FESTIVAL
Next Stage Theatre Festival
Ten productions make up a Toronto Fringe roundup of indie theatre, comedy and dance. On the schedule are the world premiere of Rob Kempson’s Mockingbird (about power, authority and teacher-student relationships), Rachel Blair’s A Man Walks into a Bar (a cleverly layered feminist comedy about mansplaining and a cocktail waitress) and Heart of Steel, an East Coast musical that boogies and even woogies to the sounds of the 1940s.
Jan. 6 to 17. $10 to $15. Factory Theatre, 125 Bathurst St., 416-966-1062 or fringetoronto.com.
DAYTIME
Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival
If you missed them at the Toronto International Film Festival, films such as Into the Forest (an apocalyptic drama co-starring Ellen Page and Evan Rachel Wood), Ninth Floor (a documentary on a student occupation at a Montreal university in 1969), Andrew Cividino’s coming-of-age indie Sleeping Giant and the Steve Fonyo doc Hurt all get re-screenings at a festival that also includes onstage chats with Kiefer Sutherland (Jan. 16, 4 p.m.) and Orphan Black star Tatiana Maslany (Jan. 9, 1 p.m.).
Jan. 8 to 17. $10 to $20. TIFF Bell Lightbox, 350 King St. W., 416-599-8433 or tiff.net.
FOR THE KIDS
Toruk – The First Flight
Inspired by James Cameron’s blockbuster blue-skin spectacle Avatar from 2009, a new Cirque du Soleil touring show envisions a world thousands of years prior to the imaginative happenings of the film. Giant animal puppets are the stars of a lushly designed spectacle involving an inflatable set full of warriors dealing with banshees, beasts and the flying titular predator Toruk.
Jan. 7 to 10. $35 to $170. Air Canada Centre, 50 Bay St., 855-985-5000 or ticketmaster.ca.
ONE NIGHT ONLY
Marc-André Hamelin
A pianist of the highest order, the Montreal-born virtuoso racks up accolades and distinguished honours like the rest of us accumulate Facebook likes. In a recital this week for Music Toronto, he offers Mozart’s Sonata No. 18 and Schubert’s Sonata No. 21 – both in the key of D, for those keeping score. Add in some Liszt, and add in that the man plays with a charismatic ease that defies the difficulty of his selections. What is not to like?
Jan. 5, 8 p.m. $10 to $55. Jane Mallett Theatre, 27 Front St. E., 416-366-7723 or stlc.com.
FREE
Mayor’s New Year’s Levee
The tradition of the mayor’s levee began during the reign of King Louis XIV, who, in a bid to show the sovereign he belonged to the people, would invite gentlemen to his bedroom to watch him awake on New Year’s Day and begin serving the public. For obvious reasons the bedroom ritual was avoided during Mayor Ford’s recent eventful reign in Toronto, and now Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie rings in 2016 with a party that includes food, drink, skating and live entertainment.
Jan. 3, 2 to 4 p.m. Free. Civic Centre, 300 City Centre Dr., Mississauga, mississauga.ca.