Arts Fuse critics select the best in film, theater, dance, music, visual arts, and author events for the coming week.

By The Arts Fuse Staff

Film

Boston Area Film Schedules—What is Playing Today, Where, and When

Varieté (1925)
May 2 at 7 p.m.
Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline, MA

Varieté is the story of an aging trapeze artist who, after an accident, becomes a barker and manager of a cheap sideshow of dancing girls. The Sounds of Silents® series presents this tale of love and lust, staring Emil Jannings) for the first time in New England in its complete form. This new digital restoration will be screened with the 12-piece Berklee Silent Film Orchestra performing live-to-picture accompaniment. The ensemble will be conducted by six student composers under the direction of Professor Sheldon Mirowitz. It is the tenth original score commissioned for the program. This is an experience that should not to be missed. Arts Fuse preview

High On Crack Street; Lost Lives In Lowell
May 2 at 7 p.m.
Brattle Theatre, Cambridge, MA

A special 20th Anniversary screening of a seminal documentary about 18 months in the lives of three crack addicts in Lowell, Massachusetts. A co-presentation with The DocYard.

Mountains May Depart
May 2
Studio Cinema in Belmont, MA

Belmont World Film’s Series presents a film by ‘Sixth Generation’ Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke (24 City, A Touch of Sin) followed by a discussion led by Catherine Yeh, professor of Chinese and Comparative Literature at Boston University. Mountains May Depart is an intimate drama that leaps from the recent past to the present and then to a speculative near-future. It is a moving study of how China’s economic boom and the culture of materialism it has spawned has undercut the bonds of family, tradition, and love. It was an Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival.

The National Center for Jewish Film’s Annual Film Festival
May 4 through 20
At the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline, West Newton Cinema, Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, JCC Newton. Link here for daily schedule by venue

The National Center for Jewish Film, an independent nonprofit film archive, distributor & exhibitor, presents an expansive array of 29 films (shown on screens across the city) dramatizing the diversity and vibrancy of Jewish life.

Pink Narcissus
May 7 at 9 p.m.
Harvard Film Archive, Cambridge, MA

Last of the strange and wonderful entries in the ‘Guy Maddin Presents’ Series. “Director James Bidgood was a portrait photographer, window dresser, costume designer and drag queen living in New York when he shot, painstakingly, between 1963 and 1970, this handmade, riotously color-saturated fantasia on sets built in his tiny apartment. He picked up and made a star out of teenage runaway Bobby Kendall, the hunk o’ beefcake with whom he lived amid the ever-flowering profusion of lumber, tinsel, props, costumes and other magical matter of movie artifice in never-ending transformations of jerrybuilt enchantment that was their home.” (HFA description)

The Intervention
May 4 at 7:30 p.m.
Coolidge Corner Theatre, Brookline, MA

The closing night film of IFFBoston revolves around a group of long-time friends who attempt to stage a “relationship intervention” for Ruby (Cobie Smulders) and Peter (Vincent Piazza). They are convinced that the pair’s marriage has turned toxic — and only their friends can pull them out of it. Along the way, members of the group are forced to encounter some hard truths about their own problems.

Neon Bull
May 9 at 7:30 p.m.
Studio Cinema, 376 Trapelo Road, Belmont, MA

Part of the Belmont World Film series: “Iremar works the vaquejadas, a traditional sport similar to rodeo from the rural northeast of Brazil and Brazil’s second highest grossing sport after soccer. He and his co-workers live in the truck used to transport the animals, forming a makeshift, but close-knit family. But the country and region are changing and the area’s booming clothing industry has Iremar dreaming of becoming a fashion designer. A wild and sexy ride of a film!” (BWF description) Winner at both the Venice Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival. (Contains several graphic sex scenes.) There will be a post-screening talk by Dario Borim, Professor of Portuguese at UMass-Dartmouth, who teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in Luso-Brazilian literature, cinema, theater, and music.

— Tim Jackson

Eva Hess, directed by Marcie Begleiter.
May 5 at 7 p.m.
At the Institute for Contemporary Art, Boston, MA

A well-received documentary about “one of the few women to make work taken seriously in a field dominated by male pop artists and minimalists.” “Eva Hesse helped establish the post-minimalist movement with pioneering sculptures made with latex, fiberglass, and plastics. This first feature-length tribute to her life and work makes superb use of the artist’s voluminous journals, her correspondence with close friend and mentor Sol LeWitt, and interviews with such fellow artists as Richard Serra, Robert Mangold, Nancy Holt, and Dan Graham, who recall her passion, ambition, and tenacity.”

