Plum Viewing
Welcome to the latest edition of Plum Viewing, my weekly roundup of arts and culture to view online. Happy viewing!
This week we are traveling east to Atlantic Canada. A place very special to me (I’m from Newfoundland) and an area where life has returned to “normal” well, kind of at least.
Let’s start with everyone’s favourite east coast ginger (not me, sadly!): Anne (with an E) of Green Gables. The wonderful folks at Prince Edward Island’s Confederation Centre of the Arts are treating us all with their gorgeous revival of Feelin’ Mighty Proud!, a one-hour broadcast special celebrating the legacy of Anne Shirley. We get to enjoy the beautiful images of Prince Edward island and of course the plucky redhead herself. A fabulous way to spend Thanksgiving, celebrating the genius of L.M. Montgomery. It starts at 8 pm ET on Sunday and you can watch it here.
Okay. Mark your calendars for Saturday, Oct 17 because this is a NOT to be missed event! Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of Music is hosting The Resounding Concert, a benefit concert to well, end all benefit concerts. Here’s the line-up: Meryl Streep, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Lang Lang, James Ehnes, k.d. lang, Alex Cuba, Chilly Gonzales and so many more. I mean. Wow!! And, it is streaming for free. Reserve your tickets here. Your Netflix binge can wait. Trust me on this!
It really was only a matter of time before we had a lock-down love story. I mean, I wonder why it’s taken this long?! And, for our first foray into this, we can thank the good people at London’s Tristan Bates Theatre for the 45-minute gem that is Sunnymead Court. The story follows Stella and Marie, each stuck in their flats during lockdown and who meet on their balconies. It’s funny and touchy and a real reflection on life at the moment. Having just finished a live run, it is now streaming for free on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. You can find it here.
Phyllida Lloyd, who is truly a national treasure, regardless of your country, has teamed up with St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn to bring us the groundbreaking Shakespeare Trilogy, in which women play all the parts originally written for men. In Lloyd’s telling of Julius Caesar, Henry IV and The Tempest, the all female cast are inmates in a women’s prison, assuming the characters in Shakespeare’s plays along with the consequences of social and criminal justice inequities, which are especially relevant now. The cast is superb and performances are raw and biting.
Each performance was shot in front of a live audience in London at the Donmar Warehouse King’s Cross in December 2016 but like all of Shakespeare’s work, they are as relevant today as they were then. The first, Julius Caesar runs from Oct 9–15 and you can watch it here.
The Art Gallery of Ontario has been doing a wonderful job of engaging its audiences with a hybrid model of both live and virtual events. They have teamed up with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the National Ballet of Canada and the Canadian Opera Company to present a series of intimate performances that can be enjoyed in person and online via Facebook Live. Tonight at 6 pm, ET, the incredible Jonathan Crow, concertmaster at the TSO, will perform. Learn more here and check out their upcoming concerts.
Enjoy!!
And, an ask: While we’re enjoying these wonderful performances, let’s remember that for the arts organizations producing this incredible content, this is their livelihood; not a hobby. If we can, now is our time to continue to support our incredible arts community!
And, if you’d like to receive Plum Viewing weekly, send me a note at maggiefairs@gmail.com and I will add you to my mailing list.