THEATER
Freud’s Last Session
Through May 22
Arsenal Center for the Arts
321 Arsenal St., Watertown
$45-$65, 617-923-8487
Perhaps you caught that PBS series a while back, in which a panel of scholars debated the worldviews of Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis, interspersed with biographical reenactments. This play imagines an actual debate between the two intellectual giants. Both were dead by 1963, but their views on sex, death and God continue to clash as fiercely as ever. End of the World
Friday through May 21
Calderwood Pavilion
527 Tremont St., Boston
$20-$25, 617-933-8600
Boston Actors Theater presents this pre-apocalyptic comedy by Elizabeth Dupre, in which a team of scientists from the Near Earth Object Project fails to anticipate an asteroid headed toward earth. It’s too late to stop it and now we’re all doomed. Our could-have-been heroes now have to take stock of what they have left before doomsday. Oops! ART
SHUT IT DOWN!
Opens Friday, 6 p.m., through May 29
Harriet Tubman House Gallery
566 Columbus Ave., Dorchester
Free, info@missiongallery.org
This photo exhibition displays images of Boston-area Black Lives Matter protests. As the antics of Donald Trump and the Bernie-Hillary divide hog our national attention, this ought to serve as a reminder of what’s truly at stake. The show will include a few contextualizing talks with folks the gallery describes as “community partners.” The opening reception is Friday at 6 p.m. Hung out to Dry
Friday, 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Lens Gallery
524 Harrison Ave., Boston
Free, 857-753-4875
www.cleardesignlab.co/lensgallery/hung-out-to-dry
Sculptor John Roy presents this pop-up exhibition, centered on that most familiar piece of college party detritus: the Solo cup. On your floor, it’s something you don’t feel like cleaning up, but on the floor of a gallery, it becomes an opportunity for reflection on those lost weekends, calling to mind the bleary, hungover morning after. You may not remember, but the cups do. BOOKS
Robert Booth
Saturday, 5 p.m.
Massachusetts Historical Society
1154 Boylston St., Boston
$10, 617-536-1608
In his new book “Mad for Glory,” historian Robert Booth tells the remarkable story of Navy captain David Porter, who went rogue in the South Pacific with his ship during the War of 1812, getting into all kinds of violent adventures and eventually founding his own cult/country in the Marquesas Islands, “Heart of Darkness”-style. Pre-registration is required; check the website above. COMEDY
Brooks Wheelan and Baron Vaughn
Saturday, 8 p.m.
Middle East Downstairs
480 Mass. Ave., Cambridge
$12, 18+, 866-777-8932
This double-header features Brooks Wheelan, who did a year on “Saturday Night Live,” but it didn’t exactly work out, and he was back at the mic with a new standup album, “This Is Cool, Right?” in 2015. Co-headliner Baron Vaughn, known for his eccentric but socially biting material, also hosts a humorous philosophical podcast, “Deep S##! w/ Baron Vaughn.” OUTDOORS
Free Ferry Day
Saturday, 8:30 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Boston Harbor Cruises Ferry Center
Long Wharf North, Boston
Free, boha_information@nps.gov
www.bostonharborislands.org/#!free-ferry-day-opening-day/aj7na
In celebration of the opening day of the Boston Harbor Islands, ferry rides to Georges Island and Spectacle Island will be free on a first come, first-serve basis. Tickets will be given out for the earliest ferries first. Note: you can only get free tickets from the Ferry Center at Long Wharf North; check the link above for full details. MOVIES
3rd Street Blackout
Friday through May 12
Somerville Theater
55 Davis Sq., Somerville
$10, 617-625-5700
There a lot of empty talk around the notion that we’d be lost today without technology, but we’re rarely actually threatened with that situation. What happens when we are? That’s the problem facing the plugged-in New York couple in this rom-com—one a neuroscientist, the other an app developer—when they lose power during Hurricane Sandy. Pink Narcissus
Saturday, 9 p.m.
Harvard Film Archive
24 Quincy St., Cambridge
$9-$11, 617-495-4700
hcl.harvard.edu/hfa
Director James Bidgood made this dream-like film in his own New York City apartment between 1963 and 1970, during which rapidly changing sexual politics allowed him to become increasingly explicit with his homoerotic content. His boyfriend Bobby Kendall was the movie’s star, cast in a loose, dialogue-free version of the story of Narcissus amidst the candy-colored, kitsch-addled kaleidoscope of their living space. FESTIVALS
Cinco de Mayo Celebration
Thursday, 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Union Square
90 Union Sq., Somerville
Free, 617-625-6600 ext. 2985
www.somervilleartscouncil.org/artsunion/2016/cincodemayo
In America, Cinco de Mayo, the holiday commemorating the unlikely Mexican victory over the French in 1862, mostly just ends up being an excuse to drink margaritas. But this festival is a celebration of Mexican culture, with live Mariachi music, traditional Mexican dance, food and drink from local Mexican restaurants and a few more family-friendly activities. Then, yes—you can have your margarita. MUSIC
Stiz Grimey
Friday, 10:30 p.m.
Middle East Upstairs
472 Mass. Ave., Cambridge
$10, 18+, 866-777-8932
This is the record release show for local MC Stiz Grimey’s new album, “Locked in the Vault.” Grimey draws influence from the hard lives he experienced growing up in Chelsea—not least his own. He also has a wicked sense of humor, and a fascination with horror, both imagined and real—one of his best-known tracks tells the story of Massachusetts’ own Lizzie Borden. M. Ward
Saturday, 6 p.m.
Royale
279 Tremont St., Boston
$27, 18+, 800-745-3000
There was a point where M. Ward’s solo career seemed to have been eclipsed by his project with Zooey Deschanel, She and Him, plus his various other commitments, but this March he returned with his first solo album since 2012, “More Rain.” Intended as a rainy day record, it’s been panned by some critics as phoned-in, and praised by others as pleasantly low-key. Protomartyr
Sunday, 9 p.m.
Great Scott
1222 Comm. Ave., Allston
$12, 18+, 800-745-3000
Critics usually tag Protomartyr as post-punk, but considering that they formed in Detroit in 2008, they could also be called post-apocalyptic. Their hard-bitten fusion of British post-punk with scuzzy Detroit rock has won them scads of praise from the tastemakers. Unsurprisingly, dark and heavy lyrical subjects predominate, drawn from their own lives and their observations of the industrial ruin of their home city. Brazilian Drum and Dance Parade
Friday, 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Boston Common
Boston
Free, artweek@citicenter.org
www.artweekboston.org/event/brazilian-drum-dance-parade/
Percussion ensemble Marcus Santos and Grooversity will perform a free concert at Boston Common this Friday afternoon, beginning at the Parkman Bandstand and marching around the park. If you just got done with exams, let ‘em pump you up for summer. If you’re on your lunch break, let ‘em pump you up for another four hours of work. The Body Politic
Thursday through Saturday
Plaza Theater
539 Tremont St., Boston
$18-$50, 617-933-8600
www.bostontheatrescene.com/season/iThe-Body-Politici/
Juventas New Music Ensemble presents this opera by composer Leo Hurley and librettist
Charles Osborne, telling the story of Iphis, an Afghani transman who immigrates to the American South. As you might guess, it’s not the easiest, erm, transition. As alumni of the University of North Carolina, the authors have first-hand knowledge of the climate their hero’s just walked into.