THE RITES OF ELEUSIS are a cycle of seven mystery plays pertaining to the human and divine archetypes of the original seven planets: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sol, Venus, Mercury, and Luna. Created by Sir Aleister Crowley in 1910, they were designed to allow audiences to experience these archetypes in toto. Scarlet Woman Oasis, Ordo Templi Orientis, a local group involved in ritual theatre, has adapted Crowley's works and is staging them, one play every five days, over a month's time. Each rite will be performed on the day of the week corresponding to its planetary name, with the setting for each rite taking its cue in some way from the nature of the planet and archetype being explored: a revival camp meeting, an existentialist nightclub, a post-apocalyptic world, and so on. The next rites will be Nov 24: The Rite of Venus and Nov 29: The Rite of Mercury. Through Dec 4, days vary, 8pm, at the Bodhi Yoga and Massage Center, 1710 Houston. Tickets: $5 show. 443-7382.
ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD goes the news in Hamlet, and we barely mark their passing. But when Tom Stoppard gets hold of these peripheral Shakespearean characters, we come to a new appreciation of them and of the search for purpose and meaning in our lives. Taking hold of Stoppard's hilarious, heartbreaking play is director Christopher Dove (A Midsummer Night's Dream), who is staging this in partial fulfillment of his Master of Fine Arts degree. An Art-in-Performance production. Dec 1-3, Fri & Sat, 8pm, Sun, 2pm, at the Utopia Theatre, School of Social Work, UT campus. Admission is free, donations accepted. e-mail jkendall@utxsvs.cc.utexas.edu or 328-6987.
AVENUE X In John Jiler and Ray Leslee's musical, a gifted, young Italian-American singer meets an equally gifted African-American teen, and the two form a musical team to try to win a big talent show, but must face friends and families who consider their pairing unnatural. We've seen this before: New York, the Sixties, rebels who unite despite great opposition. But the creators do more than recycle West Side Story; they make us feel music and how it fills spaces in our lives. Through a stunning range of song styles, from hymn to gospel call to doo-wop to ballad, they reveal how we employ it in our celebrations, in our worship, how it ineffably articulates our deepest feelings without words. In this Zachary Scott Theatre Center production, director Dave Steakley and musical director Allen Robertson have brought together and nurtured a cast of performers who surrender their hearts to song in every number. Their voices rise with the grace and power of birds in flight, and their soaring is all the more astonishing for its being a cappella. No instruments guide the singers upward; we get only voices flying, pure and free. And it is glorious. (Robert Faires) HELD OVER! Through Dec 10, Fri & Sat, 8pm, Sun, 2:15pm, at the ZSTC Kleberg Stage, 1421 W. Riverside. Tickets: $17-19. Running time: 1 hr, 55 min. 476-0541.
BARBER, TALLMAN, CORA, CLOWN offers a new look into the enigmatic world of
Physical Plant Theater, the performance collective which blends the internal
with the external, cooks them with language, and serves up the impossible. In
this original work written, directed, and acted by the troupe, the tallest man
in the world walks into a long-forgotten barber shop for a haircut dream and
dance lessons while Cora lures the clown from the Circus Rigorous to the world
of great containers of clear, blue fluid. What does it mean? Does it mean
anything at all?
Nov 24-Dec 16, Thu-Sat, 8pm, at the Oxytocin Lounge
(upstairs at Club Proteus), 501 E. Sixth. Tickets: $6 ($5 seniors, students,
ACoT members). 499-TIXS.
ALWAYS... PATSY CLINE brings back that one-of-a-kind country singer in a show that reprises her greatest hits and explores her personal friendship with a fan. And this production not only brings back Patsy, it brings back the performer who made such a strong impression as Patsy during the show's first run at Capitol City Playhouse earlier this year; Rusty Rae returns as Patsy for this extended run. Joy Johnson plays her devoted fan and friend, Louise Seger. Ted Swindley, who developed the show at Stages in Houston, directs. Nov 29-Jan 27, Tue-Sat, 8pm, Sun matinees, at Capitol City Playhouse, 214 W. Fourth. Tickets: $15 Tue, $18 Wed/Thu/Sun, $21 Fri/Sat. Free buffet Wed/Thu, 7:15pm. 472-2966.
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