FESTIVALS FIGMENT Boston Cambridge Jazz Festival THEATER
Love’s Labour’s Lost The T Party ART
Erik Desmazières: Imaginary Places Lost and Found MOVIES Bullitt/The Getaway Destiny MUSIC Lakou Mizik Mekaal Hasan Band COMEDY Improvised History
Taking place in many cities, this community-focused, interactive arts event, now in its third year in Boston, describes itself “a free, annual celebration of participatory art and culture where everything is possible.” And then it disappears without a trace. The ideals are high: not only is the festival free, but selling things isn’t even allowed!
July 30 and 31
Rose Kennedy Greenway, 185 Kneeland St., Boston
Free, boston.figmentproject.org
Hosted by WGBH’s Eric Jackson, this third annual outdoor festival features performances from sax player Walter Beasley, guitarist Russell Malone, sax player Bill Pierce, the Ron Savage Trio (Savage, a drummer, is also a co-founder of the festival), singer-songwriter Nadia Washington and the Rebecca Cline Trio. There will also be plenty of food trucks to choose from.
July 31, 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Danehy Park, 99 Sherman St., Cambridge
Free, cambridgejazzfestival.org
Commonwealth Shakespeare Company returns to Boston Common with this early comedy from the Immortal Bard, which starts with the King of Navarre and his boys vowing to stay away from women for three ascetic years. As you might guess, this doesn’t pan out as they plan. The play’s dissection of male desire feels especially relevant to the present feminist moment.
Through August 8
Boston Common, Tremont and Park Sts., Boston
Free, commshakes.org
Company One presents Natsu Onoda Power’s Fourth Wall-busting play, which they describe as “an exuberant, kinky and surprisingly tender look at gender expression and sexuality.” Power presents a number of setpieces exploring both the joys and dangers of living out one’s sense of self in the early 21st century, as society-at-large undergoes its own transition re: sex and gender.[tab]
Through August 15
Roberts Studio Theater, 539 Tremont St., Boston
$15-$38, bostontheatrescene.com
The prints of Erik Desmazières provoke the same surreal architectural fascination as M.C. Escher’s amusing illusions and impossible scenes. But Desmazières goes beyond Escher’s playful games of perception, also created richly evocative scenes of sci-fi/fantasy worlds, like tantalizing illustrations from novels that will never be written—and it’s better that way, because then we can imagine whatever we want.
Through September 2
Childs Gallery, 169 Newbury St., Boston
Free, bit.ly/2aeAapw
Gold Gallery presents four three painters—Jason Chase, Barney Levitt and Jeanne Vadeboncoeur—all offering modern still lifes. You will not find a single basket of fruit here. Chase does have some surprisingly distressing smashed fruit, but his downright reverent depiction of a bag of Wonder Bread is more typical of the show’s sensibility.[tab]
Through August 21
Gold Gallery, 460C Harrison Ave., Boston
Free, au-gallery.com
This double feature stars the great action hero of the 60’s and 70’s, Steve McQueen. In, 1968’s “Bullitt”, McQueen is a cop whose battle with the mob culminates in a legendary car chase. It’s followed by 1972’s “The Getaway”, which finds McQueen on the other side of the law, speeding toward Mexico with his wife/accomplice after an imperfectly executed bank heist.
July 28, 7:30 p.m.
Somerville Theater, 55 Davis Sq., Somerville
$10, somervilletheatre.com
Now newly restored, Fritz Lang’s early masterpiece “Destiny,” from 1921, is a fantasy about a woman who makes a deal with Death: he’ll spare her lover if she can alter the course of another romantic tragedy. She has three scenarios in which to prove her mettle, taking place, respectively, in the exotic — and not-too-accurately-rendered — locales of Persia, Renaissance Venice and ancient China.
July 29 through 31
Brattle Theater, 40 Brattle St., Cambridge
$9-$11, brattlefilm.org
This Haitian musical collective, comprised of musicians young and old, came together after the devastating 2010 earthquake in their homeland, as an expression of solidarity and cultural survival in the wake of the disaster. The combination of each member’s talents makes them quite the supergroup, whether they’re singing stirring a cappella chants or hip-shaking Creole pop.
July 28, 9 p.m.
Great Scott, 1222 Comm. Ave., Allston
$15, 18+, ticketmaster.com
Comprised of Pakistani and Indian members, this band, hailing from the city of Lahore, Pakistan, combines Sufi and Qawalli influences with Western prog rock. That might sound pretty strange, but on a track like “Andholan”, off their 2014 album of the same name, the fusion is seamless. They’re definitely the only rock band we know of with a bansuri flute player.
July 30, 8 p.m.
Café 939, 939 Boylston St., Boston
$20, all ages, bit.ly/1YodFQ8
For this show, the history-minded comics in this troupe take on ancient Rome, a civilization smart enough to take over most of Europe but not smart enough to realize their lead pipes were poisoning them. Ah, them’s the breaks. The team will create on the spot reenactments of factoids spouted by group member and Rome geek David Fouhy.
July 29, 8 p.m.
Democracy Center, 45 Mt. Auburn St., Cambridge
$10, bit.ly/2au6d2M
Yes, Figment may be from your imagination
Provided