By Night With Torch and Spear: A Film Program Organized by Jeffery Farmer
May 7 at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.
At the Institute for Contemporary Art, Boston, MA

“In conjunction with the exhibition Geoffrey Farmer, the ICA/Boston will present a film screening organized by the artist. The selection of experimental films features rarely screened classics that use collage, montage, found footage, and other archival materials. These films, by some of the 20th century’s most important filmmakers, resonate with Farmer’s inventive approach to narrative, exploring the relationships between found images, storytelling, and history.” The line-up: Joseph Cornell, By Night with Torch and Spear, 1942, 8 minutes (Courtesy of Anthology Film Archives, New York); Bruce Conner, A Movie, 1958, 10 minutes; Arthur Lipsett, Very Nice, Very Nice, 1961, 7 minutes; Chris Marker, La Jetée, 1963, 27 minutes; Alain Resnais, Toute la mémoire du monde, 1956, 21 minutes.

Asphalt directed by Joe May At the Goethe-Institut Boston, 170 Beacon Street, Boston on May 8.

A rare opportunity to see one of best ever films about the seedy side of Berlin (sex, betrayal, murder, corrupt police) from a heralded German director who brings plenty of psychological juice and visual panache to the proceedings. Accompanied live by Julian Ronceros Moehring, “pianist, singer, composer and songwriter from Southern Germany influenced by jazz, world and pop music.”

— Bill Marx

---

Dance

SOLA
May 6 & 7 at 8 p.m.
The Dance Complex
Cambridge, MA

An evening of solo dances that are choreographed by women and for women. “Curated by University of South Florida assistant professor Andee Scott, the concert showcases the work of female dance artists from around the country, with Elizabeth Weil Bergmann, Amy Chavasse, Tzveta Kassabova, Bliss Kohlmyer, Pamela Pietro, and Andee Scott performing self-choreographed work, and Mary Williford-Shade performing the work of Ursula Payne. SOLA is the inaugural performance produced by Dance Linkages, a project Scott created in 2014, whose mission is to build a contemporary network of artists connecting within and across disciplines and geographies to develop, perform, and tour new work.”

Priyadarshini Govind
May 7 at 7 p.m.
Big Kresge Auditorium, MIT
Cambridge, MA

Head to MIT this Saturday for an evening of classical Indian dance in the bharatanatyam style, with carnatic music vocals by T.M. Krishna.

Mobius @ Green Street
May 7 at 8 p.m.
Green Street Studios
Cambridge, MA

The artists of Mobius perform at Green Street Studios, complete with a post-show dance party from 10 p.m.- midnight. The performance highlights collaborations between Max Lord and Sara June, Michael Figueroa and Phil Fryer, Katerine Gagnon and Sandy Huckleberry, Jimena Bermejo and Alissa Cardone, Jane Wang and Nathan Andary, and Zayde Buti.

And further afield…

Cinderella
Friday, May 6 at 8 p.m.
Zeiterion Performing Arts Center
New Bedford, MA

The Moscow Festival Ballet presents the classic ballet Cinderella, in an adaptation that will no doubt make dazzling use of magnificent sets and colorful costumes.

— Merli V.Guerra

---

Theater

Arcadia by Tom Stoppard. Directed by Lee Mikeska Gardner. Produced by The Nora Theatre Company/ a Catalyst Collaborative@MIT Production at the Central Square Theater, Cambridge, MA, through May 15.

A revival of one of Stoppard’s most effective dovetailings of intellect and emotion, a time-tripping historical drama that is “a romantic and funny exploration of the heart, the sciences, and how history is miscreated.” Arts Fuse review

Arnie Louis and Bob by Katie Pearl. Directed by Melissa Kievman. Staged by the Trinity Repertory Company at the Dowling Theater, Providence, Rhode Island, through May 8.

The world premiere of what is probably a sentimental version Mark Twain’s The Mysterious Stranger (“Maybe this world is another planet’s hell.”): “Welcome to the home of three older men — two brothers and their cousin — who are trying to find meaning in their lives in their golden years. Arnie uses meditation. Bob loves pop culture. But Louis, no matter how hard he tries, can’t seem to find anything that works — not online dating, not anti-depressants, not moving back to his childhood home. He thinks all is lost… until he’s visited by a fantastical stranger.”

Threesome by Yussef El Guindi. Directed by Danielle Fauteux Jacques. Staged by Apollinaire Theatre Company at Chelsea Theatre Works, 189 Winnisimmet St., Chelsea, MA, through May 7.

