DEADLINE FOR LISTINGS: Wed, Jan 27, 5pm, for Feb 5 issue. Listings are printed on a space-available basis. Photos which accompany listings submissions MUST have info on the back or they won't be used. Arts Listings are edited by Sarah Hepola (Theatre), Robert Faires (Performance, Dance, Classical), J.C. Shakespeare (Comedy), Ric Williams (Litera), and Sam Martin (Visual Arts). [ Theatre | Dance | Classical | Comedy | Litera | Performance | Art ]

Betrayal The Public Domain, 807 Congress Jan 22-Feb 20, Thu-Sat, 8pm Harold Pinter may be the most distinctive stylist of the modern stage. Like Hal Hartley's films, or Jackson Pollock's art, Harold Pinter's plays can be identified a mile off, all the crackling pauses and bizarro scenarios like neon flagposts peppering the road. Perhaps as a testament to his resonance, two of his pieces are being produced in Austin this month over a generation after they were penned, with juicy casts and generous runs (The Homecoming and Betrayal). No offense to Pause Productions and what is sure to be an intriguing version of the former, my own favorite Pinter piece is 1978's Betrayal, opening this week at Robi Polgar's Public Domain. It is Pinter at his most accessible, a production in which the playwright's trademark flourishes merge with a meaty, wry story about an illicit affair and its eventual corrosion. Over an 11-year period, Betrayal follows Emma and Robert, a married couple played by Katherine Catmull (Raised in Captivity) and David Jones (The Food Chain), as well as Jerry (Jim Elliot, from O.T.), Robert's best friend, who has a seven-year affair with Emma. Filled with allusions to authors who write about their indiscretions, Betrayal is allegedly based on Pinter's own seven-year affair with a TV newswoman, whom the London Sunday Times penned "the thinking man's crumpet." Perhaps it is the personal nature of the piece that leads the playwright to stray further from his roots in absurdist theatre, in which traditional narrative is deliberately eluded, to share a compelling story from beginning to end. Well, not really -- Betrayal may actually be best known for one stylistic distinction: It is a tale told backward from end to beginning, from the ashes of a relationship to its first fiery sparks. It may sound gimmicky, but Pinter uses this technique brilliantly, laying bare all the tiny lies and seductions along the way. What we sense at the end (or beginning) is the devastating loss, the deep and irrevocable betrayal. Disillusioned, bitter, and boozy, it is a very clever, very sad, very English tale of love iced over. An opening night celebration with the artists ($25) benefits ALAA's pro bono legal and accounting services. -- Sarah Hepola

My Visits With MGM The Acting Studio, 5811 Burnet Jan 22-Feb 13 In her touching bilingual comedy My Visits With MGM (My Grandmother Marta), playwright Edit Villareal, who grew up in Brownsville and is the vice chair of Drama at UCLA, focuses on how two sisters took a leap of faith during the Mexican Revolution, leaving their homeland for Texas, and how it affected each for the rest of her life. Generations later, Marta Feliz, one of their granddaughters, faces the same decision as she leaves their Southwestern home for L.A., a place just as foreign to her as the U.S. was to her grandmother and great aunt. Villareal cleverly interweaves the past and the present to touch on racial and cultural parallels facing the women and how Marta Feliz finds inspiration in the memories and ghost of her grandmother. Norman Blumensaadt's Different Stages makes its first foray into bilingual theatre with this production, directed by Mary Alice Carnes. At the Fri, Jan 22 preview, Villareal is scheduled to be in attendance. 454-TIXS.

Festival of Argentinean Culture Jack Blanton Museum and other various UT locations Through June First the tango, now this. The Argentinean revolution is taking Austin by storm. From January to June of this year, the Jack S Blanton Museum, one of the nation's leading collectors of contemporary Latin American Art for the last 35 years, is organizing a Festival of Argentinean Culture across the UT campus that will include museum shows, lectures, literary symposia, and cinema. Headlining the events is "Cantos Paralelos: Visual Parody in Contemporary Argentinean Art," a mixed media display exploring the use of parody in Argentinean art. There you will find nine of the country's most outstanding artists of the last three decades, including Antonio Berni, Jorge de la Vega, Alberto Heredia, Pablo Suarez, Juan Carlos Distefano, Leon Ferrari, Ruben Santantonin, Victor Grippo, and Luis F. Benedit. Most of these artists' work has never before been shown in the United States. In conjunction with "Cantos Paralelos," the Blanton is holding a lecture series entitled "Issues in Contemporary Argentinean Art." The first of those lectures is on Jan 25, 5pm, and will include discussions with the artists along with a talk by Mari Carmen Ramirez, Blanton's Latin American Curator, on the 27th. And this is only the beginning. With shows at eight other organizations around town, there should be enough Argentinean culture in town to keep anyone from having to visit South America until it's over. Then we'll all be heading for the pampas. Even the Austin Film Society is getting in on the action with a series of recent films entitled "New Directions: Contemporary Argentinean Cinema" beginning in February. Until then go check out the humorous caricatures of the lives of the gauchos, the Argentinean cowboys, by Florencio Molina Campos presently up on the fourth floor of the Harry Ransom Center. It's enough to make you want to eat a steak, dance the tango, and ride a horse -- in that order. -- Sam Martin

Politics & Dance Cafe Dance Sun, Jan 24, 2pm Choreographers have often used the body as a political instrument. Isadora Duncan's rejection of corsets and binding toe shoes at the turn of the century helped usher in the era of increased choreographic freedom and in turn, increased freedom from Victorian strictures. Her revolutionary ideas laid the groundwork for current choreographers such as Bill T. Jones, who explores social issues such as battling AIDS and discrimination. "Politics & Dance," the first of a dynamic four-part history of dance series, will consider the sociopolitical context of seminal dances such as Kurt Jooss' The Green Table and the ballet Giselle. Dance historian Barbejoy Ponzio will utilize video and theatrical presentations throughout the lecture to help the audience appreciate the historical underpinnings of stunning dance movement. Cafe Dance is hosting this exciting series which also includes: "Jookin," "Dancers of the Third Age," and "A History of Modern Dance in Austin." Tickets are $10. 451-8066. -- Dawn Davis