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Swimming pool theatre and a party in a museum

Heading towards February and the variety of event choices has increased somewhat; M and I tried out the NAC English Theatre's production of Ovid's Metamorphoses and the inaugural Nature Nocturne at the Canadian Museum of Nature.



I heard about Nature Nocturne via Apartment 613 and the concept immediately caught my eye. An adults-only cultural/nightlife event in an amazing building? Tickets bought. The attendees were a very diverse crowd, including a lot of smartly attired people giving the event something of a cocktail soirée vibe (perhaps this says something about the range of events, or lack of them, in Ottawa...). The refurbished tower held a very packed dancefloor and I especially recommend the current exhibition Fury: Portraits of turbulent skies by artist Stephen Hutching. We wandered around the Vale Earth Gallery having fun with the sedimentator, magmanator and metamorphicator machines (fantastic fun!) and trying out artist Greta Grip's kitted QR codes; the Blue Water gallery (how much water do you really use?!) and more! In the could do better category: gallery access with drinks especially after the enormous queues to get them; cloakroom organisation; greater variety of music - there were a few other live events in other areas but they were very hard to find. The Museum has canvassed opinions from the first event; future Nature Nocturnes will I believe be very interesting!

Next up was the pay-what-you-can night at the NAC for Metamorphoses, incorporating key stories from the myths of Ovid. Just the idea of staging a play in a swimming pool sets off one's imagination... This excellent, deceptively simple English Theatre production by Mary Zimmerman re-tells the classical myths in a fun , enthralling and often hilariously funny performance - glass instruments included. A definite must see! Metamorphoses is on until 16th February.        
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