This polemical/melodramatic whirligig of this script “begins as a bawdy bedroom comedy whose main characters, a heterosexual Egyptian-American couple, invite a white American man into their bed. Over two acts it transforms into something darker, as all three grapple with the fallout of sexual assault, infidelity, war and the pain of lost hope, both political and personal.” Arts Fuse review

Home of the Brave by Lila Rose Kaplan. Directed by Sean Daniels. Staged by the Merrimack Repertory Theatre at the Nancy L. Donahue Theatre, 50 East Merrimack Street, Lowell, MA, through May 15.

The world premiere of a farce “that follows senator Bernadette Spence (played by Boston favorite Karen MacDonald) as she desperately works to persuade her family to support her run for the Presidency. Loosely inspired by Moliere’s Tartuffe,” the script is an “old-fashioned comedy for new-fashioned times, wholeheartedly embracing sheer absurdity, shameless fun, and actors running/climbing/sliding all over the place.”

Daughter of a Cuban Revolutionary written and performed by Marissa Chibas. Presented by Arts Emerson at the Jackie Liebergott Black Box at the Emerson/Paramount Center, Boston, MA, May 1.

A solo performance piece that focuses on three towering figures in the life of versatile performer Marissa Chibas.

Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights by Gertrude Stein. Directed by Tristan DiVincenzo. Staged by Provincetown Theater, 238 Bradford Street, Provincetown, MA, through May 12.

A rare production of a very eccentric text by one of the great American modernists. “Written in 1938, the play uses the invention of the electric light bulb as its central metaphor. Questions about technology and its gifts of god-like powers are brilliantly (and literally) explored in Stein’s play … Since her death “Faustus” has become a ‘Rite of Passage’ for many experimental companies.” The production explores “the sonics of the piece, manipulating both live audio and visual technology.”

The School for Scandal by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Adaptation by Steven Barkhimer. Directed by Paula Plum. Staged by the Actors’ Shakespeare Project at the Multicultural Arts Center, 41 2nd Street, Cambridge, MA, through May 8.

A terrific 18th century comedy that still holds up quite nicely, and the ASP is fielding a first-rate cast of performers who know how to generate laughter, including Richard Snee, Bobbie Steinbach, and Sarah Newhouse. Arts Fuse review

Freud’s Last Session by Mark St. Germain. Directed by Jim Petosa. Staged by New Repertory Theatre at the Arsenal Center for the Arts in the Charles Mosesian Theater, Watertown, MA, through May 22.

“The imagined meeting of two of the 20th century’s greatest academics, Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis.” In the cast: Shelley Bolman and Joel Colodner.

JoBe: The Musical by Milton Wright. Directed by Vincent Ernest Siders. Arrangements by Kavayah Amn. Staged by Common House Productions at Hibernian Hall, 184 Dudley Street, Roxbury, MA, though May 8.

An interesting project that should offer few conventional pick-me-ups: “a soul-music adaptation of the Biblical Book of Job.”

Laura, adapted for the stage by George Sklar and Vera Caspary. Directed by Sarah Gazdowicz. At the Stoneham Theatre, 395 Main Street, Stoneham, MA, May 5 through 22.

A stage version of Otto Preminger’s terrific 1944 film noir: “Everyone is a suspect in the murder of Laura Hunt, an irresistibly attractive business woman trying to make her way in the world of advertising. A hardboiled detective on the case becomes infatuated with her portrait after reading her memoirs and her closest friends don’t trust him.” I have my doubts that any actor come close to Clifton Webb’s consummate Waldo Lydecker?

A Great Wilderness by Samuel D. Hunter. Directed by David Miller. Staged by the Zeitgeist Stage in the Plaza Black Box Theater at the Boston Center for the Arts, 539 Tremont Street, Boston, MA, through May 21.

The plot intrigues: “Walt has devoted his life to counseling teenage boys out of their homosexuality at his remote Idaho wilderness camp. Pressured to accept one last client, his carefully constructed life begins to unravel with the arrival of Daniel. When Daniel disappears in the wilderness during a forest fire, Walt is forced to ask for help.”

Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play by Anne Washburn. Score by Michael Friedman. Lyrics by Washburn. Directed by A. Nora Long. Music Director, Allyssa Jones. Choreographer, Yo-El Cassell. Produced by the Lyric Stage Company of Boston at 40 Clarendon Street, Copley Square, Boston, MA, through May 7.

This “funny, dark, frightening, theatrical, and a completely immersive experience takes place after an unknown global disaster and follows the evolution of a beloved story, from campfire retelling to high art. The story the survivors tell? The “Cape Feare” episode of The Simpsons!” Note: Due to the immersive experience of Mr. Burns, there will be no late seating. Arts Fuse review. Also, see Fuse review of Washburn’s most recent play, Antlia Pneumatica.

