Things to Do This Weekend in Boston
Keep your weekend full with our roundup of fun events around Boston. And don’t miss our list of iconic things to do around Boston.
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MULTIPLE DAYS
THEATER
Fans of the First Family of Gothic Romance, the Brontë sisters, will love this darkly comic play by Jen Silverman, which lovingly spoofs their iconically gloomy aesthetic, as expressed in classic novels like Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. As in those books, the drama is the sort of drama that unfolds when a few people are cooped up in an isolated house and are forced either or kill or fall in love with one another—and fog is everywhere for some reason.
$20, through Sunday, Plaza Theater Black Box, 539 Tremont St., Boston
COMEDY
It might sound strange to parody a show that is already a satire, but it didn’t take long for The Office to lose the dry, withering tone of its British sibling and turn into what most sitcoms really are: a soap opera with jokes. And soap operas are practically begging for parody. Presented without permission from the series’ rights holders, it should be a delight for folks who miss Jim, Pam, Dwight, and all the other miserable weirdos at Dunder Mifflin.
$25-$65, through December 1, Calderwood Pavilion, 527 Tremont St., Boston
DANCE
Global Arts Live presents this Los Angeles contemporary/jazz/ballet troupe, describing them as favoring provocative works. In keeping with the dominant themes of LA-based literature, they balance vulnerability and fantasy with the chaotic vibe of an overpopulated, alienated, sun-drenched dystopia—the body and the traffic. Among the diverse group of dances for this weekend’s appearance, they’ll do a piece set to the music of Peggy Lee.
$58, Friday through Sunday, Institute of Contemporary Art, 25 Harbor Shore Dr., Boston
OPERA
Senator Joe McCarthy has become an eternal boogeyman representing anti-Communist hysteria, but he didn’t just try to root out “reds”—he and his cronies also went after gay people in a parallel witch hunt known as the Lavender Scare. This Boston Lyric Opera production, based on the Thomas Mallon novel, centers of on a male couple in McCarthy’s 1950s Washington, trying to evade the contemptuous gaze of society as their love blooms.
$32-$177, through Sunday, Paramount Center, 559 Washington St., Boston
MOVIES
Scandalous: The Untold Story of the National Enquirer
If you went back in time 25 years and asked for “fake news,” you’d probably be directed to the checkout line of a supermarket, where you could find The National Enquirer, which proudly peddled all manner of trashy, provocative nonsense long before the Internet made such pseudo-journalism distressingly ubiquitous. This documentary tells the story of the Enquirer, which recklessly straddled the line between truth and fiction, often engaging in bribery and blackmail to get its shady stories.
$13, opens Friday, Kendall Square Cinema, 355 Binney St., Cambridge
FRIDAY
BOOKS
These co-authors will appear to discuss their new book We Are Indivisible: A Blueprint for Democracy After Trump, which grew out of a manifesto the two appalled ex-congressional staffers wrote after the election of our current President. What was originally just a PDF became a major arm of the Trump Resistance. In the book, they reflect on this trajectory and the work that still needs to be done, whether Trump is out in one more year or four.
$8-$29, 7 p.m., First Parish Church, 1446 Mass. Ave., Cambridge
Image courtesy Magical Reality Group
SATURDAY
DANCE
Magic Reality Group presents this distinct, tech-infused take on the story of Sleeping Beauty, which asks and answers a question most versions of the story avoid: What was she dreaming about all those years she was passed out? Turns out some of it was quite naughty! Computer-animated avatars on screen imitate the dance moves of our heroine, played by Russian ballet dancer Diana Vishneva, who’s outfitted with 14 motion capture devices.
$40-$150, 8 p.m., Orpheum Theater, 1 Hamilton Pl., Boston
MUSIC
Emmanuel Music welcomes this men’s chamber choir for a cabaret-style performance featuring works from Britten, Holst, Vaughan Williams, and others, plus fresher work from living composers Paul Mealor and Hillary Tann. Renaissance Men was founded in 2014 by a few guys with a background in early music, but they quickly become more interested in American folk, giving their name a double-meaning—classically schooled, but capable of anything.
$30, 8 p.m. and 10 p.m., Emmanuel Church, 15 Newbury St., Boston
Photo by Tucker Mitchell
SUNDAY
COMEDY
Molly Brenner, a New York comic and former Boston resident, performs this autobiographical solo show about the lengths she took to achieve an orgasm for the first time, which are described in the show’s online synopsis simply as “harrowing” and “strangely expensive.” Sounds kind of like the rest of modern life! But seriously, the reason this is such an achievement is that Brenner has a medical condition known, incredibly, as “vaginismus,” which makes orgasm very difficult—until now?
$10, 7:30 p.m., The Lily Pad, 1353 Cambridge St., Cambridge
Free Events
ART
Reveal: Harvard Taiwan Arts Festival
As the only uncolonized part of China to evade Maoist conquest, the island nation of Taiwan has a unique cultural identity, but not one well-known to the West. This exhibition collects work from several Taiwanese artists living in Boston, schooled in architecture, painting, photography, archaeology, and music, presenting a complex picture of this small but geopolitically crucial country. The reception on Saturday includes film screenings, gallery talks, and live music.
Through November 22, Smith Campus Center, 1350 Mass. Ave, Cambridge
MUSIC
If you’ve trying to make your Friday night as dank as possible, you might check out this local dub and reggae outfit, who claim to be “fiercer than any band this side of Kingston, Jamaica.” Bold words, but they’ve worked with such notables in the genre as Toots Hibbert, Third World, Burning Spear, Ken Boothe, Barrington Levy, Derrick Morgan, Kiddus I, Bob Andy, and the Congos, so it doesn’t seem like terribly empty rhetoric.
Friday, 9 p.m., Beat Brew Hall, 13A Brattle St., Cambridge
Family-Friendly Events
Image via Espaço Filmes
MOVIES
In this 2013 animated film, Brazilian director Alê Abreu weaves watercolor, crayon-esque drawings, and kaleidoscopic effects for a look that’s intimate and expansive at the same time, and as different from the usual computer animated kids’ fare as you can get. While fully palatable to kids, it operates on a different level for adults, who can see additional messages in the young hero’s exposure to “the real world.” Admission is free with a Cambridge Public Library card.
$5, Saturday, 3 p.m., Harvard Film Archive, 24 Quincy St., Cambridge
Photo provided
MUSIC
It’s only natural to want to pass what you love on to your kids, and if you love going to rock shows, this will be up your alley. The Rock and Roll Playhouse performs covers—this time it’ll be the Beatles—and provides a fun environment for children under ten, with games, movement, and stories as well. Worry not, this may be a rock club, but the volume’s set to avoid sensory overload—that can wait for when they’re older…
$15, Sunday, 12 p.m., the Sinclair, 52 Church St., Cambridge