Author: rakemag

Grab a brochure, map out a route, and get ready to art power-walk instead of crawl. One of the things we like best about Northeast’s annual open-gallery weekend is an expansiveness that encourages you to explore—fifteen thousand visitors are expected to descend on this neighborhood, but unlike, say, the Uptown Art Fair, they won’t all be packed claustrophobically into a few square blocks. That said, you’ll find the most art in a single place at the Northrup King building, 1500 Jackson St. This year’s special events include Walker Art Center-organized kids’ activities in Logan Park, a speed-painting contest, and the Saturday night After-Whirl concert at Spring Street Bar with local bands Latchhook, Work of Saws, and Walker Kong. (612) 788-1679; www.art-a-whirl.org.

The gloriously ramshackle Soap Factory once again throws open its doors to Minnesota’s fairer seasons with a show about the L-word – or, to be more precise, “the emotionally disarming process of falling in love.” So you’ve been duly warned about the potential risks of some of the art. For instance, to examine Rama Hoffpauir’s specially commissioned lockets, approach one of the gallery attendants, who will be wearing them. You’ll have to “put yourself out there,” as is often the advice given to those seeking to emotionally disarm themselves in concert with another. Also on view: Brett Smith’s ziggurat mattress (temple of love?) and works from a couple dozen others. The opening-night reception hasn’t been officially designated a singles event, but we’re willing to spread rumors to that effect. 2nd St. S.E. & 5th Ave. S.E., Minneapolis; (612) 623-9176; www.soapfactory.org

Maybe it’s true, as the saying goes, that heavy hangs the head that wears the crown—on the other hand, when you’re the emperor, you get all the best china. This exhibit of more than a hundred rare porcelains, drawn from a private collection in China, showcases the beautiful and highly detailed craftsmanship that graced the tables of seventeenth- to twentieth-century Qing dynasty rulers. You will never again be able to look at your Corningware without a sigh of wistful envy. Chinese art expert Julian Thompson, who wrote the catalog for this show, will share his expertise during a public talk May 2. (612) 870-3131; www.artsmia.org

Larson is Minnesota’s answer to Matthew Barney. Both Yale art school alumni subject their not-unattractive physiques to certain trials; more importantly, each seems to operate from an alternate reality that makes full sense only to him. (We need more artists like this.) But where Barney is just plain out there, Larson’s world takes cues from the primitive, the rural, even the medieval. On view is a new video featuring one of his cringe-inducing machine-sculptures, as well as a new, untitled work that seems a bit of a departure. Built entirely from fragrant raw pine, it’s a spectacular sculptural tableau of a spaceship crashing into a one-room shack. It resonates with a host of dualities, not the least of which is admirable craftsmanship placed in the service of spontaneous destruction. Plus it also just looks really cool. 1021 E. Franklin Ave., Minneapolis; (612) 872-7494

If he accomplished nothing else, Irish playwright and politician Richard Brinsley Sheridan could say that he found a new and memorable way to mangle the English language. Among the eccentrics and outsized personalities of his gentle satire of sappy romances, you’ll find a character named Mrs. Malaprop, mother of the word malapropism, whose complete indifference to the right word in the right place leads her to deliciously loopy pronouncements like “if I reprehend anything in this world, it is the use of my oracular tongue, and a nice derangement of epitaphs.” Though his later A School For Scandal is often considered the better play, The Rivals is generally held to be the funniest. And what better reason to go to the theater? 245 Cedar Ave., Minneapolis; (612) 333-3010; www.theatreintheround.org

Would you like fries with that? After this film, probably not. Among the many public-relations bodyblows directed at the fast-food industry in the last few years, few have been so direct as this audience favorite at last year’s Sundance film festival. After he heard a McDonald’s spokesman claim that there was no link between obesity and his corporation’s products, documentarian Morgan Spurlock conducted a taste test for accuracy by dining exclusively under the golden arches for thirty days. He had constant checkups to chart the effects on his health, which were not pretty. Even before opening to a wide audience, Super Size Me may have already had its most significant cultural impact: McDonald’s eliminated supersized meals earlier this year. (612) 925-6006, landmarktheatres.com

Even if you caught the original production of The Golem during its highly praised run in 1999, you may want to check back to see where the Jeune Lune folks will be taking their collaboratively produced fable: For the theater’s 25th season, they’ve created a more elaborate version that builds on the earlier one. The story is inspired by Jewish folklore about a clay creature conjured by magic in order to protect his people, but who is always in danger of running amok. Topical political parallels may be drawn at your leisure, but if there’s one thing we’ve learned about the fervent imaginations at Jeune Lune, it’s that they’d never settle for simple meanings. They are French, after all. Expect the unexpected, and prepare to revel in it. 105 N. 1st St., Minneapolis; (612) 332-3968; www.jeunelune.org

A new Jim Jarmusch movie is always cause for celebration around here. Sure, he’s open to charges of languid pacing and, especially in earlier films, an indifference to plot. But there’s a beyond-left-field outlook to his best work, like Ghost Dog and Dead Man, that you just can’t find in any other English-language director. (Liking his films also gets you monster hipster cred, which is always nice.) Coffee is really only half-new, to be technical, since it incorporates three shorter Jarmusch films dating back to 1986. A fractured, interweaving narrative centered on the classic combo of everyday café stimulants, Coffee is a typically skewed Jarmusch comedy, sort of a cross between his taxicab quintet Night on Earth and Wayne Wang’s improv-based indie Blue in the Face (which Jarmusch acted in). He’s assembled what might be his best cast yet—longtime buddies Roberto Benigni, Tom Waits, and Isaach De Bankolé are joined by Cate Blanchett in a dual role as two crazy sisters, Bill Murray, and Jack and Meg of the White Stripes. Did we mention hipster cred?

Everybody thinks modern life moves too fast these days, but for the little village of Quiquendone, it’s literally true. At first, the townspeople in Jules Verne’s allegorical short story (getting its first non-operatic dramatic adaptation at the hands of local troupe Hardcover Theater) live peaceably rustic lives at rustic speeds, as if Newtonian physics were merely something that happens to other people. But then Dr. Ox shows up, as one would expect in a play with his name in the title, and steps on the gas. By secretly pumping pure oxygen into Quiquendone—the idea was considered scientifically plausible in Verne’s time—he makes life in the village speed up, bringing art and enlightenment, but also passion, confusion, and war. The metaphorical implications are, if anything, even stronger today. 2301 E. Franklin Ave., Minneapolis; (612) 822-0015; www.pangeaworldtheater.org

Dyed-in-the-wool Marxists will note that this box set collecting seven of Groucho, Harpo, and Chico’s late-period movies is hardly definitive—their most anarchically funny work, Duck Soup and Animal Crackers, is missing. But we do have the two true classics they made with their most simpatico producer, Irving Thalberg, A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races. The other five here are lesser-known for a reason—with a new studio calling the shots, the brothers were forced into restrictive, plot-oriented material that straitjacketed and tamed them. Carping aside, every Marx Brothers film has its moments—and even the lesser ones are better than many other comedians’ best, thanks to Groucho’s stiletto insults like At the Circus’ “I bet your father spent the first year of your life throwing rocks at the stork.” It’s funny because it’s true. The set also includes A Night in Casablanca, the source of one of the best real-life Groucho quips: After the Warner Brothers studio threatened to sue if the Marx Brothers didn’t change their title (which Warner claimed was too similar to their Humphrey Bogart thriller), Groucho threatened to countersue: “You probably have the right to use the name Warner, but what about Brothers? Professionally, we were brothers long before you were.”