THEATER AWARDS
Local Theater Awards
The third annual Ivey Awards — which aspires to be, roughly, something like a mini Minneapolis Tony Awards — gets underway this evening. If you’re a fan of local theater, you’ll relish the chance to see your favorite performers dressed to the nines. (Mondays are the bohemian Sundays, you know.) You’ll also get a glimpse of snippets from upcoming shows, one-minute plays, and, of course, a host of awards that recognize performers, as well as directors and designers of lighting, sets, and costumes. The theater community has regarded these young Ivey Awards with some skepticism, for certain. But now, three years later, very many theater-makers have been honored by the Iveys, and they’ve gotten the chance to bask in the limelight at this glamorous, high-production ceremony. Some have even gone so far as to give tearful speeches. And so, it seems, the actors are coming around. –Christy DeSmith
7:30 p.m., Historic State Theater, 805 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis; 612-673-0404; $30-$125.
THEATER & PERFORMANCE
Strange Love
This evening Skewed Visions presents its only Monday performance of Strange Love, a two-part exploration of contemporary and historical cultures of fear. Based on Stanley Kubrick’s Cold War satire, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, this Theater All Year production features an an installation and multidisciplinary show by artists Charles Campbell and Sean Kelley-Pegg. Tonight’s guest artists will be The Body Cartography Project.
8 p.m., Casket Arts, 681 17th Ave. N.E. (1700 Madison St.), Minneapolis; 612-201-5727.
MUSIC
Peter Bjorn and John
In an age of drum beats looped ad nauseam, of recycled and often misused samples, of really shameful overproduction, the modest melodies laid out by this Swedish trio feel almost revolutionary. Peter Bjorn and John have been together since 1999, but were little-known stateside until their 2005 release Falling Out, which won them substantial critical acclaim and a devoted indie following. With their latest album, Writer’s Block, they have landed a mainstream audience, propelled by two songs, “Amsterdam” and “Young Folks.” These tunes are catchy but not infectious — they strike that rare balance of introspection and optimism that compels any casual listener to hum along. Lyrically intricate, musically simple, their style is at once retro and progressive — a ’60s pop feeling, underscored by contemporary crises. –Max Ross
8 p.m., First Avenue, 701 First Ave. N., Minneapolis; 612-332-1775; $20.
Also playing tonight are Sinead O’Connor at the Pantages Theatre and
Loudon Wainwright III at the Cedar Cultural Center.
FILM
Once, Full of Light
Granted, this is a fairytale of a movie. There’s actually a scene in which the street busker and his rag-tag band are cutting a demo album while a two-year-old runs gleefully around the sound studio. I’ve had two-year-olds [three of them] and you can barely make toast when they’re around and upright. Nevertheless, this film is wonderful. It’s quirky and sad and nearly prayerful: everyone in it is visibly lifted, exalted, made more whole by the music. And, yes, the music is that good. On a strictly emotional level, Once is real. Its stars, playing simply “the guy” and “the girl” according to a script by director John Carney, are an Irish and a Czech musician (Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, respectively) whose voices simply light up our world. In the story, they sing together for the first time in an empty music shop and everyone — from the clerk, who is leaning on the counter eating a sandwich, to members of the theater audience — goes still. Listening. —Ann Bauer
5 and 7:10 p.m., Heights Theater, 3951 Central Ave. N.E., Minneapolis; 763-788-9079; $8 (matinees $6).
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