In the Body of the World, written and Performed by Eve Ensler. Directed by Diane Paulus. Staged by the American Repertory Theatre at the Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA, May 10 through 29.

A “world-premiere adaptation of Ensler’s critically acclaimed 2013 memoir of the same name” In this solo piece, the activist and artist (The Vagina Monologues, Emotional Creature, The Good Body, O.P.C.) “celebrates the strength and joy that connect a single body to the planet.” “While working in the Congo, where war continues to inflict devastating violence on women, Ensler was diagnosed with stage III/IV uterine cancer. This diagnosis erased the boundaries between Ensler’s art, her work, and her own body. This production charts the connections between the personal and the public, inviting and challenging all of us to come back into our bodies, and thus the world.”

The Oldest Boy by Sarah Ruhl. Directed by Ronn Smith. At the Central Square Theatre, 450 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA at 7 p.m. on May 9.

A staged reading of Ruhl’s most recent play, which revolves around “an American mother and a Tibetan father who have a three-year-old son believed to be the reincarnation of a Buddhist lama.” The presentation will feature Lee Mikeska Gardner, Artistic Director of The Nora Theatre Company. A reading of this script is being presented by leading regional theaters around the country to mark the one year anniversary of the Nepal earthquake. It as part of a national effort to raise relief funds for the victims of the disaster. The reading is free and open to the public. At the event, donations will be accepted with 100% of donations going to The Tibet Fund’s Emergency Earthquake Relief Fund.

Boston Theater Marathon XVIII and the Warm-Up Laps at the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont Street, Boston, MA on May 7 and 8.

The 18th edition of the Boston Theater Marathon features 50 ten-minute plays, by 52 New England playwrights, produced by 50 New England theatres in ten hours .This year’s BTM weekend is part of ArtWeek Boston, which strives to offer new ways to experience art, culture, and creativity.

End of the World by Elizabeth DuPre. Directed by Drew Linehan Jacobs. Staged by Boston Actors Theater at the Rehearsal Hall A, Boston Center for the Arts, 539 Tremont Street, Boston, MA, May 6 through 21.

A no doubt minimal fireworks alternative to the upcoming aliens-try-to-obliterate-Earth Independence Day: Resurgence: “Objects hurtle towards the Earth all the time, and the team at the Near Earth Object Project is there to protect humans from meeting the same fate as the dinosaurs. But, when their latest attempt to stop a massive asteroid fails, the team (along with the rest of the planet) finds themselves facing their mortality a little sooner than they expected.”

— Bill Marx

---

Classical Music

Ludovico Ensemble
Presented by St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
May 2, 8 p.m.
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Brookline, MA

Ludovico’s season finale includes a pair of pieces by Mischa Salkind-Pearl – Where I’m Likely to Find It and the world premiere of The Plum Gatherer – plus the first performance of Marti Epstein’s Mary Magdalen. It also doubles as the release celebration for Salkind-Pearl’s new album, I Might Be Wrong.

Persona
Presented by Beth Morrison Projects
May 5, 7 p.m.
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, MA

Keeril Makan’s adaptation of Ingmar Bergman’s film – which received an acclaimed premiere at Brooklyn’s National Sawdust in the fall – comes to Boston for a single performance. It stars Amanda Crider, Lacy Dorn, Aliana de la Guardia, and Joshua Jeremiah; Evan Ziporyn directs the music.

Harbison Trio
Presented by Radius Ensemble
May 7, 8 p.m.
Pickman Hall, Cambridge, MA

Radius closes its 17th season with the premiere of John Harbison’s Nine Rasas, a new trio inspired by the court of the Indian king Ibrahim Adil Shah II. Also on tap is Lev Zhurbin’s Lullaby & Memory and Schubert’s Trout Quintet.

Rach 3
Presented by the Longwood Symphony Orchestra
May 7, 8 p.m.
Jordan Hall, Boston, MA

The LSO is joined by pianist Di Wu in Rachmaninoff’s popular Third Concerto. Franz Schrecker’s Scherzo and Roy Harris’s Symphony no. 3 fill out this all-early-20th-century program.

Dance with the Stars
Presented by Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra
May 7, 8 p.m.
Sanders Theater, Cambridge

Pro Arte conductor emerita Gisèle Ben-Dor conducts the orchestra’s season-finale, a dance-centric concert featuring the Suite from Pulcinella and Alberto Ginastera’s Estancia. Robert Bonfiglio joins the ensemble as the soloist in Alexander Tcherepnin’s Harmonica Concerto, as does the Conservatory Lab Charter School’s Dudamel Orchestra.

