The Kids and the Hall in their younger days, from left, Scott Thompson, Bruce McCulloch, Mark McKinney, Dave Foley and Kevin McDonald,Erik Christensen/The Globe and Mail
All But Gone: A Beckett Rhapsody
Here comes Necessary Angel Theatre Company artistic director Jennifer Tarver, who follows up 2012's dandy Beckett: Feck It! with another notion of staging short plays by Beckett with opera. With All But Gone, contemporary pieces for female voices by female composers are used to contrast the masculinity of Beckett with a feminine kind of underworld. The curious juxtaposition of theatre and song includes music inspired by the poet Sylvia Plath, and finds opera stars Shannon Mercer and Krisztina Szabo working with actors Paul Fauteux and Jonathon Young. Oct. 13 to Nov. 6 (previews begin Oct. 11). $35.10 to $69. Berkeley Street Theatre, 26 Berkeley St., 416-368-3110 or canadianstage.com.
Sheila Hicks: Material Voices
In the 1960s, the Paris-based American fibre sculptor Sheila Hicks explored thread languages in ways that were not always appreciated or understood. "For some, I was persona non grata," the take-it-or-weave-it artist told The New York Times recently, "and for others I was the heroic pirate." Now, with the first ever presentation of her work in Canada, the stitching pioneer is celebrated with a 50-year retrospective that covers large-scale installations, minute weavings, free-standing sculptures and mohair drawings on paper. To Feb. 5, 2017. $6 to $15. Textile Museum of Canada, 55 Centre Ave., 416-599-5321 or textilemuseum.ca.
Reelworld Film Festival
Johan Grimonprez's Shadow World is an incensed indictment of the global arms trade. James Bluemel's Exodus: Our Journey to Europe is an embedded look into the Syrian refugee crisis. And Across the Line from Director X tackles hockey and racial tensions at a Nova Scotia high school. This isn't Disney. Welcome to the Reelworld. Dedicated to provocation and social good, the 16-year-running festival of docs and narratives offers post-screening "conversation rooms" involving activists and leaders on the ground. There it gets real. Oct. 12 to 16. $12 (passes, $150). Harbourfront Centre, 235 Queens Quay W., reelworld.ca.
Brain Candy
In his new, self-explanatory This is a Book About The Kids in the Hall, Globe and Mail contributor John Semley calls the chapter on the 1996 movie Brain Candy "resolutely unheartwarming, in which the Kids' feature film debut tears the troupe apart." Ah, good times. On Thursday, the author launches his book at a 20th-anniversary screening of an underrated dark comedy about Prozac, the fraught filming of which may very well have caused the Kids to seek happy-pill prescriptions themselves. Oct. 13, 8 a.m. $10. The Royal, 608 College St., 416-466-4400 or theroyal.to.
AIMIA-AGO Photography Prize
Four exceptional photographers are in the running for annual prize that's a big deal for the shutter-speed set. Not only is the public invited to look at the work of the shortlisted finalists, but they're encouraged to vote for the work that moves them the most. Contenders include Talia Chetrit (who specializes in erotic self-portraits), Elizabeth Zvonar (whose work is self-aware and enigmatic), Ursula Schulz-Dornburg (the German conceptualist who works in black and white) and Jimmy Robert, who says "representation is essentially very volatile to me – pin it down and it instantly escapes you." To Jan. 1, 2017. $11 to 19.50. Art Gallery of Ontario, 317 Dundas St. W., 416-979-6648 or ago.net.
Brad Wheeler