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friday 10.29
Curry Favor
"Indian Ink" takes place in two time periods – India in the 1930s, and India and England in the mid-'80s. In the '30s, we follow the adventures of poet and free spirit Flora Crewe (Isabel Keating) as she travels in India, beguiling every man she meets. Flora flirts outrageously with a prince (Rajesh Vidyasagar) and spars romantically with an English military official (Rufus Collins). But her most complex relationship is with Nirad Das (Faran Tahir), a widower who paints her portrait. Meanwhile, back in the present, earnest scholar Eldon Pike (Hugh Nees) interviews Flora's sister Eleanor Swan (June Hansen), seeking help for his annotated version of Flora's letters. Eleanor is also visited by Das's son, Anish (Lahiri), who is in search of his late father's portrait of Flora. Complicated though this may sound, it all coheres shimmeringly, with past and present fading into and mirroring each other.
Happily the Studio Theatre has extended the run of "Indian Ink" to Dec. 5. Tickets run from $19.50 to $38.50; call 202/332-3300.
– Lloyd Rose.
You Outta Be in Pictures
New at the movies: Spike Jonze directs "Being John Malkovich," a dark comedy about a puppeteer (John Cusack) who discovers the ability to enter the mind of John Malkovich (played by same) for 15 minutes at a time. Also features Cameron Diaz and Catherine Keener. Geoffrey Rush and Peter Gallagher star in "House on Haunted Hill," a horror flick in which five strangers get $1 million each if they can survive one night in that scary house. It's a remake of William Castle's 1958 classic. Milla Jovovich ("The Fifth Element") plays the Maid of Orleans in "The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc," director Luc Besson's treatment of the French savior, victim and saint. Also in the cast: John Malkovich, Dustin Hoffman and Faye Dunaway. Horrormeister Wes Craven treads a different path in "Music of the Heart," about East Harlem violin teacher Roberta Guaspari, played by Meryl Streep. The movie's based on an Oscar-winning documentary. Opening date subject to change.
Quasi Deposit
Though Portland's Quasi has released four CDs in the past four years, the Oregon band's two members – keyboardist Sam Coomes and drummer Janet Weiss – are still better known for their other music projects. Weiss rocketed to indie fame as one-third of the popular punk trio Sleater Kinney and Coomes formed the band Heatmiser with troubadour Elliot Smith, he of Oscar-nominated fame for his songs in "Good Will Hunting." The band's critically acclaimed releases, particularly this year's "Field Studies" and 1998's "Featuring Birds," are loaded with engaging, jagged-edge yet melodious pop songs, featuring resolutely misanthropic lyrics that are long on despair, yet short on drudgery.
Opening for Quasi are D.C. native and Helium singer Mary Timony and No. 2, a promising new Portland band featuring Neil Gust, another former member of Heatmiser on vocals and lead guitar. No. 2 has just put out its first CD, "No Memory," on the Chainsaw label. The Black Cat's doors open at 9:30 p.m.; admission is $7. Call 202/432-SEAT.
– Joe Heim
High Hopes
Soprano Dawn Upshaw doesn't have a huge voice, she doesn't have an overwhelming, outsize personality on the operatic stage, and her cult is composed mainly of the quieter sort of vocal fan. But she is an incomparable singer of extraordinary directness and expressivity. Her singing in a vocal recital has the effect of a single bright light in a darkened room: It focuses, clarifies and eliminates the unnecessary. On one of the busiest concert nights of the season, Upshaw will give a vocal recital just outside of town. A very solid bet, the concert takes place at 8 p.m. at the George Mason University Center for the Arts in Fairfax. Tickets are $30 and $40; call 703-993-8888.
– Philip Kennicott
Loot Bag
Not since the King Tut show has the District been offered works of ancient art as shiveringly fabulous. Check out the treasures from "The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology" at the National Gallery of Art.
. . .
"Three Tall Women," first staged in the United States in 1994, re-established Edward Albee as perhaps our best living playwright. Inspired by unhappy memories of his own mother, Albee's titular characters are the same woman at ages 26, 52 and 92, known respectively as C, B and A. The interactions among hopeful C, bitter B and peacefully confused A are written so sharply that any production is likely worth seeing. The three weeks of performances on Howard Community College's Rep Stage begin tonight at 8.
I Want More!
Want some more choices? You can get listings for movies and other entertainment events from the front page of each Style Live section. To get more specific, try the search box to the right.
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