The daily digest of Twin Cities culture | Secrets of the City

THEATER & PERFORMANCE
The Creature and Creator within Us

Once again, The Rake is honored to promote an event in which one of our very own staff members is participating. Apparently, it's a big year for our sales team — at least on the artistic front. Last month, our sales coordinator, Mary Olson, had an art exhibit; and this month, another member of our sales team, Valerie Rigsbee, is performing in Frankenstein Incarnate: The Passions of Mary Shelley. The Theater Unbound production — written by Anne Bertram, directed by Carin Bratlie, and featuring an all-female cast — weaves together a narrative of the life of Mary Shelley with the story that made her famous. Much like her novel, Shelley's own life often blurred the lines between creature and creator — a fact fully exploited by this unique production. While the show is certainly worth the full price of admission, tonight you can enjoy a one-time-only pay-what-you-can performance. Don't miss it.

7:30 p.m., The Neighborhood House in the Paul and Sheila Wellstone Center, 179 Robie St. E., St. Paul; 612-721-1186; $18 - pay what you can.

MUSIC
John Abercrombie Quartet

John Abercrombie is among the most influential guitarists in jazz history. True, this should certainly be enough to lure you out tonight; but let's not neglect the other talented members of his quartet. Master violinist Mark Feldman has been a soloist in some of the best orchestras across the globe, as well as performing with a broad scope of artist from Mark Dressner, to Cheryl Crow, to Johnny Cash. As Herbie Hancock's bassist of choice, Scott Colley is no less impressive. His greatest and latest success has been as composer and bandleader. And, of course, drummer Joey Baron doesn't fall behind. In addition to playing with the Bill Frisell Band for ten years, he has performed with an impressive list of musicians, including Dizzy Gillespie, Tony Bennett, Chet Baker, Laurie Anderson, David Bowie, David Sanborn, and John Scofield. The four together, well... just plain old shouldn't be missed. Their skill and familiarity with the music enable them to take jazz to its fullest expression.

7 & 9:30 p.m., Dakota Jazz Club & Restaurant, 1010 Nicollet, Minneapolis; 612-332-1010; $27 & $20.

FILM
Samuel Fuller's Finest

Pickup on South Street has a plot, and a good one: in a crowded subway, Skip McCoy (the great Richard Widmark) lifts a wallet from Candy (Jean Peters). Trouble is, the broad's unwittingly delivering a red-hot MacGuffin: a piece of microfilm that contains the blueprint for some awful government weapon. See, our lady's delivering the stuff right into the hands of tough, yet subtly effeminate Communists. The Feds were following her, hoping to catch Candy in the act and nabbing the lot all at once. Only Skip fouled everything up. Now everyone's chasing our hero (if you can call a cheap hood a hero). For his part, Skip's after the bag of money he knows the Commies will pony up for the microfilm. He's no patriot--he simply wants the cash and the Feds can go to hell. So the FBI's after Skip. Candy falls for him. And the ruthless brute, police captain Dan Tiger (Murvyn Vye) is trying to nail our pickpocket for the fourth and final time. Four strikes and you're in Sing Sing for the rest of your days. See our full review. —Peter Schilling

8 p.m., Parkway Theater, 4814 Chicago Ave., Minneapolis; 612-822-3030; $6.

LECTURE
A Chat with David Marshall Grant

The first performance of the Guthrie's latest play, Pen, was just this past weekend. And this evening, director Rob Melrose will lead an informal chat with Pen playwright David Marshall Grant, who will discuss his varied work in television, film, and theater — as both actor and playwright. Grant's first play, Snakebit, was nominated for both a 1999 Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award. His current play, set in the late '60s, chronicles the struggles of a 17-year-old boy to cope with his mother's illness and the bitterness that ensues.

4 p.m., Guthrie Learning Center, 818 S. 2nd St., Minneapolis; 612.377.2224; $15.

ART
Journey Toward Healing

Yesterday was the opening of a new Gage Family Art Gallery exhibit, featuring collages by Janette Maley and photographs by Arthur Hand. "As wife and husband, the two artists had separate careers until 1998 when Maley was diagnosed with breast cancer — a fact that redefined their artistic output." Since then, Maley has become the subject of her own collages, as she explores self-image and our culture's idea of beauty. Meanwhile, Hand has focused on documenting his wife's struggles with the illness — chemo, radiation, surgery — through a series of powerful photographs. It's an intense exhibit, with gruesome subject matter, of course, but the result is an amazing transformation into a thing of beauty.

8 a.m. - 8 p.m., The Gage Family Art Gallery, 2211 Riverside Ave. S., Second Level, Lindell Library, Minneapolis; 612-330-152.