This week, GBH Executive Arts Editor Jared Bowen recommends a provocative outdoor exhibit in the heart of Boston, a play that examines loneliness, and a show that celebrates joy through tap dancing.
“What Do We Have In Common?” at the Boston Common through October 22
To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Friends of the Public Garden, the group which also manages the Boston Common, artist Janet Zweig was commissioned by Now + There to create a public participatory work. Now through October 22, you’ll find a large wooden cabinet on the Common, filled with about 200 questions on teal markers. Each day, with the help of guides, several questions are taken out to invite a public discussion.
The questions are seemingly simple, yet reveal deeper conversations upon reflection: Who owns traffic? Who owns your work? Who owns the North Pole? Kate Gilbert, executive director of Now + There, says the questions “stop us in our tracks.”
Bowen talked to Zweig about the exhibit, after some questions were vandalized this weekend. “The one question that provoked the most vandalism was: Who owns the truth?” Zweig said. “Someone destroyed that one. And if you think about our situation right now, that person was really responding to a situation that's very current and something that might be upsetting to a lot of people.”
“The Sound Inside,” at the Speakeasy Stage Company through October 16
The Tony-nominated play “The Sound Inside” features just two actors and is a “masterful” accomplishment, according to Bowen. Written by Adam Rapp, the play follows a lonely college professor who starts interacting with a young student. As the two start to engage in dialogue about their loneliness, their relationship deepens in a foreboding journey.
“The Sound Inside is exquisitely charted as we absorb masterful play between two characters whose very essence is slowly and tantalizingly uncloaked to a wrenching end,” Bowen says.
“Ayodele Casel: Chasing Magic” at the American Repertory Theater through October 9
Tap dancer Ayodele Casel’s show premiered virtually, and is now on stage at the American Repertory Theater. Bowen says that it’s “a joyous exploration and celebration of this great American art form.” Casel finds joy in the dance style, and enthusiastically engages the audience in its themes of culture, friendship and ancestry. A highlight for Bowen was when Casel brought Grammy-winning jazz musician Arturo O'Farrill for an improvised back and forth with dancers as he plays piano.
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