STAGE
Fearless comedian Peggy Platt, half of the Dos Fallopia comedy team (with Lisa Koch) and force behind the annual Ham for the Holidays sketch/variety show, will be remembered Monday night after her April 2 passing. In lieu of flowers or gifts, attendees are asked to please make donations to Planned Parenthood. ACT, acttheatre.org. 7:30 p.m. Mon., April 16.
CLASSICAL, ETC.
Along with Bach’s six solo suites, Beethoven’s five sonatas for cello and piano form the core of the cello repertory, and not many recitals disinclude one or the other. Tonight, two UW faculty members, cellist Sæunn Thorsteinsdóttir and pianist Craig Sheppard, are playing two of the latter: Beethoven’s first sonata in F, bumptious and youthful, and his last in D, with its otherworldly lovely slow movement and contrapuntally complicated finale. Rachmaninoff’s grandiloquent cello sonata completes the program. Meany Center, UW campus, music.washington.edu. $10–$20. 7:30 p.m. Mon., April 16.
BOOKS
In an age when cutting wit and entirely warranted fury are a cultural commentator’s two most potent weapons, few combine them as effectively as Lindy West, who’s leapt from Seattle to Jezebel to This American Life to The Guardian to The New York Times with her takes on feminism, sexism, body image, rape, abortion, and a host of other issues-that-really-shouldn’t-be-issues-anymore. The author of Shrill, her 2016 memoir in essays, is back with a talk, “The Witches Are Coming.” Benaroya Hall, elliottbaybook.com. $19–$75. 7:30 p.m. Sun., April 15.
FILM
Do you remember that shot from Jurassic Park with scads of smaller dinos dashing across the screen to get out of the way of the advancing T. rex? That’s what I was reminded of this weekend, with a handful of mini-film festivals all coincidentally popping up, perhaps seeing SIFFosaurus (May 17–June 10) looming on the horizon. Choose from:
• The Best of the 44th Northwest Filmmakers’ Festival, reprising shorts from last November’s gathering, at Northwest Film Forum (nwfilmforum.org, Wed.)
• ByDesign, films focusing on design and architecture (also Northwest Film Forum, Thurs.–Sun.)
• BoneBat’s Comedy of Horrors Film Fest, with features and shorts mashing up the two genres, at SIFF Cinema Uptown (siff.net, Sat.)
• One final bonus weekend, in Issaquah, of last month’s Seattle Jewish Film Festival (seattlejewishfilmfestival.org, Sat.–Sun.)
• The Rooted in Rights Storytellers Film Festival, showcasing shorts made by people with disabilities (also SIFF Cinema Uptown, Tues.)
• The Wild & Scenic film festival, 14 environmental films from around the world, at SIFF Cinema Egyptian (siff.net, next Wed.)
Not to mention ongoing silent-film series at The Paramount (stgpresents.org, Mon.) and The Royal Room (theroyalroom seattle.com, Tues.), and Hitchcock at SAM (seattleartmuseum.org, Thurs.). And the Langston Hughes African American Film Festival coming up next weekend, April 19–22.
MUSIC
Greta Kline gets things done. The über-prolific New York lo-fi indie-pop singer/songwriter has put out over 50 releases via Bandcamp since 2009. Seems like more than enough reps to be ready for a breakout. To make Vessel, the excellent new album from her band Frankie Cosmos, Kline put aside her DIY side by signing with Sub Pop Records, but hasn’t lost touch with her knack for weaving heady lyrical feelings or crafting catchy soft-pop-rock instrumentation. Whether existential downers like “Cafeteria” (“I wasn’t built for this world/I had sex once, now I’m dead”) or a heart-melting 30-second love song about dead phones (“My Phone”), Kline’s pure sweet sincerity is irresistible. Neumos, neumos.com. $15–$17. 8 p.m. Tues., April 17.
VISUAL ART | TALKS
Hugely popular during his life—to the point of being considered by some the greatest living painter—the reputation of Adolphe-William Bouguereau (1825–1905) nose-dived after his death. For sheer craftsmanship, he was unbeatable, and the impeccably finished portraits and mythological fantasies of near-photographic verisimilitude that he turned out by the dozens upon dozens made him a fortune, especially from sales to parvenu American collectors—to whom he overtly pandered while opposing, from his arch-academic power base, Impressionism and subsequent movements that now loom vastly larger in popular and critical esteem. This has not endeared him to the judgment of history, nor has the hypocrisy of his nauseous combination of sugar and sex; as has been often pointed out, his Madonnas look just like his nymphs, only with more clothes on. This aspect of Bouguereau’s oeuvre has only gotten more problematic in recent years; as The New Yorker’s Peter Schjeldahl trenchantly put it, “His toothsomely eroticized nudes should have gotten him arrested, if not punched in the face.” Rebecca Albiani’s talk “A.W. Bouguereau, the Last Old Master” looks at his career, the revolving wheel of taste, and what he might have to offer today. Frye Art Museum, frye museum.org. $12–$21. 11 a.m. & 7 p.m. Thurs., April 12, 11 a.m. Fri., April 13.