Mahler 1
Presented by the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra
May 8, 3 p.m.
Sanders Theater, Cambridge, MA

The third and final BPYO concert of the year offers Benjamin Zander in his Mahlerian element plus violinist Hikaru Yonezaki and cellist Leland Ko performing Brahms’s stormy Concerto for Violin and Cello. Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun rounds out the program.

— Jonathan Blumhofer

First Monday at Jordan Hall
May 2 at 7:30 p.m.
At Jordan Hall/New England Conservatory, 290 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA

On the program: Beethoven’s 10 Variations on Ich bin der Schneider Kakadu, Op. 121a; Takemitsu’s Ame no ki (Rain Tree); Reich’s Clapping Music; Dvorak’s Quintet for Piano and Strings no 2 in A major, Op. 81/B 155

Music for Food
May 3 at 7:30 p.m.
Newton Cultural Center at City Hall, 1000 Commonwealth Avenue, Newton, MA

On the program: music of Dvorak, Poulenc, and Beethoven.

Gramercy Trio
May 5 at 7 p.m.
At the Community Music Center of Boston, 34 Warren Avenue, Boston, MA

An all-Beethoven concert: Cello Sonata Opus 102, Violin Sonata Opus 96, and a Piano Sonata (tba).

Cappella Clausura
May 7 at 8 p.m.
At the Emmanuel Church/Lindsey Chapel, 15 Newbury Street, Boston, MA
May 8 at 4 p.m.
At The Eliot Church, 474 Centre Street, Newton, MA

The world premiere of Patricia Van Ness’s Under the Shadow of Your Wing. The rest of the program features personal favorites of Van Ness by Renaissance composers Tomas Luis de Victoria, Thomas Weelkes, and Thomas Tallis; Russian Orthodox composers Sergei Rachmaninoff and Piotr I Tchaikovsky; and the ancient Greek composer known as Kassia.

— Susan Miron

---

Jazz

Mattapan Speaks Jazz
May 1 at 2 p.m.
William E. Carter VFW Post, Mattapan, MA.

The closing day of Boston Jazz Week includes this musical celebration of the jazz roots of the Mattapan community. Veteran Boston pianist Frank Wilkins and his WeJazzUp band will host the festivities, with special guests TBA.

The Boston Creative Jazz Scene, Then and Now
May 1 at 7 p.m.
Piano Craft Gallery, Boston, MA.

Composer, trumpeter, and Aardvark Jazz Orchestra honcho Mark Harvey this year released a book-length essay that chronicled the Boston progressive jazz scene of the ’70s, of which he was vital part. Harvey will discuss that ongoing history, as well as play some music, with flute player Peter Bloom, saxophonist Arni Cheatham, and others, as part of this Boston Jazz Week event.

Jazz Barracudas
May 3 at 8 p.m.
Outpost 186, Cambridge, MA.

The Israeli-born New Bedford tenor saxophonist Benny Sharoni plays with big sound and a lot of imagination. He doesn’t often hit the Boston-Cambridge scene, so this “5 de Mayo fiesta,” with the Jazz Barracudas, is a rare opportunity for Cantabrigians and neighbors to check him out on home turf. The Barracudas are drummer Gillian De Lear, tenor saxophonist Christopher Bonner Pitts, bassist Richard Hale Shaw, and guitarist Scott Davidson. They’re billing it as a night of standards, with an open jam session and refreshments

Fully Celebrated Orchestra
May 3 at 10:30 p.m.
Lily Pad, Cambridge, MA.

The gifted, charismatic alto saxophonist Jim Hobbs is the centerpiece for this long-running trio, which these days includes the group’s original bassist, Timo Shanko, and the fine drummer Luther Gray.

Tetraptych
May 4 at 7:30 p.m.
Lily Pad, Cambridge, MA.

Check the Lily Pad website for pianist and composer Bert Seager’s engaging explanation of this quartet’s name. Suffice it to say, they like grooves and song forms but they also like to stretch and invite the unexpected. The band is rounded out by Cuban-born tenor saxophonist Hery Paz, Israeli-born drummer Dor Herskovits, and bassist Max Ridley.

Alexei Tsiganov
May 5 at 7:30 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge, MA.

So adept is he with the bossa and samba traditions that Russian-born pianist and vibes player Alexei Tsiganov has come to be known in town as an honorary Brazilian. His cohort on this trip out include the very fine former Rio sessionman Paul Lieberman on flute and saxophones, bassist Gregory Ryan, guitarist Freddie Bryant, and drummer Renato Malavasi. Brazil is a Tsiganov specialty, but his jazz chops range far and wide.

Dave Douglas
May 6 at 7:30 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge, MA.

The ever-inventive trumpeter, composer, and indie-label owner Dave Douglas comes to town with his latest project, the electric-leaning group High Risk, with founding Groove Collective bassist Jonathan Maron; drummer Mark Guiliana, who turned a few rock fans’ heads with his typically stunning work as part of Donny McCaslin’s group on David Bowie’s last album; and electronics guy Shigeto.

Dave Bryant Quartet
May 6 at 8 p.m.
Outpost 186, Cambridge, MA.

The former Ornette Coleman Prime Time keyboardist fronts a quartet with tenor saxophonist Tom Hall, bassist Jacob William, and drummer Eric Rosenthal.

Freda Payne
May 6 at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m.
Scullers Jazz Club, Boston, MA.

Freda Payne made her name with the 1970 R&B hit “Band of Gold,” but she came up as a Detroit jazz singer, working with big bands. She’s re-establishing her jazz cred with “Come Back to Me Love,” featuring a big band led by the esteemed composer and arranger Bill Cunliffe. Expect a smaller group at Scullers backing Payne’s vocals, which are still supple and assured.

John Tchicai Memorial Concert
May 7 at 8 p.m.
Third Life Studio, Somerville, MA.

The late, great Danish saxophonist and composer John Tchicai, who was a deeply involved in the ’60s New York avant-garde (most memorably as a member of John Coltrane’s ensemble on Ascension), in his later years formed a strong bond with a small circle of Boston musicians, including saxophonist Charlie Kohlhase. Kohlhase celebrates what would have been Tchicai’s 80th birthday (April 28) with trumpeter Dan Rosenthal, guitarist Eric Hofbauer, bassist Aaron Darrell, and drummer Curt Newton.

— Jon Garelick

---

World Music and Roots

Alasdair Frasier & Natalie Haas
May 3 and 4
Club Passim, Cambridge, MA

A long-running, much admired duo whose influence is so outsized that today no one bats an eye that this “traditional” Scottish combo includes a cello. An unusually small Boston-area venue for this pair.

Easy Ed’s Variety Hour 10th Anniversary
May 7
Midway Cafe, Jamaica Plain, MA

Each week WMFO host Easy Ed blasts out a boppin’ mix of rockabilly, doo-wop, hillbilly, and early R&B to both local listeners and thousands of podcast subscribers. He also routinely hosts shows featuring local and touring rockabilly talent. Five of the area’s finest bands will provide entertainment for the day/night shindig with plenty of 45s spun in between sets. Of particular note is a rare reunion of local hero Johnny Carlevale’s R&B-driven Band of All Stars.

Afro-Cuban All-Stars
May 8
Berklee Performance Center, Boston, MA

Tres player Juan de Marcos González was at the birth of the Cuban music revival when he helped lead the first recording session by what would become the Buena Vista Social Club. In the wake of that project’s success, González and his Afro-Cuban All-Stars became concert hall mainstays. Like many of their compatriots, they found themselves the victim of post-9/11 visa denials. Now González and co. are back with a 16-piece lineup.

— Noah Schaffer

---

Visual Art

Wind, Waves and Light: Kinetic Sculpture by George Sherwood
Through October 31
Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, VT

Trained as an engineer, George Sherwood worked in the research development arm of the Danish toy company, LEGO, before turning to making sculpture full time. He was inspired by movement in modern dance and theater as well as the work of sculptor George Ricky. A half dozen of Sherwood’s stainless steel, kinetic sculpture will grace the extensive grounds of the Shelburne Museum through the fall. Controlled by a system of rotating joins and aerodynamic surfaces, Sherwood’s pieces both reflect and animate their surroundings. “Each sculpture is a three-dimensional painting of shifting light,” Sherwood says, “drawing all the colors of the environment, pulling down the sky, drawing up the earth and gathering everything in between.”

Dominique Ehrmann: Once Upon a Quilt
Through October 31
Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, VT

Quilts are not just for sleeping anymore. Contemporary fiber artist Dominique Hermann’s quilts burst into three dimensions, move around, tell stories, and have a lively sense of humor. More than sixteen examples are on view in this Shelburne exhibition.

John C. Gonzalez” Works well with others
May 7 – June 12
Bell Gallery, Brown University, Providence, RI

Providence artist John C. Gonzalez’s work is all about collaboration and networking. In 2013, he co-oped his day job at a local Home Depot in order to create Home Depot House, a one-room house used to house residence artists. It is constructed in collaboration with his employers, his co-workers, an architectural firm, and any one else willing to lend a hand. This exhibition will feature a collaboration planned especially for the Bell Gallery along with a survey of Gonzalez’s earlier works. It is the artist’s first major solo show in his home town.

