Coming Attractions: June 2 through 18 — What Will Light Your Fire

By The Arts Fuse Staff

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

Film

The Silence of Others
through June 9
Museum of Fine Arts Boston, MA

Produced by Pedro Almodóvar, this documentary explores the struggle to come to terms with Spain’s 40-year dictatorship under General Franco. Filmed over six years, the film follows victims and survivors as they fight for justice, organizing the groundbreaking “Argentine Lawsuit” in the face of considerable odds, including a state-imposed amnesia regarding ‘crimes against humanity’ in a country that’s still divided about its past after four decades of democracy.


Eat Up
June 5–9
Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, MA

If you have school age kids, or are concerned about our public schools, this fast paced, entertaining, and insightful look at how we feed our children is well worth a look. The documentary examines how an ambitious female entrepreneur sets out to reinvent school lunches for the better, bumping up against bureaucracy, regulations, and a team of stalwart lunch ladies.

The Passion of Joan of Arc
June 6 at 7 p.m.
Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline, MA

The Sounds Of Silents® series presents The Berklee Silent Film Orchestra’s fourteenth silent film concert. The choice this time around is The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer; the movie has been named “the most influential film of all time” by the Toronto International Film Festival. Roger Ebert said “to see Marie Falconetti in Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc is to look into eyes that will never leave you.” Arts Fuse preview

The Dead Don’t Die
June 6 at 7 p.m.
Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, MA

The Films of Jim Jarmusch Repertory Series is capped with a preview of his latest effort, which stars Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Tilda Swinton, Tom Waits, and Chloë Sevigny (appearing in person). Given this cast, in a film made by one of our quirkiest directors, plus the fact that the screening is free (with an advance reservation), means that this will sell out early. Get your tickets early. Seating for Brattle members who RSVP’d will begin at 6:15. Member seats will not be guaranteed past 6:45. General seating will be on a first-come first-served basis, beginning at approximately 6:30.

“aKasha,” one of the movies screening at the MFA’s Arab Film Festival.

Arab Film Week
June 7—16
Museum of Fine Arts Boston, MA

MFA Film, along with The Boston Palestine Film Festival, presents a survey of contemporary films from the Arab region of North Africa and the Middle East. This year’s festival opens with the Lebanese film Capernaum, winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. It also includes the touching drama Yomeddine, Egypt’s submission for Best Foreign Language at the Academy Awards. For newcomers to Arab cinema or devoted fans, this festival is well worth your time.

The Provincetown Film Festival
June 12 – 16
Provincetown, MA

John Cameron Mitchell receives the Filmmaker on the Edge Award and Jillian Bell the Next Wave Award at the 21st Provincetown Film Festival, which means they will be in conversation with John Waters. The festival includes specially themed breakfast panels, guest appearances and a broadcast of ‘Modern Love Live’ presented by WBUR and The New York Times. The rise of gay-themed cinema means that this year will be filled with exceptional LGBTQ stories of love, struggle, and triumph. The Complete Schedule is here.

Joni Mitchell, Richie Havens, Joan Baez, Jack Elliott, and Bob Dylan perform at a Madison Square Garden benefit concert in a scene from “Rolling Thunder Revue,” screening on June 12.

Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese
June 12 at 7:30 p.m.
Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, MA

Director Martin Scorsese captures the troubled spirit of America in 1975 and the joyous music that Bob Dylan performed during the fall of that year. Equal parts documentary, concert film, and fever dream, Rolling Thunder Revue is a one-of-a-kind experience, partly because it features interviews with icons of the era, from Patti Smith to Allen Ginsberg.

— Tim Jackson


Jazz

Vibist Joel Ross will perform this week at Scullers Jazz Club.

Joel Ross
June 6 at 8 p.m.
Scullers Jazz Club, Boston, MA.

Early-twenty-something vibist Joel Ross made his Blue Note Records debut last month with the release of KingMaker. It shows him to be an exploratory composer and player, worthy of the label that brought us Bobby Hutcherson. He comes to Scullers with his band Good Vibes, which on disc at least, includes alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, pianist Jeremy Corren, bassist Benjamin Tiberio, and drummer Jeremy Dutton.

Yoko Miwa Trio 
June 7 at 7:30 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge, MA.

