Above photo: Hawksley Workman at the Muskoka Sound Festival 2014

What’s going on FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13

(Off) Balance and Feelers
Depression is an all-too-common affliction among youth, a fact Naomi Tessler found out the hard way during her first year of university. The experience led her to a spiritual awakening, and she channeled her new-found energy into writing a play about her journey — (Off) Balance, which reflects on the stigma around mental illness and the lack of effective medical care. She performs it in a double-bill alongside Amelia Griffin, whose dance-theatre production Feelers meditates on women’s experiences in society. The performances begin on Friday, Nov. 13 and continue until Saturday, Nov. 21. Tickets from $20.
Arts Court, 2 Daly Ave., 613-765-5555, artscourt.ca.

Hawksley Workman
Hawksley Workman is many things. He’s a solo performer, a band member (a drummer in indie rock group, Mounties), a one-man performer in a self-developed cabaret theatre (The God that Comes), and  a song-writer. And, according to his bio, he is strange. You may know him from his popular song, “Jealous of Your Cigarette“.
His latest album, Old Cheetah, is Workman’s return to solo-work after a five-year hiatus. It contains a variety of music that can only be described by his website – “a swirling nuclear fusion of cabaret theatricality, glam rock and wantonly pop musical elements comes this defiantly unbridled and exuberantly unclassifiable collection of songs.”
Workman’s Winter Bird Tour features songs from Old Cheetah as well as fellow performer Fiona Bevan (who is no slight in her own). He’ll touch down in Ottawa on Friday, Nov. 13 at the Bronson Centre. Doors open at 7 p.m., show at 8 p.m. Tickets available here and Friday at Vertigo Records.
Bronson Centre, 211 Bronson Ave., hawksleyworkman.com.