CounterCraft: Voice of the Indie Craft Community
May 7 -July 10
Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA

Since American handicrafts were revived in the early 20th-century, first as part of the Arts and Crafts movement, later as part of Great Depression social projects in the 1930s and hippie home industries in the 1960s and 70s, American craft has had left-wing political and countercultural overtones. This exhibition, organized by artist and curator Faythe Levine, explores the counter- of the counter: DIY Culture and and the Indie Craft Movement. The show features ten artists and groups who unite sophisticated hand techniques with the aesthetics of modern art and design, creating one-of-a-kind pieces with a long cultural heritage.

A Good Summer’s Work: J. Alden Weir, Connecticut Impressionist
May 7 – September 11
Lyman Allen Art Museum, New London, CT

Raised at West Point, where his father taught drawing to the military academy’s cadets, including James Mc.Neill Whistler, painter J. Alden Weir became a leading American Impressionist who divided his time between New York City and rural Connecticut, where he eventually owned a farm and studio in the western part of the state. Many of his best works, though, were created in summer campaigns in his lesser-known retreat in Windham in the eastern part of the state, where he painted for nearly four decades. Bringing together more than forty works from museums and private collections, this show unites Weir’s eastern Connecticut work with that of other artists in his circle, including Childe Hassam and John Singer Sargent.

— Peter Walsh

---

Rock, Pop, and Folk

Born Ruffians with On and On
Thursday, May 5 (doors at 8 p.m.)
Middle East Downstairs, Cambridge, MA

Born Ruffians is a Toronto-based quartet that released its fourth LP RUFF last October. The band has been favorably compared to a number of its influences: past bands such as the Talking Heads and The Pixies and contemporary groups, Animal Collective and Vampire Weekend among them. Although they have not yet crafted a record on the level of these bands’ greatness, Born Ruffians’ songs are consistently lively and inspired enough to make their albums worthwhile listening experiences. Go hear some of what the band considers its best at the Middle East Downstairs this Thursday.

Eleanor Friedberger with Icewater and Soft Pyramids
Friday, May 6 (doors 7 p.m.)
Middle East Upstairs, Cambridge, MA

The Fiery Furnaces was one of the most prolific, adventurous, and unpredictable acts of the aughts. However, they have been on an extended (if not unofficially permanent) hiatus since 2009. This has given Eleanor Friedberger, the distaff part of the brother-sister duo, the opportunity to record three albums of her own, including this year’s New View. Somerville’s Soft Pyramids and NYC’s Icewater will open her early show at Middle East Upstairs on Friday.

Robby Krieger
Saturday, May 7 (doors at 7 p.m., show at 8 p.m.)
The Cabot, Beverly, MA

Jim Morrison was the main songwriter for The Doors, but Robby Krieger penned the immortal “Light My Fire” and a slew of other classics. Ray Manzarek’s organ may have given the band its instantly identifiable sound, but Krieger’s unique style allowed him to stand out among the swarm flashy late-1960s lead guitarists. On Saturday, the 70-year old will treat a Cabot audience to a set that will most likely be dominated by some of the greatest rocks songs of their era.

Amy Rigby
Sunday, May 8 (4 p.m.)
Atwood’s Tavern, Cambridge, MA

“Dean of American Rock Critics” Robert Christgau wrote in his review of Amy Rigby’s 2005 album Little Fugitive, “no one of any gender or generation has written as many good songs in Rigby’s realistic post-folk mode since she launched Diary of a Mod Housewife in 1996.” The latter CD, which was her solo debut, resulted in Rigby’s being named Songwriter of the Year by SPIN. Rigby is married to the one-of-a-kind English punk rocker Wreckless Eric, with whom she has recorded three albums since 2008. If you need to turn in early next Sunday evening but want to savor every last available moment of the weekend, join her for a 4 p.m. performance at Atwood’s on May 8.

Protomartyr with Black Beach and Pucker Up
Sunday, May 8 (doors at 9 p.m.)
Great Scott, Allston, MA

Led by singer-songwriter Joe Casey, Detroit’s Protomartyr has recorded three albums of critically acclaimed material since 2012. With 2015’s The Agent Intellect, it was not a question of if it appeared on any given with-it publication’s best-of list, but how high on said list it was. Protomartyr will probably never headline arenas or stadiums, but the fans that come to see them at venues like Club Bohemia, Middle East Upstairs, and (next Sunday) Great Scott will always be reverential ones. If you have diverse taste in music and don’t have to work on Monday, go see Amy Rigby, grab some dinner, then go to this show.

