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Theatre goes goblin mode

Although they star in an upcoming local production of the Scottish Play, goblin thespians Wug, Kragva and Moog left it to director Rebecca Northan to handle publicity and interviews.

Were they also scared to utter the real title — saying “Macbeth” inside a theatre is believed to be bad luck — aloud?

“The goblins don’t know anything about our superstitions,” says Northan, an actor-writer-improv artist who last season performed and directed Murder-on-the-Lake, an immersive murder-mystery, for the Shaw Festival.

Northan, who co-created Goblin:Macbeth with Bruce Horak and Ellis Lalonde, can’t speak for her folkloric co-workers, but says the Halloweenish trio were inspired to mount the show after being impressed by Shakespeare’s firm grasp on the realm of fantasy.

MPI gambles with low rate request

It sounds a bit like a gamble from a player in an industry that is almost pathologically averse to gambling.

Manitoba Public Insurance is currently going through the Public Utilities Board process to set car insurance rates for 2027-28, and it’s asking the PUB to approve a 2.38 rate hike.

As a provincially-run insurance business, MPI is already a bit of an outlier, because, through its government masters, it’s answerable to the Manitoba public in a way that private insurers aren’t.

Private insurers spend a fortune calculating risk, offsetting that risk with reinsurance to spread it out across the insurance spectrum, and always finding a way to ensure there’s a profit margin built in.

Handel’s ‘Messiah’ returns to the stage in all its glory

Hallelujah! Handel’s beloved “Messiah” returned to the Centennial Concert Stage in all its glory Saturday night, as the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra presented the Baroque masterpiece with its first packed in-person audience since 2019.

Campaign blunder: Klein features wrong city in election video

A paid ad from mayoral candidate Kevin Klein on his commitment to Winnipeg has been pulled after commenters noticed one small error: the footage used in the ad was actually of Edmonton.

The 55-second video is rife with Edmonton landmarks, including one shot that appears to feature the Alberta legislature’s visitor centre, and another with the 100 Street Funicular, a popular tourist attraction in Edmonton.

The ad, which was published to Meta users last week including those on Facebook and Instagram, focuses on safety concerns in Winnipeg and bureaucratic red tape impacting local businesses, with Klein appearing at the end.

It has since been deleted by Klein’s campaign, but archival data from Meta shows it was online starting Oct. 15 and cost around $1,000.

From hallway medicine to driveway medicine

As political-campaign knockout punches go, there have been few as effectively wielded as the catchphrase employed by Manitoba’s NDP and then-leader Gary Doer back in 1999: