Counting Sheep, performed by Lemon Bucket Orkestra, is a personal retelling of the 2013-14 Ukrainian Revolution.
Counting Sheep
Don't sleep on this one. Billed as a deeply personal retelling of the 2013-14 Ukrainian Revolution, last year's SummerWorks critical hit Counting Sheep is an immersive punk-folk opera performed by the rowdy Lemon Bucket Orkestra. Megaphones, projection screens and sheep masks are involved. Fake bricks come into play as well. Is this a Pink Floyd concert? No, it is not, but pigs will fly before something quite like this is ever created again. May 26 to June 5. $25 to $40. Broadview Place, 296 Broadview Ave., 800-838-3006 or brownpapertickets.com.
Beyoncé
Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter, you may have heard, put out an album recently. It is called Lemonade, and it is a triumphant R&B act of catharsis and a call to formation for black women, from an imperious artist and shade-throwing singer apparently wronged by her man (the hip-hop cigarist Jay-Z). What we have here is a pop-music idol at the very top of the "damn, girl!" game, not content to merely make juice when presented with sour fruit, but to make a roaring scene at the lemonade stand instead. May 25, 7:30 p.m. $45 to $305. Rogers Centre, 1 Blue Jays Way, 855-985-5000 or ticketmaster.ca.
Le Placard (The Closet)
Théâtre français de Toronto's artistic director Guy Mignault is closing a door behind him as he retires after 19 years as the company's leader. His last act is to direct Le Placard, a new comedy from the French filmmaker and playwright Francis Veber that involves an accountant who tries to save his job by spreading false rumours that he is homosexual. Hilarity ensues. To May 29 (with English surtitles on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays). $38 to $49. Berkeley Street Theatre, 26 Berkeley St., 416-534-6604 or theatrefrancais.com.
Craig Davidson
In his review of Craig Davidson's new book Precious Cargo, The Globe's Ian Brown praised the gifted novelist's disability memoir as a "pleasure to read," a rare quality, Brown explains, in a genre often hobbled by political correctness, sentimentality or sanctimony. The cargo in question are disabled children; the book is based on the author's year spent driving special needs children to school in suburban Calgary. For the eh List Author Series, Davidson discusses his long rewarding ride on the short bus. May 26, 7 p.m. Free. Toronto Reference Library Atrium, 789 Yonge St., 416-395-5577 or torontopubliclibrary.ca.
Riverdance
The production is smaller than the original format, but the jig is hardly up for the Irish song-and-dance spectacle that currently tours in celebration of its 20th anniversary. Audiences revel under the hypnosis of step dance and the rumbling cadence of shoes, and things are made multicultural by flamenco dancers and tapping virtuosos. What began in 1994 as a seven-minute segment for the televised Eurovision Song Contest and what survived severe backstage hullabaloos continues on, feet and fiddles never failing. To May 29. $49 to $175. Ed Mirvish Theatre, 244 Victoria St., 416-872-1212 or mirvish.com.
Brad Wheeler