Following what was an extremely impactful year for the actor with her staggering performance in Barbie, America Ferrera is slated to star as Cuban artist Ana Mendieta in the upcoming series Naked by the Window. An Amazon MGM Studios production, it adapts the book of the same name by Robert Katz.

Ana Mendieta was a multi-disciplinary artist born in Havana who came into the public eye in New York City with her combination of installation, performance art, and video. She was one of the prominent figures in the medium known as land art, or what she called earth/body sculptures. Utilizing her body in conjunction with natural elements as a sort of canvas, most notably in her Silueta Series, she sought to draw attention to the inherent connection of humanity to the land and drew on Afro-Cuban cultural influences in these endeavours. Her works often evoked themes of feminism, violence towards women, and death.

Mendieta had been married to sculptor Carl Andre, and in 1985, she died falling from the window of his 34th-floor apartment. With neighbours having reported violent arguing before her death, along with the presence of scratch marks on Andre’s face, Mendieta being heard crying out, and what seems now like a flimsy 911 call from Andre, it is hard not to assume what has happened. He was acquitted of second-degree murder, but public opinion of him has not been kind with a steady resistance to his work being exhibited ever since.

Toting an Oscar nomination for her performance as Gloria in Barbie, as well as an award-winning career across decades of TV and poised for her own directorial debut with I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, Ferrera is sure to bring her iconic heart and wit to honour the energy of Ana Mendieta in Naked by the Window.

It’s not hard to see the aesthetic value in musicians of the 1960s and 70s—pageantry was at its first true peak for modern music and with it came objects and visuals of decadence not yet seen in the century. With these artists also came a blurring of the line between popular culture and high culture, a strange new class of ultra-elites that wore their fame on their sleeves and became subjects of critical analysis and appreciation. So it is no surprise that an Elton John auction would blow the roof off the joint as much as any of his shows would.

Elton John, the piano-pounding glam and pop rocker who has scored hit after hit with lyricist Bernie Taupin, has a signature style all his own. With his characteristic tinted glasses, vibrant costuming, and electric stage presence, he has captivated audiences across generations as a beacon of joy, poignancy, and queer stardom.

Christie’s Elton John auction series features items from across the artist’s work, luxury goods, and clothing. While it runs till February 28th, on its opening night of the 21st it saw every single one of the 49 items on offer sell to a sum of $8 million. Many of the offerings fetched astronomically more than they were estimated at, including a pair of his prescription glasses and silver leather platform boots sporting his initials.

Two of the standouts for the event were Banksy’s Flower Thrower Triptych—perhaps the most iconic image by the legendary street artist—going for nearly $2 million, and Elton’s old wheels, a 1990 Bentley Continental, fetching $441,000.

With the Elton John auction series continuing into next week, its sum total is sure to climb well past opening night as people grab a piece of rock and roll history. With comments that the energy of the auction itself was electric with energy, it’s clear that the fervour for this beloved artist shines as bright as his sequins.

Humanity’s relationship with putting our mark on the universe at large grows more prominent with each step forward our technologies take. From claiming stars as gifts to launching a gaudy car into orbit, we’ve reached a new milestone as a planet in both travel and imprint: Odysseus, a lunar lander by Intuitive Machines, has touched down on the moon bearing the first commercial payloads to our satellite.

Odysseus is the first of a series of lunar landers designated Nova-C, designed specifically for small-scale payloads to the moon. Odysseus launched on February 21st and landed on the 22nd in a small crater on the south pole of the moon. Not long after it appears that the lander fell on its side, but it is apparently still operational for the scientific applications NASA and others have intended for it.

Notable on this payload is a project by Jeff Koons, and it is thankfully a degree less gaudy than sending a metal balloon animal into space. Still in the vein of the artist’s repertoire, Moon Phases is a series of 125 miniature stainless steel models of the phases of the moon. The collection is housed in a cube designed and built by 4Space, a company seemingly seeking to collaborate with artists and brands in this new era of commercial space travel. Each of the models has a label honouring significant individuals in human history across the globe, and, in Intuitive Machines’ words, “Koons honors some of the greatest achievements of the past to inspire future generations.”

It is hard to posit whether Odysseus’ success is a positive sign for the future. While a successful joint effort between the rich and existing space exploration agencies, it is a sizeable amount of money to send to a dead rock for the sake of aesthetic memory. But it’s still more tactful than that Roadster.

If you were to tell me years ago that one of the biggest draws to Nova Scotia’s premiere regional theatre in 2024 would be a pair of hobbits, I would’ve told you to lay off the pipe-weed. And when Neptune Theatre first announced that Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd would be starring in the modern classic Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, few could believe it. But the event quickly took the city by storm for a sold-out run, and the hype was absolutely to be believed.

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead is the beloved play by iconic playwright Tom Stoppard and is a meta-narrative reflection on two of the seemingly most inconsequential characters in Hamlet. Taking place primarily in a liminal space offstage during the moments in between the action of Hamlet, it follows the inane existential bumblings of the titular pair as they try to navigate their roles in the world of the play. Originally an Edinburgh Fringe production in 1966, this fascinating examination of mortality, existence, and the legendary play itself has held a rabid devotion by the Western theatre for decades.

To get the most obvious statement out of the way, Monaghan and Boyd are superb in their performances. There is a conversational ease between them playing off one another that sparks and titillates, giving the energy of a Shakespearean Fry and Laurie. Their humour is effortless, their pace galloping, and their immersion in the transient world unmistakable. Yet despite being masters of the wit and wonder this strange play provides, the stakes and truly weighty significance that arise from their pondering are never far from the surface. Monaghan and Boyd give a class act in absurdism and deliver unanswered questions with stupefying grins.

Neptune’s artistic director Jeremy Webb serves as director for the piece, and you can see the influence of his history as a creator and performer. Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead is very much an actor’s play, and the vision of this production puts the onus on this captivatingly. From the simplistic set of rotating risers varyingly cloaked in scrim (designed by Andrew Cull), to the mechanics of bodies in space (beautifully orchestrated by movement director Angela Gasparetto) punctuating the scenes of the acting troupe, to the luxuriating in silence and levity in a space where there is nowhere else to go—it all amounts to a spectacle of emotional and intellectual craft.

A thing of note in the energy of this production was the dichotomy between Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and the rest of the characters. There are essentially two worlds to this play: that of Stoppard’s modernist existentialism in the wings and that of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Boyd and Monaghan assuredly occupy the former with their performances, but even those who share in their scenes—most obviously The Player, played by Michael Blake—all seem to occupy the latter. There is a decidedly “Shakespearian” and grand energy to their delivery. And this is not to the detriment of the production, Blake particularly wearing this with a lupine flare. But it does form an interesting bubble around Boyd and Monaghan, underlining the way that these characters feel universally misplaced.

Neptune’s production of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead is truly a shining gem across the theatre’s long history. When an event can get non-theatre-goers rushing for tickets, it’s an enlivening thing to see in this day and age. It means all the more when the piece truly does live up to expectations, and Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd truly deliver cerebral magic.

The production tours to Toronto’s Mirvish Theatre from March 5th to 31st.