to give it a go. Signed sight-unseen to E-One Music (Lumineers) after a couple of blazing, chart-climbing singles and tours with the likes of Korn and Rise Against, The Wild! worked with producer Mike Fraser (AC/DC, Aerosmith, Van Halen) on debut release GxDxWxB, which stands for God Damn Wild Boys. Raise a stubby to speedy, southern-fried blues and shout along to songs like “Party Til You’re Dead!”
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