Pianist Yoko Miwa has long been admired for her superb touch, lyricism, and harmonic refinement, but on her new Keep Talkin’  there’s also a different kind of rhythmic ebullience, from the fleet opening original title track to jazz standards like Monk’s “In Walked Bud,”  and Mingus’s “Boogie Stop Shuffle.” And again, she fully inhabits and redefines unlikely pop covers (Joni Mitchell’s “Conversation,” a diptych of Lennon and McCartney’s “Golden Slumbers” and “You Never Give Me Your Money” ). Miwa is well known around town for her residencies at restaurants and bistros, but these club shows are always special — where the audience is there for one reason: to listen. Miwa is joined by bassist Brad Barrett and drummer Scott Goulding.

Driff Fest
June 8 from 7:30 p.m. to 1 a.m.
Lilypad, Cambridge, MA.

The indefatigable Cambridge-based avant-garde record label Driff  presents its fourth annual festival with seven acts playing in multiple configurations, beginning with solo vibraphonist Andria Nicodemou and culminating with Jeb Bishop’s 11-piece Every Opportunity  at 11 p.m. and a “Jazz Party” at 11:50 p.m. with trombonist Bishop, trumpeter Forbes Graham, saxophonist Charlie Kohlhase, pianist Pandelis Karayorgis, bassist Jef Charland, and drummer Curt Newton. Other players featured throughout the night include Driff cofounder (with Karayorgis) Jorrit Dijkstra, saxophonist Allan Chase, cellist Junko Fujiwara, drummers Luther Gray and Eric Rosenthal, bassist Nate McBride, and more. These folks are masters of all manner of improvised music, and the Cambridge-Boston scene is lucky to have them.

Bill Charlap Trio
June 14 at 7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m.
Regattabar, Cambridge, MA.

The pianist Bill Charlap goes deep, deep into the heart of the American Songbook standards like no one else. He comes to Scullers with his longtime rhythm team, bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington (no relation).

Charlie Kohlhase
June 15 at 8 p.m.
Lilypad, Cambridge, MA.

Speaking of Charlie Kohlhase (see Driff Fest, June 8), the fine saxophonist, composer, and bandleader is convening what he calls the “Great (North East) Jazz Reunion,” with an estimable cohort: Seth Meicht, joining Kohlhase on saxophones; trombonist and tubist Bill Lowe; bassist Joe Fonda; and drummer Warren Smith.

Umbrella Pine will perform at Third Life Studio on June 15.

Umbrella Pine/Strings Theory Trio
June 15 at 8 p.m.
Third Life Studio, Somerville, MA.

A provocative double bill: The duo of reed player Allison Burik and guitarist Magdalena Abrego, abetted by various electronics, continue their ongoing (since 2013) duo project Umbrella Pine. Meanwhile, the esteemed Boston-area violinist Mimi Rabson is joined by fellow five-string player Helen Sherrah-Davies and cellist Junko Fujiwara in Strings Theory Trio, playing at the “intersection of chamber music and directed improvisation.”

— Jon Garelick

Jerry Bergonzi (ts), with Phil Grenadier (b), Luther Gray (dm), and guests (at 830 p.m.) and The Fringe [George Garzone (ts/ss), John Lockwood (b), Bob Gullotti (dm)] (at 10:30 p.m.) – at the Lilypad, June 3. Bergonzi, a saxophone giant, brings his long-standing trio and occasional guest artists to Inman Square’s intimate avant-garde storefront at 8:30 p.m. every Monday. Then The Fringe, one of the greatest free-jazz ensembles in the world, featuring fellow sax giant Garzone, come on at 10:30. Come hear what the regulars already know – this is the place to be on Monday nights.

— Steve Elman


Dance

Rhapsody
through June 9
Citizens Bank Opera House
Boston, MA

Boston Ballet concludes its season with Rhapsody—a mixed-repertory program that includes George Balanchine’s Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2; a trio of short works by Leonid Yakobson; and a world premiere by Boston Ballet Principal Dancer Paulo Arrais, set to a jazzy score by George Gershwin.

NATyA Dance Collective presents Samsara.

LINEAGE
June 2
Boston University Dance Theater
Boston, MA

Across the Ages Dance Project presents new works by choreographers Joanie Block, Audra Carabetta, Alexander Davis and Joy Davis, Brian Feigenbaum, The Wondertwins – Billy and Bobby McClain, Meghan McLyman, and Liana Percoco in its 2019 production Lineage. With 40 performers ranging in age from seven to 83, this intergenerational performance beautifully integrates an array of dancers, from the technically trained to the contemporary pedestrian—highlighting each of their kinetic strengths.

