Film: British director Michael Apted has made such commercial movies as Coal Miner’s Daughter and the 1999 James Bond flick, The World Is Not Enough. But by far his more significant project has been the Up series, a documentary visit with a dozen or so British subjects every seven years for the past 49 years, to track their lives and learn how they have overcome or fallen victim to the English class system. The series began when these folks were only 7, and now in 56 Up ― playing this week at Mos’Art Theatre in Lake Park ― their lives are pretty well set and they are mostly looking back on the choices they have made. Apted began these films long before the reality TV craze, so he avoids any of its gimmicks and forced drama. It is merely a portrait of lives over an extended period of time and completely fascinating.
Theater: Let us now praise Harriet Oser, a veteran South Florida actress who has reached an age where she is the go-to girl when an elderly character starting to lose her faculties is called for. Following her silent presence as a cash-cow boarder in The Effect of Gamma Rays… at Palm Beach Dramaworks and the stubborn, proud Daisy Werthan in Plaza Theatre’s Driving Miss Daisy, she completes the hat trick as frail, 90-ish Marxist widow Vera in Amy Herzog’s character study, 4000 Miles, at GableStage. Vera is understandably suspicious when her grandson Leo (an also impressive Michael Focas) arrives at her apartment at the end of a cross-country bicycle trip, intent on gaining back his girlfriend. The play is involving, but Oser is the reason you will want to travel to Coral Gables between now and April 14. Call (305) 445-1119 for tickets.
Art: A diverse collection of art, including painting, sculpture, photography, printing architectural design and interior design and complimentary books are showcased in Artist as Author, at the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County in Lake Worth. Among the 14 Palm Beach County artists featured in the exhibition are designer and artist John Loring, photographer Harry Benson, interior designer Geoffrey Bradfield, realist painter and poet JoAnne Berkow, illustrator and cartoonist Carlos Castellanos, painter and sculptor Edwina Sandys and still-life photographer Barry Seidman. Admission to the Cultural Council, which is located at 601 Lake Ave. in Lake Worth, is free and open to the public Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. A series of lectures in which the artists will discuss their art and their writing are scheduled for this coming Tuesday, April 2, as well as Tuesday, April 16, and Tuesday, April 30, at 3 p.m. Admission is $10 per person and free for Cultural Council members. For more information, visit palmbeachculture.com.
Music: With Easter and the long Passover celebration upon us, we have to look to next week for fresh musical performances, and it comes Wednesday in the persons of Anthony and Joseph Paratore. These fratelli musicale from a Boston Italian family have been playing as a professional duo for 40 years, and at the Kravis Center on Wednesday, the Paratores will play the First Suite (Op. 5) of Rachmaninov as well as three arrangements: The Liszt B minor sonata as arranged by Camille Saint-Saëns, Maurice Ravel’s Rapsodie Espagnole and George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. The concert is set for 2 p.m. Tickets start at $25. Call 832-7469 or visit www.kravis.org.