From a Martin McDonagh dark comedy to the insanely talented Hiromi and some world class string players, not to mention San Francisco’s Silent Film Fest, there are a lot of great shows, exhibits and concerts to catch this weekend in the Bay Area. Here’s a partial roundup.
It’s hard out there for a hangman
“Hangmen,” a 2015 play getting its West Coast premiere at San Jose Stage Company, was written by Martin McDonagh, the British playwright and screenwriter who has given us such plays as “The Pillowman” and “The Lieutenant of Inishmore,” and such films as “In Bruges” and “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.”
So you know it’s going to be pretty dark, pretty funny and pretty packed with things to think about (not that there’s anything wrong with that).
“Hangmen” focuses on Harry Wade, proclaimed Britain’s second best hangman, who finds himself without a trade when the U.K. abolishes the death penalty in 1965. As journalists, neighbors and a assortment of other Brits begin showing up at Wade’s pub, curious to hear his thoughts on the development, a mysterious stranger who threatens to bring danger and heartbreak into Harry’s life shows up as well.
With its dark humor, suspenseful story line and probing look at such issues as justice, punishment and revenge, “Hangmen” is vintage McDonagh. Now San Jose Stage is presenting the work, directed by James Reese and starring Will Springhorn Jr. as Wade.
Details: Through April 28; San Jose Stage; $34-$74; www.thestage.org.
— Randy McMullen, Staff
Pianist Hiromi back in Bay Area
Japan-born jazz pianist Hiromi Uehara, better known by her stage name Hiromi, is such an engaging performer – full of passion and panache – that you could almost enjoy watching her play a silent piano. Almost. Fortunately, she is also a world-class talent as a pianist in and of itself. A child prodigy who started playing jazz in earnest at age 8, she was eventually mentored by such legends as Chick Corea and Ahmad Jamal. She has garnered raves for both her technical prowess as well as her eagerness to incorporate everything from rock and pop to metal and other sounds to her jazz soundtrack.
Hiromi returns to the Bay Area this week for a weekend set at SFJAZZ Center with her star-studded new quartet Sonicwonder, featuring trumpeter Adam O’Farrill, bassist Hadrien Feraud and drummer Gene Coye. The group will spotlight the 2023 album “Sonicwonderland” in four concerts.
Details: 7:30 p.m. April 11-13, 7 p.m. April 14; SFJAZZ Center’s Miner Auditorium; $30-$119 (tickets are going fast); www.sfjazz.org.
Classical picks: Strings take a bow
Strings take center stage this week, with appearances by top artists including violinist Shunske Sato, the Danish String Quartet, and cellist Steven Isserlis.
Sato and PBO: Under music director Richard Egarr, the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra welcomes Shunske Sato as soloist in Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor; rounding out the program, titled “Romantic Radiance,” is Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, “Eroica.”
Details: 7:30 p.m. today at Herbst Theatre, San Francisco; 7:30 p.m. Friday at Bing Concert Hall, Stanford University (presented by Stanford Live), 2:30 p.m. Saturday at First Congregational Church, Berkeley; $9-$100; philharmonia.org.
A Schubert tribute: The Danish String Quartet returns to Berkeley on Saturday, joined by Johannes Rostamo, principal cellist of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic. The program includes Schubert’s String Quartet in C major, the quartet’s arrangement of the composer’s “Die Nebensonnen” from “Winterreise,” and Thomas Adès’ “Wreath,” a Cal Performances co-commission making its Bay Area premiere.
Details: 8 p.m. Saturday; Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley; $60-$100; calperformances.org.
A cello master: Steven Isserlis returns this week for three performances under the auspices of Chamber Music San Francisco. Accompanied by pianist Connie Shih, the British cellist’s program includes works by Fauré, Bloch, Poulenc, and Schubert.
Details: 2:30 Saturday at Lesher Center, Walnut Creek; 3 p.m. Sunday at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, San Francisco; 7:30 p.m. Monday at Oshman Family JCC, Palo Alto; $50-$75; chambermusicsf.org.
— Georgia Rowe, Correspondent
Robert Pruitt’s “A Song for Travelers” is on display at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive as part of the “Great Migration” exhibit. (Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive)
Exploring Great Migration in art
Starting Saturday, the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive presents an exhibition that explores the social and cultural impacts of the Great Migration. In one of the largest movements of people in United States history, some 6 million Black people relocated from the American South to states in the North, Midwest and West, including California, from 1910 to 1970.
These internal migrants sought to escape racial violence and pursue economic and educational opportunities in their new hometowns, from New York City, Baltimore and Chicago to Oakland, Richmond and San Francisco. More than 300,000 Black people settled in the Bay Area, most coming to work in World War II shipyards and creating a Black culture that flourished through music, dance, literature, film and visual arts.