Dance for World Community Festival
June 8 from noon-7 p.m.
Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre
Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA

Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre’s annual Dance for World Community Festival returns for its 11th year, boasting free indoor and outdoor performances by more than 80 dance groups, in addition to an array of food vendors, free introductory dance classes, and arts advocacy groups.

“For the Children” depicts stories of immigrant families separated at the American border. Photo: courtesy of the artist

For the Children
June 9-23
Performance venues vary between Newton, Boston, and Cambridge, MA. Visit website for details.

Dance Currents and Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston present a collaborative performance as part of Pro Arte’s Salon Series. Inspired by the growing attention to immigrant families being separated at the American border, For the Children‘s six sections depict loss, love, and endurance, accompanied by six of Edvard Grieg’s Lyric Pieces played live by Pro Arte. Also on the program is Li-Ann Lim performing in “Limon Etude.” Please note: The performances at Brown Jr. High and The Dance Complex will not include the musicians.

And further afield…

PVDFest
June 6 through 9
Downtown Providence, 1 Kennedy Plaza
Providence, RI

Be sure to make a trip down to Providence, RI, for the fifth year of PVDFest, presented by the City of Providence’s Department of Art, Culture + Tourism, and FirstWorks. This four-day event features an exhilarating barrage of art installations, live music, dance, and culinary creations highlighting worldwide stars and local talent—not to mention that this massive event is completely free!

Global Water Dances
June 15 at 3 p.m.
Watson Park
Merrimack, NH

Funded by New England Grassroots Environment Fund and co-sponsored by Citizens for Clean Water, Luminarium Dance Company presents a performance advocating for safe water as part of the international Global Water Dances 2019 event. Witness an afternoon of guest speakers and dance as Luminarium performs new works that shed light on the Merrimack community’s water contamination issue through human impact stories and site-specific movement.

— Merli V. Guerra


Visual Arts

“Piecework Denim.” Photo: courtesy of the artist.

Ericka Beckman: Double Reverse
Through July 28
MIT List Gallery
20 Ames St, Cambridge, MA

Ericka Beckman’s work poses questions about gender, competition, power, and control. The signature energetic pacing and sound of her films reflect the characteristics of a game, as the artist forms connections between gambling, capitalism, and labor, as well as the “gamification” of our society through an obsession with scores, competitions, and rewards. This exhibit features four of Beckman’s films, a survey of her work from 1983 to 2016. This is the first time this work will be seen together in the U.S.

Map This: Sustainable Fashion
June 6 through August 30
Urbano Project
29 Germania St. Jamaica Plain, MA

Exploring the future of design, artist-in-residence Nathalia JMag combines contemporary fashion with a sustainable approach. This exhibition features a collection of JMag’s latest designs. From upcycling old clothing to using all-natural dyes, these pieces demonstrate an alternative to factory-based production in favor of an eco-friendly fashion future.

Prince Shōtoku: The Secrets Within
Through Aug 11
Harvard Art Museums
32 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138

The Harvard Art Museums presents Prince Shotoku at Age Two, the earliest known image of the founder of Buddhism in Japan. Viewers will have the opportunity to see this hollow wood sculpture “from the inside out,” accompanied by over 70 religious objects originally stored inside the sculpture for 700 years. This will be the first time Harvard has presented the entire collection of objects, along with the statue.

Georgie Friedman: Fragments of Antarctica
Through September 16
Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA

After receiving a 2017 Traveling Fellowship from the SMFA at Tufts University, Georgie Friedman journeyed to the Antarctic Peninsula to sketch, film, and photograph its shrinking landscape in preparation for this exhibit. he documents (and in the process transforms) the desolate beauty of an increasingly fragile region of the world. From immersive video to kinetic sculpture hung high overhead, the show’s work will no doubt spark essential conversations about the earth’s endangered ecosystem, raising questions about the future of our natural existence.

“Jumping Spider,” James M Collins. Photo: courtesy of Griffin Museum of Photography.

