What to see, do, hear and read in Toronto this March
Including a festival of light-based artwork, pop princess Olivia Rodrigo and an exhibition on women artists throughout history
An outdoor exhibition of luminous art
1 With everything going on at Ontario Place, it’s easy to forget that Trillium Park—a lakeside green space with prime city views—is still open to the public. For one month, it will host Toronto’s annual (and completely free) Lumière festival, an exhibition of light-based artwork by creators from across the city. Last year’s show featured installations by Lauren Pirie, Melissa Joakim and Nate Nettleton. This year’s theme: connections. Trillium Park, March 12 to April 20
A comedy about family and calamity
2 Experts agree: Vancouver is overdue for a big earthquake. It finally strikes in the Tarragon Theatre’s new comedy, El Terremoto, giving the characters’ lives a much-needed jolt. Set in East Vancouver, the play follows three sisters as they contend with the aftershocks of their parents’ deaths 20 years earlier. They muddle through a birthday party, a missed connection and a failed proposal—until the Big One hits, sending them on a quest for meaning in a shaky, unpredictable world. The show, written by Dora Award–winning playwright Christine Quintana, has its world premiere in Toronto this month. Tarragon Theatre, March 26 to April 21
A breakout artist’s overdue world tour
3 Breakout UK singer-songwriter Arlo Parks found massive success with her 2021 debut album, Collapsed in Sunbeams, which won the year’s Mercury Prize for best album. But the indie-pop artist has had less luck touring: her first batch of shows in 2020 were waylaid by the pandemic, and after playing at Glastonbury and opening for the likes of Harry Styles and Billie Eilish, Parks cancelled a portion of her 2022 US tour to take care of her mental health. Now, following the release of her second studio album, My Soft Machine, and kicking things off in Dublin last September, Parks is finally touring the world. She’s joined onstage by artist Chloe George. Danforth Music Hall, March 25
A fresh look at the war on gender
4 Who’s afraid of gender? Many people, as it turns out. Who better to take stock of this strange moment than Judith Butler, the celebrated American philosopher and UC Berkeley professor whose revolutionary 1990 book, Gender Trouble, upended the concept of gender itself. In their new book, Who’s Afraid of Gender?, Butler looks at how gender has been made into a political football in service of authoritarian movements, transphobia and violence around the world. Against this worrying trend, Butler calls for solidarity with those facing gender-based injustice. Out March 19
An award-winning comedian’s victory lap
5 Actor, author and comedian Ali Wong is on a hot streak. After making Time’s list of 100 Most Influential People last year, she took home a Golden Globe and an Emmy for her leading role in the Netflix dark-comedy series Beef—all while generating buzz for appearing with sometimes-boyfriend Bill Hader. For her victory lap, Wong brings her bold, razor-sharp comedy to Toronto for four straight nights. Meridian Hall, March 27 to 30
A novel about artificial consciousness
6 The concept of an AI girlfriend isn’t new: there’s Scarlett Johansson’s sentient OS in Her and Ana de Armas’s holographic housewife in Blade Runner 2049. But they were secondary characters, subjugated in both plot and purpose. In her debut novel, Annie Bot, writer Sierra Greer flips the script, making the book’s titular robot—an AI girlfriend built by and for her partner, Doug—the main character. As Annie begins taking on more complicated human emotions to better perform her duties, she stumbles upon the paradoxical nature of sentient life. Out March 19
A pop princess spills her guts
7 The past few years have been big ones for Olivia Rodrigo. Since releasing her debut album, Sour, at age 18 in 2021, she’s rocketed to the upper echelons of pop royalty, winning three Grammys and claiming the title of Billboard’s Woman of the Year in 2022. Her sophomore album, Guts, is all about growing pains, with pop-rock ballads on the messiness of young adulthood: heartbreak, revenge and seeing an ex when you really shouldn’t. Now on a six-month world tour, Rodrigo will be in Toronto for two shows at Scotiabank Arena, joined by singer-songwriter Chappell Roan. Scotiabank Arena, March 29 to 30
A contemporary take on the AIDS crisis
8 American playwright Matthew Lopez’s groundbreaking production, The Inheritance, took home four Tony Awards after it premiered in 2018. Loosely based on E. M. Forster’s 1910 novel, Howards End, Lopez’s opus explores the contemporary queer community’s troubled inheritance of the AIDS crisis. But, where his source material dealt with class conflicts, Lopez’s play focuses on generational friction. Set in modern-day Manhattan, it follows two men in their 30s whose lives and relationship seem perfect—until they encounter an older man with a dark past and a young man with a bright future who turn their lives upside down. Bluma Appel Theatre, March 22 to April 6
An exhibition spotlighting women artists
9 Before the 19th century, the European canon considered art an almost exclusively male pursuit—and it strove to keep things that way, consistently excluding women from top art academies. But, of course, there were women artists, and as a new AGO exhibition shows, they made prolific contributions across many mediums. Making Her Mark, a collaboration with the Baltimore Museum of Art, covers four centuries of art and artifacts made by women, including bronze work, ceramics, lace, silversmithing, painting and more. The show features high-profile artists like Sofonisba Anguissola and Judith Leyster alongside lesser-known talents who still possessed exceptional skill. Here, co-curator Alexa Greist gives us a tour. AGO, March 27 to July 1
Anne Guéret, Portrait of an Artist With a Portfolio (Self-Portrait?), circa 1793
Anne Guéret was a French artist trained by preeminent neoclassical painter Jacques-Louis David. She exhibited her works at the Salon of 1793. While it’s unclear whether this drawing depicts Guéret herself or another painter, it contains a subversive detail: the artist is painting a nude. “There was a long-held belief that since women were denied access to the academy, they couldn’t draw nude figures,” says Greist.
Maria Clara Eimmart, Full Moon (Plenilunium), from Depictions of Celestial Phenomena, 1693–1698
Born in Nuremberg to a father who dabbled in painting and astronomy, Eimmart received a wide-ranging education and produced some 350 drawings. The Latin script here reads: Full moon painted from the source. “She’s saying, ‘This isn’t someone else’s work,’” says Greist.
Sarah Stone, A Blue and Yellow Macaw, after 1789
Greist scooped up this 18th-century watercolour—a brand-new addition to the AGO’s collection—at an auction in England. Stone, a skilled London artist, was hired by Sir Ashton Lever to catalogue his collection of curiosities. “She’s documenting these species and taking part in scientific discussion,” says Greist. “It helps expand our idea of what women’s contributions to the sciences looked like.”
Judith Leyster, Self-Portrait, circa 1630
Leyster, pictured here in a self-portrait, was a successful painter in her time; she was one of only two women allowed into the Haarlem painter’s guild in the 17th century. In this piece, she strikes a triumphant pose. “She’s showing herself at work, and therefore promoting her own skills,” says Greist.
Anna Buckett, Sampler, 1656
This 300-year-old work of embroidery is a rich sample of designs that would have been passed between women. “It’s a way that women were participating in the exchange of design, because you could share these patterns,” Greist says. Embroidery was a common art form for women of the period, partly because it could be easily paused. “Your child falls and starts screaming? You put it down, deal with that, then pick it up again.”
Sophia Jane Maria Bonnell and Mary Anne Harvey Bonnell, Paper Filigree Cabinet
Far more than a simple cabinet, this piece is filigreed with tiny strips of rolled paper. Originally purchased blank and unvarnished, it was beautified by friends Sophia Jane Maria Bonnell and Mary Anne Harvey Bonnell, who also embroidered the two oval landscapes in horsehair. “We think the women did this as a way to focus their creative energies but also to spend time together,” says Greist.