The exhibition, “A Movement in Every Direction: Legacies of the Great Migration,” features newly commissioned works by 12 artists who explore their personal relationships to this historical event through painting, sculpture, drawing, video, sound, and immersive installation. For example, the video installation “Leave! Leave Now!” by photographer and UC Berkeley graduate Carrie Mae Weems, presents the incredible life of her grandfather Frank Weems, a prominent tenant farmer and union activist who survived being attacked by a White mob in 1936 and made his way to Chicago.
The exhibition, co-organized by the Mississippi Museum of Art (MMA) and the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA), shows how the Great Migration continues to reverberate in people’s lives and communities.
Details: Saturday through Sept. 22; 2155 Center St., Berkeley, $14 admission; bampfa.org.
— Martha Ross, Staff
‘Dead’ will liven up the Drafthouse
George A. Romero’s “Dawn of the Dead” isn’t just one of the greatest zombie flicks of all time. It’s also one of the finest movies ever to come out of the overall horror genre, deserving of a spot alongside such classics as “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre,” “Black Christmas” and “Halloween.”
It’s got pretty much everything one wants in a horror film — gripping storyline, plenty of tense moments, intriguing characters and, yes, plenty of gooey gore. The film and its unforgettable zombies pretty much launched the career of prosthetic/makeup artist Tom Savini, who eventually earned the title “Sultan of Splatter.”
And the 1978 movie has held up incredibly well over the years — much better than most of Romero’s other zombie epics. In all, it’s every bit as deserving of the label “classic” as its groundbreaking predecessor, “Night of the Living Dead,” which Romero unleashed on an unexpecting film world in 1968.
In honor of the film’s 45th anniversary, “Dawn of the Dead” is returning to theaters across North America this spring. In the Bay Area, it’s playing Friday, Saturday and Monday at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in San Francisco.
Details: 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 10:15 p.m. Monday; $17.75; tickets and more information at drafthouse.com/sf.
— Jim Harrington, Staff
Silent is golden at S.F. Fest
With the Castro Theatre undergoing renovations, the annual San Francisco Silent Film Festival plants its roots this year at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre where it will screen 22 programs, all with live music. The annual event draws enthusiastic, devoted fans of early era filmmaking and will continue its tradition of showcasing restorations, including three the festival commissioned itself.
Screenings include Frank Lloyd’s swashbuckling genre classic “The Sea Hawk” (8:15 p.m. April 11), which drew its inspiration from a Rafael Sabatini novel and features Milton Sills (Errol Flynn came later) as a count turned pirate.
And in 1926’s “Dancing Mothers,” an unfaithful husband and a carefree party girl named Kittens (silent screen star Clara Bow) get their comeuppance at the hands of an angry mom (Alice Joyce) who audaciously flirts with the cad dating her daughter. It’s one of the films the festival restored, along with the short “The Pill Pounder” that it’s paired with (2 p.m. April 11).
And if you’re in need of a smile or two, “The Laurel and Hardy Show” (10 a.m. April 13) should do the trick. The screening features these two landmark comedians in three recently restored 1928 films — “You’re Darn Tootin’,” “Two Tars” and “The Finishing Touch.”
Details: Through April 14; Palace of Fine Arts Theatre, San Francisco; most screenings $18-$20; full pass $300-$330; silentfilm.org.
— Randy Myers, Bay City News Foundation
Latin grooves at OMCA
Like many arts institutions, the Oakland Museum of California likes to host some lively events to break from what must be the brutal monotony of displaying stunning and thought provoking world-class art everyday. Along these lines, the museum is hosting a series of free Friday performances – and this Friday promises a particularly lively time. Headlining the affair is Grammy-winning Bay Area percussionist, composer and bandleader Javier Cabanillas and his group Cabanijazz Project. Cabanillas developed his musical chops busking on the streets of Tijuana before eventually relocating to the Bay Area and teaming up with the Pacific Mambo Orchestra. In 2014, the band won a Grammy for best Latin Tropical Album (beating out such stars as Marc Anthony in the process) for its self-titled debut album. Cabanillas has since formed his own band, Cabanijazz, and collaborated with the likes of Sheila E., Arturo Sandoval and members of Santana and Tower of Power. He has described his “mambo sonic” sound as a unique blend of various Latin sounds and Afro-Caribbean rhythms.
The Friday night fun begins at 5:30 p.m. with a performance by dancer Shadji Simone Correia in the museum’s Gallery of California Art; followed by Cabanillas and his band, who perform 6 to 7:30 p.m. on the Garden Stage, followed by DJ music until 8:45 p.m. A variety of food trucks will be on hand on 10th Street between Oak and Fallon streets. Beer, wine, and a wide variety of drinks will be available as well. The OMCA Garden will have picnic tables, blankets and lawn and table games at the ready. Note that this free event does not include admission to the museum, so if you want to check out the acclaimed exhibit by famed Chicao artist Malaquias Montoya, for example, you will need to pay admission.
Details: More information is at museumca.org.
— Bay City News Foundation