Patio Life
Griffin Museum of Photography
67 Shore Road Winchester, MA
June 13 through September 17

Photographer Jamie Collins carefully watches the small visitors in his backyard. His mission: to document the plethora of insect life swarming around his urban home. Spiders, flies, pillbugs and various other creepy critters are captured in stunning clarity by his micro-lens. These beautifully detailed shots give us a new perspective on the often hidden wor in our own backyard.

Body Mass
Boston CyberArts
141 Green Street, Jamaica Plain, Boston MA
Through June 23

An inquiry into the significance of the contemporary body, this exhibit wonders what happens when we upload our existence onto the ethereal spaces of the internet. How does the body stay relevant when the world is digital? Nine artists investigate how the modern body interacts with technology as our lives intertwine with all-consuming digital devices that alter our perception and recreate the world.

Larry Buller, Nancy Boi, 2016, Low-Fire Clay, Terra Sigillata, Low-Fire Glaze and Decals.

PRIED
Society of Arts + Crafts (SA+C)
100 Pier 4 Blvd., Boston, MA
through June 30, 2019

On view through Pride Month 2019, over 30 artists across the country come together in this exhibition, examining their place in the world as well as within the LGBTQ community. Instead of highlighting the artists’ sexual identities, this selection of works seeks to challenge preconceived notions of “queer craft.” The exhibit looks critically at both viewers and craft aficionados who seek out this type of work, examining the sincerity of their intentions and acceptance of the LGBTQ artist.

–- Rebekah Bonner


Roots and World Music

The Arlington Global Service Station — an entertainment venue like no other.

GARAGE BAND: a post Arlington Porchfest dance party with live music from the Bittersweet Band and School of HONK.
June 8, 6 to 8 p.m. [rain date June 9]
Arlington Global Service Station, 334 Mass Avenue, Arlington, MA 02474
Free and open to all.

A chance to boogie and bop in a unique environment: “a pop-up dance party, a celebration of community, a gathering in an unusual venue, the Arlington Global Service Station, a classic auto service station that has become, thanks to input from neighborhood artist Johnny Lapham, a public art landmark in the heart of Arlington’s Cultural District.”

Susan Alcorn performing on Steel Guitar. Photo: Wiki Commons

Susan Alcorn (pedal steel guitar), solo and trio with Damon Smith (bass) and Jeb Bishop (trombone)
June 14 at 8 p.m.
At the Metropolitan Waterworks Museum, 2450 Beacon Street, Boston, MA

For those who want to experience something fabulously different: Susan Alcorn takes “the pedal steel guitar far beyond its traditional role in country music. Having first paid her dues in Texas country & western bands, she began to expand the vocabulary of her instrument through her study of 20th century classical music, visionary jazz, and world musics.”

— Bill Marx

Joan Shelley
June 4
Club Passim, Cambridge, MA

The exceptional singer/songwriter Shelley may be a native of Kentucky, but her Appalachian trappings pretty much end there. In performance, her bold voice and lyrics take center stage. Her latest recording, Rivers & Vessels, is a low-key covers EP. All the proceeds from the disc go to benefit the Kentucky Waterways Alliance.

PVDFest
June 6-9
Providence, Rhode Island

This free festival, which takes place in much of downtown Providence, returns with another lineup heavy on both local heroes and world music stars. Highlights include salsa mainstays Grupo Niche, Samite of Uganda and Ukraine’s DakhaBrakha, which not only performs but will be presenting a borscht-making demonstration. (Guess that puts Rhode Island on the borscht belt.)

Harmonizing Stars 50th Anniversary
June 9, 4 p.m.
Zion Holy Temple Church, 79 Stanton Street, Dorchester, MA

For 50 years the Harmonizing Stars have been singing a capella gospel in churches, subway stations, and street corners around New England. For the first time ever, the group will be backed by a live band for part of their set. The program also includes another musical dynasty, the Young Bullock Brothers. Look for a full feature on the Harmonizing Stars later this week on The Arts Fuse.

Ernie Smith with SoulShot
June 15
Knickbocker Music Center, Westerly, RI

Another 50 year anniversary celebration: the current tour by Jamaican vocal dynamo Ernie Smith. As we discussed in an 2015 Arts Fuse interview with Ernie, his sound ranges from soul to reggae to country. Whatever the genre, he always tells a story. Smith will be backed by longtime collaborators SoulShot.

Jay Caldwell and the Gospel Ambassadors will be performing on June 16.

