Venue: Sala Rossa (4848 St Laurent Blvd, Montreal, Quebec H2T 1R5) Date: June 5, 2026 Doors: 8:00 PM Music: 9:00 PM
Tickets: $15.00 plus taxes and fees in advance / $20.00 at the door
Advance Tickets: https://tickets.venuepilot.com/e/cabaret-les-ronces-avec-itza-gutierrez-sasha-van-bon-bon-julie-richard-danette-mackay-helena-martin-d-659269
Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1307045641320582
Features Sasha Van Bon Bon, Julie Richard, Danette MacKay, Itzayana Gutiérrez Arillo, Pipi Douleur, Xalli Huehca, Aaron Pollard, Corazón Desfasado and Orkestra Emputada. Dress cute! Expect something fierce!
Orkestra Emputada, directed by Liberté Anne, features Damian Birbier, Peter Burton, Belinda Campbell, Markus Floats, Raphaël Foisy-Couture, Genviève Gauthier, Emilio Hidalgo, Daniel James, Stéphane Krims, Kalun Leung, Eric Lewis, Kulusé Souriant, Ari Swan, Helios Paradise, and a few surprises.
In religious traditions, thorns serve as symbols of bitterness and of redemption made possible through enduring relentless tribulations without question. Within Mexican Indigenous cosmology, a thorn (or huitzi in Nahuatl) marks a period of spiritual hardship in which the sky and the underworld dialogue, with shape shifting consequences. As messengers from what has perished, thorns incarnate what is about to become alive.
Cabaret Les Ronces nibs points to this poesis of the thorn and tributes cosmopolitan traditions of café-concerts and cabarets that started over a century ago when, just like today, urbanites of multiple genders gathered to sooth the sorrows of war and genocide, facing together the rise of the far-right and anti-immigrant sentiments that made life incredibly hard.
It is conceived by Itzayana Gutiérrez Arillo (Itza), historian and artist of Mexican roots. Reuniting artists of diverse migratory status, Les Ronces calls for transcultural provocation, building strength in dialectics, friction and the acute awareness of contrasts. It is co-presented by Arts in the Margins.
The backbone of this folie will be the Orkestra Emputada, directed by Liberté Anne, featuring in the most seductive chaos Damian Birbier, Peter Burton, Belinda Campbell, Markus Floats, Raphaël Foisy-Couture, Genviève Gauthier, Emilio Hidalgo, Daniel James, Stéphane Krims, Kalun Leung, Eric Lewis, Kulusé Souriant, Ari Swan, Helios Paradise, and a few surprises.
The night will be hosted by the effervescent high femme edge of Sasha Van Bon Bon appearing as Louise Valiquette. Julie Richard will improvise with an open heart. Half saint and half something else, Corazón Desfasado will ordain Caribbean prayers for immigrants. Singing in allophone languages to modernist melancholies: Danette MacKay will perform a tribute to the great Wayne Newton, Itza honours the unavoidable Chavela Vargas and old sorrows, Pipi Douleur serves a song he composed in French, meant to be sung in Spanish, Xalli Huehca evokes the unforgettable Damia. Aaron Pollard and Corazón Desfasado will offer a backdrop of projections and imaginations on the night’s themes. Dress cute! Expect something fierce!