Richard "Bugs" BurnettWhat’s on in Montréal courtesy of Tourisme Montréal

THEATRE

The Centaur Theatre Company season continues with the English-language premiere of Alexandre Goyette’s King Dave, translated by and starring Patrick Emmanuel Abellard. Playing an impressionable young Haitian man living in Montreal North who falls prey to the toxic culture surrounding him, Abellard shines in a charged story that confronts clichés, gun violence and revenge. Runs to April 16.

In the west end, the Segal Centre for the Performing Arts presents NYC playwright Joshua Harmon’s Prayer for the French Republic about a Jewish couple in 1944 Paris who face the aftermath of the Holocaust. More than 70 years later, their great-grandchildren find themselves facing the same question as their ancestors: “Are we safe?” Runs from April 23 to May 14.

CLASSICAL STAGE

Winner of the prestigious 2021 Chopin Piano Competition, Montrealer Bruce Liu performs Chopin’s Concerto no. 2 (April 19 to 20) with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal led by Finnish-Ukrainian conductor Dalia Stasevska.

The OSM season continues with Grammy-winning Maestro Rafael Payare conducting From Andalusia to the Plains of Venezuela (April 26 and 27) which juxtaposes two heroes in their quest for an ideal: Don Quixote, the wandering knight who ventures out to battle evil on the Andalusian plains, and Florentino, a Venezuelan plainsman who wrestles with the Devil in a singing contest in Estévez’s Cantata criolla. Both OSM concerts are at the Maison symphonique.

DANCE

The contemporary dance series Danse Danse closes its current season with Reckless Underdog (April 12 to 15) by RUBBERBAND at Théâtre Maisonneuve. The show also marks RUBBERBAND’s 20th anniversary and combines elements of ballet, hip-hop culture and contemporary dance, three styles that have marked the practice of the company’s revered choreographer Victor Quijada.

Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal presents Ultraviolet (April 27 to May 6), a contemporary dance mixed-bill at Théâtre Maisonneuve.

MUSEUMS AND EXHIBITIONS

Egypt

Egypt: Three Millenia on the Nile opens at the Pointe-à-Callière Museum on April 20 with 300-plus artifacts

The blockbuster exhibition Egypt. Three Millenia on the Nile opens at the Pointe-à-Callière Museum on April 20. Displaying more than 300 objects from the prestigious collection of the Museo Egizio in Turin, Italy, the immersive exhibition covers 3,000 years of history from the Old Kingdom to the Roman conquest. Visitors will see ancient work tools, everyday items and jewelry alongside monumental sculptures and statues, sarcophagi, stelae and mummies. The exhibition puts a human face on Ancient Egypt whose backbone was formed by the majestic Nile River.

The acclaimed Holographic 3D immersive experience Lasting Impressions at Le Studio-Cabaret in Espace St-Denis runs to April 24. More than 100 classic paintings by such Impressionist masters as Monet, Degas and Renoir come to life on a giant ultra-high-definition screen.

CIRCUS ARTS

The only presenter specializing in contemporary circus in North America, Le TOHU presents La Nuit du Cerf – A Deer in the Headlights (April 25 to 30), an original creation by Cirque Le Roux inspired by various events, mixing the French New Wave and the American Grindhouse movement of the 70s.

Cirque du Soleil’s blockbuster summer show ECHO runs Under the Big Top in the Old Port of Montreal beginning on April 20.

LITERATURE

Paragraphe Bookstore presents Words After Dark with Margaret Atwood at St. James United Church on April 17.

Margaret Atwood

Paragraphe Bookstore will present Words After Dark with Margaret Atwood at St. James United Church on April 17

The 25th anniversary edition of the Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival runs from April 27 to 30. The Blue Met program includes 2023 Blue Metropolis First Peoples Prize winner Duncan Mercredi, 2023 Azul Prize laureate Lina Meruane, British author Philippe Sands, Pulitzer-winning novelist Paul Harding, American-Canadian novelist Rivka Galchen, Israeli writer Yaël Neeman, French travel writer Sylvain Tesson, and 2022 Governor General-winning Anishinaabe author Eli Baxter.

Also, Michael Ondaatje, author of The English Patient, will be recognized for his body of work with the 2023 Blue Metropolis International Grand Prize, and famed playwright and librettist Michel Marc Bouchard will receive the 2023 Blue Metropolis Violet Literary Prize which is awarded to an LGBTQ writer for their body of work.

POP MUSIC

The 10th edition of Festival de la Voix (April 1 to 28) in the West Island has programmed shows and workshops celebrating music and the power of the human voice, including concerts by jazz legend Ranee Lee in the musical Dark Divas (April 15), and Québec pop icon Daniel Lavoie (April 16).

Iconic 80s band Depeche Mode headlines the Bell Centre on April 12, Craig Morrison brings his 23rd annual Roots of Rock & Roll Concert of 60s and 70s classic tracks to Oscar Peterson Concert Hall on April 15, Montreal favourite Chris de Burgh headlines two concerts at Salle Wilfred-Pelletier on April 16 and 17, and Belgian pop sensation Angèle (April 29 and 30) and chart-topping rap and soul superstar Lizzo (May 4) headline the Bell Centre.

Dubbed “Mr. Montreal” by the CBC, arts and culture journalist and columnist Richard “Bugs” Burnett knows Montreal like a drag queen knows a cosmetics counter.