Jay Caldwell and the Gospel Ambassadors Retirement Program
June 16, 4 p.m.
Charles Street AME Church, 55 Warren Street, Dorchester, MA

Delaware gospel veteran Jay Caldwell has sung his classics, such Take Off Your Shoes, somewhere in Boston every Father’s Day for the past 52 years. This will be his final appearance: he is retiring from life on the gospel highway. Many of Boston’s finest, like the Spiritual Encouragers and Men of Sounds, will be singing as well.

— Noah Schaffer


Theater

A scene from the American Repertory Theater’s production of “They Live in Cairo.” Photo: Evgenia Eliseeva.

We Live in Cairo by Daniel Lazour and Patrick Lazour. Directed by Taibi Magar. Staged by the American Repertory Theater at the Loeb Drama Center, Cambridge, MA, through June 23.

“Inspired by the young Egyptians who took to the streets in 2011 to overthrow President Hosni Mubarak, this new musical follows six revolutionary students armed with laptops and cameras, guitars and spray cans as they come of age in contemporary Cairo. Winner of the Richard Rodgers Award for Musical Theater,” the piece “moves from the hope of Tahrir Square through the tumultuous years that followed. As escalating division and violence lead to a military crackdown, the young revolutionaries must confront the question of how—or even whether—to keep their dreams of change alive.” A world premiere. Arts Fuse review

The Stone by Marius von Mayenburg. Directed by Igor Golyak. Staged by Arlekin Players Theatre at the Studio 368 at Hillside Avenue, Needham, MA, through June 9. (These performances are in Russian with audio-translation in English. The show will return September 13th – 22nd in English.)

“In 1935, a young couple purchases a house from a Jewish family in Dresden, Germany. The play follows the lives of the house’s residents, who must grapple with their own identity while experiencing the reverberations created by 60 years of German history. As the house is passed from owner to owner, and generation to generation, the secrets buried in the garden and within the walls reveal themselves.” Arts Fuse review

Pacific Overtures, Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Book by John Weidman. Directed by Spiro Veloudos. Music Director, Jonathan Goldberg. Choreography by Micheline Wu. Staged by Lyric Stage Company at 140 Clarendon Street, Copley Square, Boston, MA, through June 16.

The Sondheim project continues: “An unlikely friendship is forged between a samurai, Kayama, and an Americanized fisherman, Manjiro, during Commodore Matthew Perry’s 1853 mission to open trade relations with isolationist Japan. The two friends are caught in the inevitable winds of change and tell the story of Japan’s painful and harrowing Westernization. A highly original, inventive, powerful, and surprisingly humorous theatrical experience.” Arts Fuse review

A scene from one of The Nature Plays — “Cerulean Blue.”

The Nature Plays by Patrick Gabridge. Directed by Courtney O’Connor. At Mount Auburn Cemetery, 580 Mt. Auburn Street, Cambridge, MA, through June 9.

An intriguing experiment in environmental theater. “The first of two series of site-specific plays created by the Cemetery’s first Playwright Artist-in-Residence, Patrick Gabridge. His Mount Auburn Plays will be presented in two sets of 5 unique plays each. The Nature Plays highlight stories inspired by the rich natural environment of Mount Auburn with topics such as spotted salamanders in Consecration Dell, birders at Auburn Lake, and historic debates between naturalists who are buried at the Cemetery. Audiences will experience the performances at various spots across the grounds, surrounded by the sights and sounds of the natural world. Each performance will be followed by a discussion.” And bring your walking shoes and an umbrella (just in case): “Plays will run rain or shine, run time is approximately 75 minutes and will include walking within the Cemetery on paved and unpaved surfaces; total walking distance approx. 1 mile.”

I Hate Hamlet by Paul Rudnick. Directed by Fran Weinberg. Staged by Titanic Theatre at the BCA Plaza Black Box Theater, 539 Tremont Street, Boston, MA, through June 15.

A revival of a theater-drenched comedy that “tells the story of Andy Rally, a television actor whose career is in limbo. Offered the once-in-a-lifetime chance to play Hamlet, Andy has a serious problem: he hates Hamlet. Enter the ghost of John Barrymore, in full costume, offering advice, and challenging him to a duel of ideas.”

