Archive 1997-2016
The Great Canadian Theatre Company’s latest production focuses on a great American outlaw, but was written by a famous Canadian author.
The Collected Works of Billy the Kid, which runs at the GCTC until Oct. 10, was written by Michael Ondaatje.
Though he has written numerous novels, books of poetry and screenplays, Ondaatje is best known as the author of The English Patient. This novel was later made into an Academy Award-winning film.
The ghosts of writers around the world whose freedom of expression has been smothered by their governments haunted this year’s second annual Ottawa International Writers Festival.
Three chairs stood in the reading room of the National Arts Centre, each carrying the name of a writer or journalist who are believed to be imprisoned by their government for exercising their right to freedom of expression.
Until a few years ago, Ottawa had a reputation for being a backwater town, as far as the arts were concerned.
The common misconception was a conservative city full of tight-collared civil servants whose cultural experiences were limited to going to the National Arts Centre for an evening performance of CATS.
But Ottawa is not a cultural void. The problem lies in a lack of visibility, not talent.
According to legend, the game of darts was created by medieval soldiers. Bored between battles, lonely for their distant families, these men of the Middle Ages entertained themselves by aiming throwing spears at the bottoms of barrels. By 1530, the game had become so popular that King Henry VIII was presented with a jewel-encrusted set by his wife Anne Boleyn.