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What to do in Boston this weekend – Metro US

What to do in Boston this weekend

What to do in Boston this weekend
Nile Hawver

Boston Calling not really your thing? There’s still plenty of other options around town all weekend, from plays to art exhibits to Somerville’s pride and joy: The annual Fluff Festival is here again! Head to Union Square to stock up on all your favorite fluff delicacies.

MUSIC

Desert River

Saturday, 8 p.m.

Jordan Hall

30 Gainsborough St., Boston

$15-$50, 781-259-8195

www.chineseperformingarts.net

The Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts presents this concert featuring Yazhi Guo, widely considered the reigning master of the suona, a double-reeded Chinese instrument. He’s an innovator not only as a player but as an intrument builder—his addition of a “flexible core” to the suona in the 1990’s greatly enhanced its versatility.

Maya Beiser: Uncovered

Friday, 8 p.m.

Kresge Auditorium

48 Mass. Ave., Cambridge

$10-$20, 617-253-8089

arts.mit.edu

Cellist Maya Beiser, backed by bassist Jherek Bischofon bass andMatt Kilmeron drums, will perform classic rock songs by the likes of Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Nirvana and other heavy hitters, in arrangements crafted by MIT’s Evan Ziporyn. If for some strange reason you still believe a cello cannot rock, this ought to convert you.

THEATER

‘Appropriate’

Through Oct.10

Calderwood Pavilion

527 Tremont St., Boston

$25-$60, 617-933-8600

www.bostontheatrescene.com

SpeakEasy Stage presents this play by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, winner of the 2014 Obie for Best Play. In centers on an argumentative Southern family, the Lafayettes, whose patriarch is dead. Sifting through his things, they discover his involvement with—you guessed it—something extremely inappropriate, a dark side of their family history that only brings more chaos into their already fraught relations.

‘Einstein’s Dreams’

Friday through Nov. 14

Central Square Theater

450 Mass. Ave., Cambridge

$15-$45, 866-811-4111

www.centralsquaretheater.org

Albert Einstein is one of modern history’s most famous figures, practically the avatar of science itself, and yet his story has rarely been dramatized. This play, adapted from the Alan Lightman novel by Wesley Savick, tells of his early days in Switzerland, working as a patent clerk by day and crafting the theory of relativity by night.

ART

Through the Lens of History: Selma and Civil Rights

Through January 2

Grand Circle Gallery

347 Congress St., Boston

Free, 617-346-6459

www.gct.com/grandcirclegallery

This exhibition gathers photographs by James H. Barker documenting the 1965 civil rights protest march from Selma, Alabama to the state capitol at Montgomery. A native of Washington state, Barker provided both the perspective of an outsider and the compassion of a sympathizer, capturing the protestors not only as devoted activists, but in all the dimensions of their humanity.

MOVIES

The Quay Brothers in 35mm

Friday through October 1

Brattle Theater

40 Brattle St., Cambridge

$9-$11, 617 876-6837

www.brattlefilm.org

The spooky but humorous animated works of the Quay Brothers have a mood all their own, evoking the innocence, mystery and terror of childhood—that said, it’s definitely not for kids. Director Christopher Nolan selected this four-part mixtape, which includes 2000’s “In Absentia”, 1981’s “The Comb” and 1986’s “Street of Crocodiles”, plus Nolan’s own short documentary on the brothers, entitled, “Quay”.

RELATED: The Quay brothers on Christopher Nolan and embracing digital

‘The Aryans’

Monday, 7 p.m.

Studio Cinema

376 Trapelo Rd., Belmont

$9-$11, 617-484-3980

www.belmontworldfilm.org

The German filmmaker Mo Asumang made this documentary about the neo-Nazi movement across the globe, in which she interviews a variety of hateful characters and dispels many Nazi myths, foremost that of the Aryans themselves, who were not blonde and blue-eyed, but probably looked more like modern-day Iranians. She’ll appear at this screening in person to discuss the film.

FESTIVALS

What the Fluff? A Tribute to Union Square Invention

Saturday, 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Union Square Plaza

90 Union Sq., Somerville

Free

www.flufffestival.com

We would be remiss, dear reader, not to mention this annual Marshmallow Fluff-themed festival, celebrating the invention of the notorious spread right in Union Square in 1917. In terms of sugary disasters, this would have a much wider, longer impact than the famous Boston Molasses Spill of 1919. And for you out-of-towers, take note: the sandwich is pronounced “fluffah nuttah.”

Lantern Festival

Saturday, 12 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Chinatown Park

Boston

Free, 617-350-6303

www.chinatownmainstreet.org

This second annual Lantern Festival at the Chinatown Gate features moon cakes, Chinese folk music and dance, martial arts demos, lion dances, vendors of all sorts and of course the dozens of lanterns. The Lantern Festival in China takes place in February/March, not September; the lanterns sometimes symbolize the old selves left behind at the start of a new year.