Weekend Best Bets: January 11-13

Friday, January 11

Actors Unleashed

WHAT: The Method Gun
WHERE: Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
WHEN: 8 p.m.
This first act in Out There 25: Reality/Identity/Myth, marking a quarter-century of the Walker Art Center’s exploratory theater festival, is a vigorous, sometimes absurd, and occasionally uneasy exploration of a notoriously extreme acting coach in the anything-goes 1960s. She didn’t exist, of course, but perhaps she should have, as this portrayal commands attention like few other things onstage. Learn more at walkerart.org
 

Friday, January 11

Disco Down Under

WHAT: Priscilla Queen of the Desert
WHERE: Orpheum Theatre, Minneapolis
WHEN: 8 p.m.
The Broadway show based on the Australian cult movie is beginning its national tour in Minneapolis. And for good reason: we loved the movie, long the late-night show at the Uptown Theater. If the Broadway version leans more on the movie’s infectious feel-good energy (with dance numbers to songs like “It’s Raining Men” and “I Will Survive”) than its nuanced emotions, it works as a kind of sing-a-long soundtrack performance. Learn more at hennepintheatretrust.org
 

Saturday, January 12

Cool Cats

WHAT: The Terra-Gatto Warriors
WHERE: Flanders Gallery, Minneapolis
WHEN: 6 to 9 p.m.
While the Chinese Terra-cotta Warriors are displayed a few blocks east, Flanders opens a show of Denise Rouleau’s elaborate and charming collection of “terra-gatto” warriors—two-feet-tall erect cats as well as smaller pieces, like a drawer stuffed with tiny cat sculptures, a reference to cats’ mystical appeal over the centuries. Learn more at flandersart.com
 

Saturday, January 12

Paradise Lost

WHAT: Tabu
WHERE: Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
WHEN: 4 and 7:30 p.m.
The third feature film by Miguel Gomes opens in modern-day Lisbon for a series of parables about three women of differing ages but similar disillusionment. Then it flashes back to a romanticized colonialist era of dashing men and alluring women, all of it referencing the silent-film era in its black-and-white palette and sound effects. Learn more at walkerart.org/calendar/2013/tabu
 

Sunday, January 13

Funny Business

WHAT: The Minneapolis Jewish Humor Festival
WHERE: Sabes Jewish Community Center, Minneapolis
WHEN: 7:30 p.m.
Emmy-winning journalist and storyteller Gary Gilson closes the first weekend of this fourth-annual festival, which celebrates the not-inconsiderable contributions of Jews to American humor. Gilson mines his unconventional family history for laughs and poignant memoir, while others in the festival bring stand-up comedy, a laughter-yoga workshop, and local storytelling (courtesy of Temple Israel’s “Inappropriate Rabbi” Sim Glaser). Learn more at sabesjcc.org/humor-fest.php
 

Sunday, January 13

How Sausage is Made

WHAT: Butcher & the Boar’s Beer Bash
WHERE: Butcher & the Boar, Minneapolis
WHEN: 4 to 10 p.m.
Dan Israel and Aaron Berdofe provide the musical accompaniment (from 6 to 8 p.m.) for this festival of house-made sausages, Surly beer (seven varieties on tap), and the joys of consuming them in cold weather. Simple as that. Plus, in a nod to the tradition of some less upscale establishments, a meat raffle once an hour. Learn more at butcherandtheboar.com