Wild Nothing with Charlie Hilton
Monday, May 9 (doors at 7 p.m., show at 8 p.m.)
The Sinclair, Cambridge, MA

“If Wild Nothing’s debut album, Gemini, consisted of nothing more that the song ‘Summer Holiday’ and 25 minutes of a dial tone, it would still be one of the best records to come out of the lo-fi, reverb pop scene of 2010.” So wrote Tim Sendra on the website AllMusic.com. Fortunately, Jack Tatum’s one-man-band is no one-song wonder, as albums of comparably high quality followed in 2012 with Nocturne and — after a four-year wait — Life of Pause, which appeared in February. Recommended for fans of ‘80s bands like The Psychedelic Furs and Talk Talk and ‘90s ones such as Belle & Sebastian and The Magnetic Fields.

Upcoming and on sale:

Fruit Bats (May 7, Once Ballroom); Peter Wolf (May 12, Somerville Theatre); Barry & The Remains, Lyres, Cali Cali Band, Muck & the Mires (May 13, Once Ballroom); King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard (May 13, The Sinclair); Art Garfunkel (May 15, Larcom Theatre); Nada Surf (June 4, Paradise Rock Club); Carl Palmer’s ELP Legacy (June 7, Regent Theatre); Diiv (June 7, The Sinclair); Modern English (June 7, Middle East Downstairs); Dungen (June 16, The Sinclair); Pere Ubu (June 27, Sinclair); Guided By Voices (July 11, Paradise Rock Club); Sonny & The Sunsets (July 12, ONCE Ballroom); Wussy (July 13, Middle East Upstairs); Rhett Miller (July 16, ONCE Ballroom); Paul McCartney (July 17, Fenway Park); Bryan Ferry (July 31, Blue Hills Bank Pavilion); Yes (August 4, Lynn Auditorium); Ani DiFranco (September 1 and 2, Shalin Liu Performance Center); Little Feat (September 8, Wilbur Theatre); Echo & The Bunnymen (September 8, House of Blues); The Specials (September 12, House of Blues)

— Blake Maddux

---

Author Events

Diane Guerrero
In The Country We Love: My Family Divided
May 3 at 7 p.m.
Brookline Booksmith, Coolidge Corner MA
Free

One of the featured players in Jane the Virgin and Orange Is The New Black, Guerrero tells the story of being born in the U.S. but having her parents taken away because of their status as undocumented immigrants.

Angela Duckworth
In Conversation with Amy Cuddy
Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance
May 4 at 6 p.m (Doors open at 5:30)
Brattle Theatre, Cambridge, MA
$5 tickets

Duckworth is a psychologist and recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” grant who argues in her new book that talent isn’t all that’s required to succeed — determination and persistence is key. How do you stay on point after you fall down? She interviewed a variety of people who are defined by their tenacity — teachers, football coaches, army cadets — and shares her findings from her “character lab.”

Richard Russo
Everybody’s Fool
May 5 at 7 p.m.
The Odyssey Bookshop, South Hadley, MA
Free, but reservations are required

Richard Russo describes the follow-up to his prize-winning Nobody’s Fool thus: “North Bath, in Nobody’s Fool, was a down-on-its-luck mill town whose dismal past and present was made that much worse by the fact that its nearest neighbor, Schuyler Springs, has continued to prosper. Ten years later this disparity has grown, despite the born-again optimism of its new mayor, and that begs the question: at what point are we—whether as individuals or communities—wise to just give up and accept our fate.”

Adam Haslett
Imagine Me Gone
May 9 at 7 p.m.
Harvard Book Store, Cambridge, MA
Free

The Pulitzer and National Book Award finalist comes to Cambridge to read and sign copies of his latest novel, a turbulent multi-generational family chronicle that has garnered enthusiastic praise from the likes of Tony Kushner, Joy Williams, and Colum McCann.

Amy Goodman
Democracy Now!: Twenty Years Covering the Movements Changing America
May 10 at 7 p.m.
First Parish Church, Cambridge, MA
Free

Starting up in 1996, Democracy Now! is the largest public media collaboration in the country. Part of the ongoing Cambridge Forum series, the venerable journalist sits down with her journalist brother David and co-author Denis Moynihan to reflect on decades of radical journalism that did the invaluable service of investigatingthe issues, topics, and grassroots movements ignored or marginalized by the mainstream.

— Matt Hanson