🗞 The Play That Goes Wrong

Hey Halifax!

In case you missed it in yesterday’s newsletter, The Coast has launched a new exclusive City Hall newsletter.

If you enjoy our council coverage you can become a Coast Insider and receive an exclusive weekly newsletter that will include a full rundown from reporter Matt Stickland on what happened last week at council, what's coming up this week and what we all need to keep our eyes on.

Hey Insiders and a big thank you to our newest members who joined us yesterday, welcome!

We hope you enjoyed the first edition of The Coast’s new City Hall newsletter. If you missed it, you can log in and read it on our site here. Be sure to let us know what you think of it!

COUNCIL

Halifax is trying to make municipal elections more equitable

The majority of Monday’s HRM executive committee meeting was devoted to trying to make municipal elections more fair.

The debate started with a seemingly innocuous request from Councillor Paul Russell to remove the word “spouse” from the municipal elections bylaw. After a prolonged debate, this item was deferred and will come back to this committee and will contain some proposals to make municipal elections in Halifax have a more fair playing field.

Read Matt Stickland’s full committee coverage at The Coast.

Need to know

🗣️ Yesterday marked the start of Truth and Reconciliation Week. Read the province’s official statement from Minister of L’nu Affairs, Trevor Boudreau.

⛴️ Until further notice, the Alderney and Woodside Ferry Services will be operating every half-hour due to maintenance problems. Find the new ferry departure times here.

🪧 Nova Scotia hospital administrative staff rallied outside 11 hospitals across the province yesterday, including at Halifax’s QEII Health Sciences Centre, to try and prompt the province to negotiate a new contract.

🎭 Support4Culture is a proud supporter of arts, culture, and heritage in Nova Scotia. From the Highland Village Museum to Neptune Theatre, see the impact Support4Culture makes here.*

🌔 Nocturne is taking place from October 12-15, 2023. Be the driving force of Nocturne – volunteer now and help shape the magic! Register today!*

*Sponsored Post

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On The Coast

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In other news

🎸 Vancouver rock group Yukon Blonde is coming to Halifax in October. Find all the big shows announced for Halifax in 2023.

⚓️ HMCS Scotian members marked the 100th anniversary of the Naval Reserve in Canada with a parade through Halifax this past Sunday.

📖 Halifax’s oldest (and last standing) magazine store, Atlantic News, just celebrated 50 years.

🎥 One of Canada’s first-ever featured films was partly Nova Scotian-made. Any guesses on what it is?

🎨 The Bus Stop Theatre is looking for an artist to paint a mural at its community room entrance on Maitland Street. Pitches will be accepted until Oct. 2 at 11:59pm. Find more details here.

☄️ After seven years, NASA spacecraft OSIRIS-REx has returned to Earth with asteroid samples and Canada is getting a piece!

🧑‍🍳 NSCC’s Annapolis Valley campus is launching a program where students can access free meals in an attempt to tackle food insecurity.

🩻 According to a new report, 4 in 10 Canadian children are facing dangerous wait times for spinal surgery.

👏 Yesterday, 67 volunteers were celebrated by the province at an annual award ceremony. You can find a list of the recipients here.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Jonathan Torrens makes Neptune debut in The Play That Goes Wrong

In some ways, you could trace the origin of Neptune Theatre’s latest production to a late 1990s-era Canadian TV drama and the back row of an airline flight from Halifax to Sydney. It was there, in between shoots for CBC’s Pit Pony—which also happened to star a young Elliot Page in his first acting role—that a twenty-something Jonathan Torrens and Jeremy Webb forged a friendship that would endure for two decades and counting. It was a relationship based on a mutual love and knack for one simple thing: Making each other laugh.

“In those days, we used to fly [to shoots], which was an 18-minute flight, and there were tears pouring down my cheeks,” Torrens recalls, speaking by phone with The Coast on a September morning.

That same spirit lies at the heart of their newest collaboration, The Play That Goes Wrong—an Olivier Award-winning comedy that sees Torrens in the role of Chris Bean, director of a murder mystery theatre show on its opening night. But instead of heart-pounding drama, as TPTGW showbill promises, “things are quickly going from bad to utterly disastrous.”

Described as Monty Python-meets-Sherlock Holmes, the show debuts tonight at Neptune Theatre’s Fountain Hall Stage. As The Coast’s Martin Bauman reports, tickets for the opening week are a hot commodity.