“Make yourself as comfortable as you can,” says the narrator in greeting, “because we will make sure that you’re very uncomfortable very soon.” This is the promise made, and kept, by Wine & Halva: a biting comedy written by Deniz Başar and directed by Art Babayants, returning to the stage in May 2026 after its first run in 2024.

Calling lovers of books, publishing, and all things writing—the 2026 Blue Metropolis Literary Festival is well under way and is the perfect way to spend a warm Spring weekend in Montreal.

Teesri Duniya’s production of Behind The Moon delivers an emotionally charged meditation on the immigrant experience that holds the audience in a space of shared reflection. While the production navigates directorial hurdles and inconsistent technical execution, the raw power of Anosh Irani’s script and the dynamic energy of the talented cast of actors keep the heart of the story firmly intact.

Six years ago, local literary magazine yolk broke out of its shell and splattered all over Montreal’s literary scene by way of an event called Egg the Poet. The Instagram post promoting this event is captioned as follows: “Come join us January 17th to celebrate the launch of Yolk, a new Montreal-based literary journal dedicated to the word. This is a chance to share what is ours and soon to become yours.”

In a city that often tries to polish burlesque into a sanitized, corporate-friendly product for the tourist agenda, Mina Minou is throwing a massive wrench into the machine. As a multidisciplinary artist with over a decade of skin in the game, she’s the architect of The Fool’s Journey, a sprawling, five-show competition series that ditches the “prettiness" of traditional pageantry for a chaotic blend of radical absurdity and experimental play.

For immigrants who’ve settled within these colonial North American borders, there is a constant tension between what one wants to say and how (if at all) to say it.  “You have to be really careful,” says Lebanese-Canadian actor and cultural practitioner Basma Baydoun. “You know, hide your rage, hide your anger – hide how you feel about injustice.