Take It to the Water

MUSIC
Tristan Prettyman

In Jack Johnson tradition, San Diego singer/songwriter Tristan Prettyman traded in her surf board a few years back for a guitar and a notepad, and has been serving up song ever since. But much like Jack, she can’t seem to get those waves out of her songs, lending a lulling quality to their music — a beautiful addition to the acoustic guitars and quiet melodies. Prettyman — most definitely pretty, though nothing like a man — brings her unadorned folk-pop to the Twin Cities tonight.

7 p.m., Varsity Theater,1308 4th St. S.E., Minneapolis; 612-604-0222; $15.

THEATER & PERFORMANCE
Metamorphosis

Theatre Pro Rata has been getting quite a bit of attention for their big-splash production of Metamorphoses. It’s no wonder. Playwright Mary Zimmerman’s adaptation of the Ovid classic calls for a big pool of water in the middle of the stage — a minor detail that created quite a challenge for director Carin Bratlie. With water as a pivotal element of change, you’lll enjoy glimpses into numerous classic tales: King Midas, Cupid, Pyramus and Thisbe, Eurydice. This is the play’s last weekend, so don’t miss out.

7:30 p.m., The Loading Dock Theater, 509 N Sibley St., Saint Paul; 612-874-9321; $14-$28.

ART
Printmaking from Soviet Estonia

When Estonia fell under Soviet rule in 1940, art became heavily
censored. That was the case with “major” art forms like painting and
writing, at least, but the apparatchiks largely ignored printmaking. In
retrospect this seems ironic, given how the medium is suited to mass
production and has a history as a tool of dissent. That’s exactly the
point of this exhibition; culled from a collection at Rutgers
University, its forty-one works from 1922–91 range from the surreal
folk art of Jüri Arrak to the geometrical abstractions of Leonhard
Lapin and Raul Meel—clear evidence of how artists in this medium
persisted and even thrived under the radar of state-sanctioned
Socialist Realism. The exhibit’s highlight and its clearest critique of
force-fed Russian culture are Vello Vinn’s scathing, Ernst-like
photomontages. The show runs simultaneously with (and is fittingly
located a floor beneath ) an exhibit of Russian Impressionism. —Christopher Hontos

Museum of Russian Art, 5500 Stevens Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-821-9045.