Art: This Saturday, there will be demonstrations across the country in defense of science and the environment, both of which progressives think are under attack by the new administration in Washington. Whatever your political leanings, giving a thought or two to Mother Earth on Saturday is a laudable thing to do, and a small Lake Worth art shop, the Clay Glass Metal Stone Gallery, is opening a short-duration exhibit tonight featuring work by 25 Florida artists dealing with the natural world. And if looking at nature-inspired art isn’t enough to get you in a tree-hugging mood, the first 100 visitors to the show tonight (it opens at 6 and runs through 10 p.m.) will get free seedlings. The exhibit, called It’s Not Easy Being Green, runs through May 3 at the gallery on 15 S. J St. in Lake Worth. Call 588-8344 for more information.
Film: More of a guilty pleasure than anything I can strongly defend, Ben Wheatley’s Free Fire is a pure shoot-’em-up, 90 minutes of flying bullets and mayhem, a breezy knockoff of Quentin Tarantino fare. In it, two British gangs of thugs convene in an abandoned warehouse for an arms deal. One side has crates of automatic weapons and the other has a briefcase of cash. But before they can make the exchange, one trigger-happy palooka shoots another, followed by a constant barrage of lead. I know, it doesn’t sound like much, but the film carries it off with style and more than a little dark humor. In among the high-testosterone cast is Oscar winner Brie Larsen, as well as such veteran supporting players as Armie Hammer and Cillian Murphy.
Theater: Palm Beach Dramaworks does not shrink from a challenge, but it has taken them 17 years to be ready to tackle a play by Tom Stoppard. And when they did, it was a doozy – the great British wordsmith and thinker’s 1993 award winner Arcadia, a wry meditation on science, art, history and sex. The action takes place in a single room of a stately country estate, but it ping-pongs back and forth between the 19th century and today. J. Barry Lewis directs the dense, cerebral script with an emphasis on the human emotions inside the math and physics. Towards that aim, he has the aid of a large cast that includes Peter Simon Hilton, Margery Lowe, Ryan Zachary Ward and a terrific young actress, Caitlin Cohn. Yes, it runs three and a quarter hours and it times you are likely to feel like your head may explode with all the ideas being poured into it, but the journey is well worth it. Through April 30. Call 561-514-4042 for tickets.
Music: If you asked the classical music fan to name the greatest violin concertos, you probably will get the same answers: Beethoven, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky and Sibelius would probably lead the list. But Guillermo Figueroa wants you to add another one: The Second Violin Concerto of Béla Bartók. The violinist and Lynn Philharmonia conductor is passionate about this powerful, hugely demanding work and calls it “one of the three truly great concertos for that instrument, and comparable only to those of Beethoven and Brahms.” This weekend, Figueroa, a first-class violinist, solos in this work with his student charges, led by Lynn dean Jon Robertson. Also on the program is the Die Meistersinger overture of Wagner and Elgar’s Enigma Variations. Concerts are 7:30 p.m. Saturday night and 4 p.m. Sunday. Call 237-9000 for tickets or visit www.lynn.edu.