This Girl Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing by Finegan Kruckmeyer, Directed by Marta Rainer. Staged by the Wellesley Repertory Theatre at the Ruth Nagel Jones Theatre, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA, through June 30

The New England premiere of a critically admired script by a Tasmanian playwright. “After being abandoned by their father, triplet sisters are left to find their places in the world. One looks for purpose, another for adventure and the last stays where she is to create a home. Twenty years later, having circled the globe and fought Vikings, toppled lighthouses, fed whole towns with scrumptious pastries and overcome beastly obstacles to achieve greatness, the three meet again as women.” Billed as a charming fairy tale.

The Waverly Gallery by Kenneth Lonergan. Directed by Tina Packer. Staged by Shakespeare & Company in the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre, 70 Kemble St. in Lenox, MA, through July 14.

Shakespeare & Company kicks off its summer season. “Once a vibrant lawyer, Greenwich Village activist and family matriarch, Gladys Green has run a charming boutique art gallery on Waverly Place for decades, but now stands to lose its tenancy, as her world shrinks through loss of memory and hearing. Featuring Elizabeth Aspenlieder and Annette Miller. Arts Fuse review

The View Upstairs by Max Vernon (Book, Music, Lyrics). Directed by Paul Daigneault. Staged by SpeakEasy Stage Company in the Plaza Theatre at the Boston Center for the Arts, 537 Tremont Street, Boston, through June 22.

The New England premiere of a musical “inspired by a historical event, the firebombing of the UpStairs Lounge in New Orleans in 1973, which, up until the Pulse Nightclub shooting in 2016, was the deadliest assault on a gay bar in US history.” Arts Fuse review

Poet and playwright Federico García Lorca.

Yerma by Federico García Lorca, adapted and translated by Melinda Lopez. Directed by Melia Bensussen. Staged by the Huntington Theatre Company at the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA, 527 Tremont Street, Boston, MA, June 12 through 30.

“Yerma, a young wife, wants nothing more than to have a child and become a devoted mother. As she watches her friends start their families, she begins to question her own value as a woman. Her desperate desire turns into an all-consuming obsession with devastating consequences.”

Cloud 9 by Caryl Churchill. Directed by Lee Mikeska Gardner. Staged by the Nora Theatre Company at the Central Square Theater, 450 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, June 6 through 30.

Interesting to see if this 1979 script holds up — a recent London revival of Churchill’s 1982 play, Top Girls, went over very well. “Victorian repression clashes with liberal expression. Cloud 9 follows a British family from colonial Africa to contemporary London. Unexpected trysts. Gender swaps. Role reversals. Power plays.” The company is fielding a strong cast: Aislinn Brophy, Joshua Wolf Coleman, Stephanie Clayman, Marge Dunn, Kody Grassett, Sophorl Ngin, and Alexander Platt.

King of Shadows by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa. Directed by Michael Hisamoto. Staged by the Flat Earth Theatre at the Mosesian Center for the Arts, 321 Arsenal Street, Watertown, MA, June 7 through 22.

“Well-intentioned grad student Jessica unwittingly stumbles into a strange, sordid fantasy when she invites runaway teen Nihar into her home. The fanciful tale he weaves unveils a debauched realm of exploitation and terror that threatens to unravel Jessica’s privileged worldview, but is any of it true, or merely the delusions of a troubled young mind?” Playwright Aguirre-Sacasa is the creator of Netflix series The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and Riverdale.

The three Alisons: Marissa Simeqi, Amy Jo Jackson, and Ellie van Amerongen, in SpeakEasy Stage’s 2-18 production of “Fun Home.” Photo by Nile Scott Studios.

Fun Home, Music by Jeanine Tesori. Book & Lyrics by Lisa Kron. Based on the Graphic Novel by Alison Bechdel. Directed By Paul Daigneault. Staged by the SpeakEasy Stage Company at South End in the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA, 527 Tremont Street, Boston, MA, June 8 through 30.

A revival of SpeakEasy Stage Company’s hit production of a multiple award-winner: “a heartbreaking and fiercely funny new show about seeing one’s parents through grown-up eyes. Based on Alison Bechdel’s best-selling memoir, this groundbreaking musical introduces us to Alison at three different ages, revealing memories that celebrate the curiosity of childhood, the challenges of coming out, and the complexities of family.” Arts Fuse review of the 2018 production.

