Our Critics' Picks

THURSDAY 4/10

Sophocles SlamTHE ANTIGONE CYCLE The finale of People’s Branch Theatre’s ’07-’08 season is an original reworking of the classic Greek Theban plays of Sophocles. Here, the Antigone/Oedipus cycle is reimagined with contemporary urban style and expressed via hip-hop, dance and the impassioned flair of slam poetry. PBT artistic director Ross Brooks’ adaptation stresses the theme of urban violence and its impact on the family, with a score by award-winning singer-songwriters Lisa Kimmey and Juan Winans. The cast of five includes Kamal Bolden, Rodrikus Springfield, Alicia Ridley, Stephanie Vickers and Rashad Rayford. D. Richard Browder, who’s successfully staged dances for Nashville Children’s Theatre, supervises the choreography. This is a PG-13 show, with adult situations and language. April 10-26 at The Belcourt Theatre —MARTIN BRADY

MusicROMANTICA Disaffected Americans such as Jeff Tweedy, Ryan Adams, Alex Chilton and the Sweetheart of the Rodeo-era Byrds recast country, folk and rock ’n’ roll as interior monologue. From Belfast by way of Minneapolis, Romantica bear comparison to any number of groups who turn ready-made forms into pained examinations of authenticity. On last year’s full-length America, singer and songwriter Ben Kyle sounds like Tweedy—or Bruce Springsteen—while the quartet’s moderate tempos and pedal steel surround songs that get progressively more doleful. It takes a real romantic to describe the Mississippi River as “holy water,” as Kyle does in “I Need You Tonight.” In “How to Live in a Modern World,” Kyle wants nothing more than to pull up roots and move to the big city. “Don’t do what your daddy did,” he warns, but whether he plans to take his own advice remains an open question. 7 p.m. at 3rd & Lindsley —EDD HURT

MusicTHE BITTERSWEETS Change has been afoot for the Bittersweets. They moved from San Francisco to Nashville (there’ll be a farewell song to the city on their upcoming album), signed with Compass Records and made their second full-length. Fortunately it hasn’t hurt their exquisite alt-country pop one bit. The duo at the heart of the Bittersweets is vocalist Hannah Prater and guitarist and songwriter Chris Meyers. The whole band will join them for this show, but they’ll do the rest of this Paste magazine-sponsored tour in stripped-down fashion. Meyers’ melancholic melodies are alternately fetching and devastating in Prater’s hands, and her voice bears a resemblance to the luxurious lilt of Over the Rhine’s Karen Bergquist. At shows, The Bittersweets are offering a live album titled Long Way From Home to tide people over until the release of their new studio album. 7 p.m. at 3rd & Lindsley —JEWLY HIGHT

Oral HistorySTEPHEN DOSTER A funny thing happens when you take a beautiful little seaside village like, say, St. Simons Island in Georgia, and write a few hundred magazine articles about how nice it is. Within a couple of decades, it becomes just another beach town, with enough golf courses, chain coffee shops and parking meters to push out all the local charm. Perhaps that’s what led local author Stephen Doster to compose Voices From St. Simons: Personal Narratives of an Island’s Past, a collection of 17 interviews with people whose connection to the island goes back generations. As it turns out, St. Simons is something of a crucible of American history—it was the landing place for Spanish missionaries in the 1500s, a stronghold of the American Navy during World War II and the birthplace of the world’s first motorized lawn mower. Not bad for a beach town. 7 p.m. at Davis-Kidd Booksellers —CHRIS CLANCY

FRIDAY 4/11

Country Cookin’TRISHA YEARWOOD The Grammy winner and country diva swaps lyrics for recipes with this month’s debut of Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma Kitchen: Recipes From My Family to Yours. The collection of Southern recipes includes no-fuss classics such as pimento cheese spread, hash-brown casserole and cranberry salad with Cool Whip, cream cheese and gelatin. Yearwood’s mom and sister chime in with helpful kitchen hints, and mega-star hubby Garth Brooks pens a foreword about, yes, cooking with love. (Cooking with Cool Whip just doesn’t have the same ring.) 11 a.m. at David-Kidd Booksellers —CARRINGTON FOX

ArtIN MIND’S EYE Featuring work by Boston painter Laura Bean, ceramicist Debra Fritts and photo-encaustic artist Maggie Hasbrouck, In Mind’s Eye presents work by three distinctive artists exploring form and portraiture from a uniquely feminine perspective. Bean plays a game of peek-a-boo with her paintings of dress forms that reveal as much as they conceal, while Fritts’ anti-intuitive sculptures transform the permanence of ceramics into transient entries in a 3-D diary. Hasbrouck’s work—the highlight of the show—blurs the line between photography and painting, while simultaneously re-creating realistic portraiture into fantastic narrative. April 11-May 10 at Gallery One; opening reception, 6-8 p.m. —JOE NOLAN