Theatre artist Robert Lepage is preparing to raise the curtain on an epic, multi-year, 360-degree play to be staged at theatres-in-the-round in Canada and Europe. Global theatre association 360 Network, a collection of theatre-in-the-round venues, commissioned the new production from acclaimed the Quebec artist. Entitled Cartes, the overall work will encompass four parts representing the four suits (spades, hearts, clubs and diamonds) in a deck of playing cards. The first instalment — set in Las Vegas in 2003 as the Iraq War is getting underway — will debut at Madrid’s Teatro Circo Price in May. It is also scheduled to play Toronto’s Luminato arts and culture festival in June, at London’s the Roundhouse in Feb 2013 and other venues across Europe.

Nickelback has suffered its share of insults in the past but now the Canadian band is being accused of actually helping to kill rock ‘n’ roll. The latest slight comes from none other than the Grammy-winning band Black Keys. “Rock ‘n’ roll is dying because people became OK with Nickelback being the biggest band in the world,” Keys drummer Patrick Carney says in the new edition of Rolling Stone magazine. Long a popular target for derision, Nickelback has nonetheless sold nearly 50 million albums worldwide and scooped up 12 Juno Awards. Carney’s comments are the most recent slagging for the Canadian band.

Canadian-born actor Mike Myers is writing the script for an Austin Powers musical, which is set to have songs created by Burt Bacharach and Elvis Costello. Myers, 48, played “international man of mystery” Austin Powers in three spy spoof films, but is not expected to star in the musical, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Instead, he is penning a prequel to the film story set in 1960s London and detailing how Powers first acquired his mighty mojo. Myers is also reported to be on board for a fourth film instalment as Austin Powers, but the script for that film is not yet in the works.

Legendary game show host Bob Barker says it will cost $200,000 to move three elephants from the Toronto Zoo to a California sanctuary, and he doesn’t mind paying for it himself. Toronto city council voted in October to move the elephants to a facility run by PAWS (Performing Animal Welfare Society) near Galt, Calif, named ARK 2000. The 88-year-old former host of The Price is Right, interviewed on CBC News Network last month, said the three female African elephants — Toka, Thika and Iringa — would be better off in a warmer climate. Seven Canadian zoos in Ontario, Quebec and Alberta currently have elephant programs.

William Shatner is boldly going back to where he once appeared — Broadway. The Canadian-born actor, singer and writer best known as James T. Kirk on Star Trek will star in a one-man show called Shatner’s World: We Just Live in It. Previews begin Feb 14 and it runs at the Music Box Theatre until March 4. Producers said Jan 16 that “the two-hour show will take audiences on a voyage through Shatner’s life and career, from Shakespearean stage actor to internationally known icon and raconteur.”

Two major Canadian cultural exports — filmmaker James Cameron and the Cirque du Soleil — have teamed up for a 3D film project scheduled to hit theatres in 2012. Paramount Pictures has announced it will bring Cirque du Soleil Worlds Away to theatres around the globe later this year, though an exact release date has yet to be set. The forthcoming film features a story written expressly for the project and performances drawn from the many elaborate Cirque productions around the world.

An exhibit focusing on Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera is headed to the Art Gallery of Ontario. Frida & Diego: Passion, Politics and Painting is set to arrive at the gallery in the fall and will include 75 key works from the renowned 20th century painters. Drawn mostly from the collection of Mexico’s Museo Dolores Olmedo, it examines the lives of the artists both together and apart, as well as their support for the Communist movement and identification with their Mexican roots. The exhibit, set to run from Oct 20 to Jan 20, 2013, is a collaboration with the High Museum of Art in Atlanta.