Mahida’s Extra Key to Heaven by Russell Davis. Directed by Gus Kaikkonen. Staged by Peterborough Players at 55 Hadley Road, Peterborough, NH at 55 Hadley Road, June 19 through 30.

An intriguing set-up: “A young American painter encounters a wary Iranian college student waiting for a ferry that will not come until the next day. He respectfully offers her shelter for the night at his mother’s house nearby. This simple offer triggers a chain of events and a confrontation which threatens to engulf them all.”

— Bill Marx


Classical Music

Tenor Zachary Wilder and lutist Josep Maria Martí Duran will perform as part of the Boston Early Music Festival.

Mad Rush: Fever Dreams of 17th-century Italy
June 10 at 11:15 p.m.
Jordan Hall/New England Conservatory
30 Gainsborough Street, Boston, MA

Boston Early Music Festival presents tenor Zachary Wilder and lutist Josep Maria Martí Duran in a “dramatic and delicious program that celebrates the wonderful strangeness and melodrama of 17th-century Italy.”

Sequentia
June 12 at 8 p.m.
Jordan Hall/New England Conservatory
30 Gainsborough Street, Boston, MA

The Boston Early Music Festival presents “Charms, Riddles, and Elegies of the Medieval Northlands (8th–11th centuries),” an intense new program exploring the ancient music from across Germany, England, and Iceland.

Stile Antico
June 14 at 8 p.m.
Emmanuel Church
15 Newbury Street, Boston, MA

The Boston Early Music Festival presents “Queen of Muses: Music of Tallis, Byrd, and Dowland,”a program from the reign of Elizabeth I, whose court reveled in the skill of great composers like Tallis, Byrd, and Dowland.”

— Susan Miron


Author Events

Steve Almond
William Stoner and the Battle for the Inner Life
June 6 at 7 p.m.
Porter Square Books, Cambridge MA
Free

“In his entry in the Bookmarked series, author Steve Almond writes about why John Williams’ sad and beautiful novel, rediscovered since its publication in 1965 Stoner, has endured and the manner in which it speaks to the impoverishment of the inner life in America. Almond will also use the book as a launching pad for an investigation of America’s soul, in the process, writing about his own struggles as a student of writing, as a father and husband, and as a man grappling with his own mortality.”

Graham Farmelo
The Universe Speaks in Numbers: How Modern Math Reveals Nature’s Deepest Secrets
June 5 at 6 p.m.
Harvard Science Center, Hall D 1 Oxford St, Cambridge MA
Free

“With unprecedented access to some of the world’s greatest scientific minds, Farmelo offers a vivid, behind-the-scenes account of the blossoming relationship between mathematics and physics and the research that could revolutionize our understanding of reality. A masterful account of the some of the most groundbreaking ideas in physics in the past four decades, The Universe Speaks in Numbers is essential reading for anyone interested in the quest to discover the fundamental laws of nature.”

George Packer
Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century
June 6 at 7 p.m.
Harvard Book Store, Cambridge MA
Free

“From his days as a young adviser in Vietnam to his last efforts to end the war in Afghanistan, Holbrooke embodied the postwar American impulse to take the lead on the global stage. But his sharp elbows and tireless self-promotion ensured that he never rose to the highest levels in government that he so desperately coveted. His story is thus the story of America during its era of supremacy: its strength, drive, and sense of possibility, as well as its penchant for overreach and heedless self-confidence. In Our Man, drawn from Holbrooke’s diaries and papers, we are given a nonfiction narrative that is both intimate and epic in its revelatory portrait of this extraordinary and deeply flawed man and the elite spheres of society and government he inhabited.”

David Sedaris
Calypso
June 9 at 4 p.m. (Doors open at 3)
Harvard Book Store, Cambridge MA
Tickets are $19.25, including copy of book

“When he buys a beach house on the Carolina coast, Sedaris envisions long, relaxing vacations spent playing board games and lounging in the sun with those he loves most. And life at the Sea Section, as he names the vacation home, is exactly as idyllic as he imagined, except for one tiny, vexing realization: it’s impossible to take a vacation from yourself. With Calypso, Sedaris sets his formidable powers of observation toward middle age and mortality. Make no mistake: these stories are very, very funny—it’s a book that can make you laugh ’til you snort, the way only family can. Sedaris’s powers of observation have never been sharper, and his ability to shock readers into laughter unparalleled. But much of the comedy here is born out of that vertiginous moment when your own body betrays you and you realize that the story of your life is made up of more past than future.”

