Film: British director Steve McQueen is known for making films of brutality and excess, but now he has chosen a subject that matches his style. It is 12 Years a Slave, the fact-based saga of Solomon Northup, an African-American free man who lives with his family in upstate New York until he is lured to the nation’s capital, tricked into bondage and sold as a slave. The relentless cruelty, casual violence and sheer inhumanity of slavery has never been captured on film so vividly, making this a hard movie to watch, but one everyone should see. The impressive supporting cast includes Brad Pitt, Paul Giamatti, Sarah Paulson and Michael Fassbender, but the film belongs to Chiwetel Ejiofor (Amistad), giving the performance of his career as Northup. Opening this weekend at area theaters.
Theater: Slow Burn Theatre Co. specializes in the unconventional corners of the musical theater, in shows that stretch the limits of what a musical can be. Shows like Next to Normal, which looks at a suburban family facing the challenges of coping with a housewife and mother with bi-polar disorder. Composer Tom Kitt and lyricist Brian Yorkey not only make their situation sing, they figure out ways to inject some humor into the dark subject. And they have a Pulitzer Prize to show for their effort. Slow Burn’s resident director Patrick Fitzwater is in good form, emphasizing the ensemble nature of the show, with impressive performances from Sharyn Peoples, Matthew Korinko, Anne Chamberlain and Bruno Vida. Continuing at the West Boca Community High School through Nov. 2. Tickets are $40, available by calling (866) 811-4111.
Music: The Lynn Philharmonia has been slowly developing over the years as the dean of the Lynn University Conservatory of Music, Jon Robertson, has been building up his program. The orchestral program is about to be handed over to its new director, Guillermo Figueroa, but this weekend, Robertson takes the podium for a second guest appearance as he takes his young charges through a meat-and-potatoes program of the Orchestral Suite No. 3 (in D, BWV 1068) of J.S. Bach, Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony (No. 1 in D, Op. 25), and the New World Symphony (No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95) of Antonin Dvořák. The orchestra sounded impressive in its first outing earlier this month in a program that included the Bruckner Fourth Symphony, but expect for this second concert for some more of the opening-week jitters to have been worked out. 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday at the Wold Performing Arts Center on the Lynn campus in Boca Raton. Tickets: $35-$50. Call 237-9000 or visit events.lynn.edu.
Art: Rolando Chang Barrero is something of a force of nature, insisting on creating an actual artists’ community in some unlikely warehouses near the interstate on Boynton Beach’s Industrial Avenue. His own art has a light, energetic quality, with an attractive color palette that seems entirely at home in South Florida. Friday night, his first solo exhibition in 15 years opened at Jacques de Beaufort’s Unit 1 gallery space on Lucerne Avenue in Lake Worth, and can be seen by appointment or during other events in the weeks ahead. Barrero is the kind of person who makes things happen, and the least we can do while we watch him build a real movement here in Palm Beach County is get a sense of the artist when he’s not out getting other artists to pull together. For more information, send and email to jdebeaufort75@gmail.com, or visit www.unit1.org.
