Free online entertainment
over Thanksgiving

An offering of comedy, music, literature and theatre to enjoy over the holiday

By Byron Toben

Sunday, October 11

The Just for Laughs virtual Festival of 28 shows played on October 9 and 10. However, many of the shows have been kept open for viewing on October 11. All Free. I suggest Sarah Cooper, Howie Mandel, the animated shorts called Eat My Shorts and Kevin Hart.
Visit hahaha.com

Concordia Irish Studies has made available several items that can be accessed all week (and beyond?). They include:

Celtic trio: Alan Murray, Sean McComiskey and Haley Richardson – Image: Zoom frame

A Celtic trio, Haley Richardson, Sean McComiskey and Alan Murray (violin, accordion and guitar) 28-minute video

A new novel, Riding The Elephant, by 90-year-old Catharine McKenty. She is the widow of the late CJAD radio host Neil McKenty and a published author. A preface by semi-retired Gazette journalist Alan Hustak introduces the book, which may be downloaded in its entirety.

Monday, October 12

Catharine McKenty (centre) at the launch of her book in October 2019 with Andreas Kessaris (left) of Paragraph Books and editor Jeri Pitzel – Image: courtesy of Catharine McKenty

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

How privileged are we to live in Quebec and Canada, where our worst riots are over hockey games, our health care is universal and our international standing is respected.

Tuesday, October 13

Bedlam Theatre, based in New York, continues its every two weeks Do More series of a different Zoomed play with fine actors. The last two were enjoyable productions of Shaw’s Don Juan In Hell and Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler.

This one is Arthur Miller’s The Price (replacing the earlier announced Othello by you know who.)

Miller wrote some 35 stage plays. The Price received critical acclaim but is not as well known as his Death of A Salesman, A View From the Bridge, All My Sons, or The Crucible. This dramatic reading is free. But voluntary contributions in any amount are appreciated with 100% going to non-profits such as Black Lives Matter. This one is for The Okra Project.

The reading begins at 7 pm EST but I suggest joining at 6:30 pm for music and/or introductory comments. Visit bedlam.org

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Byron Toben, a past president of The Montreal Press Club, has been WestmountMag.ca’s theatre reviewer since July 2015. Previously, he wrote for since terminated web sites Rover Arts and Charlebois Post, print weekly The Downtowner and print monthly The Senior Times. He also is an expert consultant on U.S. work permits for Canadians.