Translating Japanese: Allison Markin Powell and Sawako Nakayasu
The Ten Loves of Nishino & The Collected Poems of Chika Sagawa
June 10 at 6:30 p.m.
Brookline Booksmith, Coolidge Corner MA
Free

“The Transnational Series welcomes two prominent Japanese translators to discuss their work and their most recent translations.”

Neal Stephenson
Fall; Or, Dodge in Hell
June 13 at 6 p.m.
Brookline Booksmith, Coolidge Corner MA
Tickets are $35, including a copy of the book

“One beautiful autumn day, while Richard “Dodge” Forthrast undergoes a routine medical procedure, something goes irrevocably wrong. Dodge is pronounced brain dead and put on life support. Dodge’s family has his brain scanned and its data structures uploaded and stored in the cloud, until it can eventually be revived. In the coming years, technology allows Dodge’s brain to be turned back on. An eternal afterlife—the Bitworld—is created, in which humans continue to exist as digital souls. But this brave new immortal world is not the Utopia it might first seem…”

— Matt Hanson


Rock, Pop, and Folk

The Rural Alberta Advantage with Tuxit Giant
June 7 (doors at 10, show at 10:15)
Great Scott, Allston, MA

This Canadian (duh) trio released four LPs on Saddle Creek Records (current home of, among others, Big Thief and Hop Along) from 2009 to 2017. Although another album is neither currently available nor forthcoming, the band’s website advises fans to “Expect new music soon.” In the meantime, the group will play the second U.S. date of its North American summer tour at Great Scott on Friday. Boston’s Tuxit Giant, who released Here Comes the Wolf in 2018, will warm up the hometown crowd.

The Figgs
June 8 (1st show at 4, 2nd show at 7)
The Burren, Somerville, MA

The Figgs were formed in Saratoga Springs, NY, but have long been at the very least an honorary Boston band. The trio is currently crowdfunding the forthcoming triple album Shady Grove via Indiegogo. Enjoy a preview of the new material and rock out to myriad selections from The Figgs’ 15 year recording career at The Burren at 4 if you want to bring kids or at 7 if not.

Wu-Tang Clan
June 12 (doors at 7, show at 8)
House of Blues, Boston, MA

The 1993 now-classic Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) immediately established the Staten Island nonet Wu-Tang Clan as one of the most important hardcore rap acts of the ’90s. That status was reinforced by 1997’s Wu-Tang Forever and 2000’s The W. Members such as RZA, GZA, Ghostface Killah, Method Man, Ol’ Dirty Bastard (RIP), Raekwon, and Inspectah Deck all established themselves as comparably successful solo artists. The six living aforementioned Clanners, with Young Dirty Bastard filling in for his father, are currently celebrating the 25th anniversary of their immortal debut album. The party comes to the House of Blues on June 12.

The Fools
June 15 (doors at 7, show at 8)
9 Wallis, Beverly, MA

In the mid-1970s, the members of the Ipswich, MA-based The Rhythm A’s went their separate ways and became two new bands: Nervous Eaters and The Fools. The latter of these would soon be signed to a major label, scoring hits like like “Psycho Chicken,” “Running Scared,” and “It’s a Night For Beautiful Girls,” and touring with The Knack (who were riding the wave “My Sharona’s” success) and Van Halen. On June 15, the ever-present Mike Girard will lead The Fools through an acoustic set and electric set of hits, favorites, and deep cuts at 9 Wallis.

The Specials with L.A. Salami
June 15 (doors at 7, show at 8)
House of Blues, Boston, MA

The Specials recorded some of the most significant and memorable songs of the England’s late-’70s ska revival, including “A Message to You, Rudy,” “Doesn’t Make It Alright,” “Too Much Too Young,” and “Rat Race.” They also founded the label 2-Tone, which released recordings by the like-minded groups Madness, The English Beat, and Selecter. In February, original members Lynval Golding, Terry Hall, and Horace Panter released the first Specials album of original material since 1998, Encore. This alone would be reason enough for a tour, but 2019 also marks the 40th anniversary of the band’s seminal eponymous debut. Join in on all the fun that these combustible elements with coalesce to create at the House of Blues on June 15.

— Blake Maddux

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