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

THEATER & PERFORMANCE
Heads Will Roll, Blood Will Flow

William Shakespeare’s epic revenge tragedy, Titus Andronicus, opens this weekend. Directed by Paul von Stoetzel, and starring Charles Hubbell, this Cromulent Shakespeare Company production tells the brutal, yet beautifully poetic story of revenge between Roman General Titus and Tamora Queen of the Goths. Expect a great deal of blood and death. This is Paul von Stoetzel’s return to directing theater after his first feature film, SNUFF: a documentary about killing on camera.

Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m., Bedlam Theatre, 1501 S. 6th St., Minneapolis; 612-338-9817; $15.

MUSIC
Abbado Conducts Schubert

Italian conductor Roberto Abbado knows the difference between flair and flash, or sophistication and ostentation. After a series of typically elegant performances with the Minnesota Orchestra earlier this decade, he became an artistic partner of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra two years ago and ascended the podium for five weeks of solid Beethoven last February and early March for performances that enhanced this undeniably crowd-pleasing music with rigorous exploration. This season’s three Abbado dates concentrate on another early nineteenth century Viennese master, Franz Schubert. The program includes Schubert’s Ninth Symphony, the “Great C Major”, preceded by his Overture to Rosamunde and Kirchner’s 1960 Concerto For Violin, Cello, Ten Winds, and Percussion, featuring Steven Copes (violin) and Ronald Thomas (cello). —Britt Robson

Friday at 10 a.m. and Saturday at 8 p.m, Ordway Center; Sunday at 2 p.m., Ted Mann Concert Hall; 651-291-1144; $11-$59.

Also on the musical agenda for the weekend — Charlie Parr is playing at the 331 Club on Friday at 9 p.m. You never want to miss Charlie.

MUSIC & DANCE
It Takes an Orchestra to Tango

Lacking a little passion in your life? This is the perfect event to heat things up a bit. Dancers Florencia Taccetti and Somer Surgit join the Mandragora Tango Orchestra this weekend for a steamy tango performance. Arrive at 6 p.m. for a tango lesson of your own (in the Jaycees Studio) prior to the show — the perfect cure for the post-holiday blues.

Saturday at 7:30 p.m., Hopkins Center for the Arts, 1111 Mainstreet, Hopkins; 651-209-6799; $12-$24.

ART
Closing this Weekend: Lynn Geesaman

Lynn Geesaman’s photographs always draw one in. And after that, you stand around in the image, thinking, Now what am I doing here? I came here to get something; what was it? The fuzzy, melting landscapes have the memory-dissolving qualities of a late spring day—and, quite honestly, who knows whether that’s good or bad? But these days, which seem to be an era of doldrums in the art world (however well masked by stratospheric speculation and its attendant glamour), art that affects its spectator with this kind of subtlety is worth a second look. —by Ann Klefstad

Closing this Weekend: Nicola Lopez's Constriction Zone

Creativity is a double-edged sword. This was something I first realized after reading a detailed account of the torture regimen used by the Sforzas, a Renaissance-era Milanese family whose fortune had been made in arms sales. They called it “Lent”: forty days of inventive and excruciating pain-inducing practices almost guaranteed to leave the victim alive at the end. And the Sforzas were renowned arts patrons to boot; Petrarch did their PR, in fact. What does this have to do with Lopez, who is getting a lot of attention in New York for her big, complex, print-based installations? These works, which explore infrastructure and built environments, are baroquely inventive, while also enacting the menace of urban sprawl and so-called progress; Lopez herself is an artist with enough sense to see not just the beauty in human creativity, but also its potential detriments. —by Ann Klefstad

Friday and Saturday from 12 to 5 p.m., Franklin Art Works, 1021 E. Franklin Ave., Minneapolis; 612-872-7494.

FILM
Summer Love in Winter

The story is not a new one: Man and woman are together. Woman gets antsy and wants a new life. A stranger comes to town. Guess what happens next? I won't get into the details, but let's just say man loses woman. What makes Piotr Ukla?ski's Summer Love unique isn't the spectacular storyline. It's all in the presentation. The film is visually stimulating, more a series of images than an ongoing dialog — something you'll notice immediately as the film begins with a bang, a shot literally, and a bloody stranger dying on screen. And just as the film begins with a bang, it sets the tone for the upcoming Expanding the Frame film series.

Saturday at 7:30 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m., Walker Art Center, 1750 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis; 612-375-7600; $8 (members $6).