Now See This

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Published: May 8, 2007

"To the left" isn't just a phrase for Beyonce fans to savor. Sophocles-ians like it, too. Boozers who play Kings � the beer-pitcher card game where bad stuff happens to the dupe on the left � will dig the ladies from To the Wall Productions' chug-a-lug Oedipus Kings. If you don't know what happens when the Sphinx asks, "What is the creature that walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon and three in the evening," you'll get drunk finding out.

�A.D. Amorosi

Mon., May 13, 8 p.m., $10, two-drink minimum (runs every Sun. and Mon. until June 4), The Dive, 947 E. Passyunk Ave., 215-531-0850, web.mac.com/tothewallproductions.

Up in Honey's Room is Leonard's 41st novel, as well as the third installment of a loose trilogy (starting with The Hot Kid and running through his recent New York Times Magazine serial Comfort to the Enemy). But that doesn't mean he had the whole thing mapped out in advance. "I'm always making it up as I go along," says Leonard. "I don't want the plot to be obvious. I want the reader to be surprised at what develops." (For a full Q&A with Leonard, visit www.citypaper.net.) Tonight, Leonard reads from Honey's Room, which follows a gang of German spies in WWII-era Detroit, and features my 2007 nomination for Most Surreal Piece of Crime Fiction Dialogue: "Sieg Heil, y'all. I'm Honey Deal."

�Duane Swierczynski

Thu., May 10, 7 p.m., Free Library of Philadelphia: Central Branch, 1901 Vine St. www.library.phila.gov.

Who knew that deep inside minimalist sculptor/painter Edward McHugh beats the heart of a Romantic photographer? From the deserts of Baja, Calif., to the salt marshes of France, to an abandoned dock in Philadelphia, the exhibition features McHugh's whimsical shots of the places he's traveled in the last two years. These digital prints of expansive, dreamlike landscapes evoke a sense of sublimation that would make Chopin and Whistler sigh.

�Mickey Jou

Runs May 11-July 21, Gallery 339, 339 S. 21st St., 215-731-1530, www.gallery339.com.

Lewis Carroll's fantastical tale of a kid in wonderland seems trippy enough without having to rely on Cirque du Soleil-like flights of fancy. But Chicago's Lookingglass Theatre Company takes to its acrobatics in a more muscular fashion. While I'm guessing the juggling Mad Hatter and unicycling White Knight will be OK, I don't think big aerial maneuvers bode well for Humpty Dumpty. Not at all.

�A.D. Amorosi

Thu., May 10, $27-$45, runs through June 10, Arden Theatre Company, 40 N. 2nd St., 215-922-1122, www.ardentheatre.org.

The Never Odd or Even art collective � which has hosted plays, a prom, a music fest and a carnival in its semi-converted garage space � knows how have a weird, good time. And things should only get weirder and better with Skindog, a new play by sculptor/playwright Tessa Myer and illustrator/City Paper designer Evan Lopez. "It's about a secret sport passed down through family lines that is based on picking up women," Lopez told me while he should have been drawing a box or whatever they do over there. "The play focuses on the Philadelphia team, which has not won a game in a hundred years because of a curse on the original incarnation of the team."

�Patrick Rapa

Runs May 11-27, $10, Never Odd or Even HQ, 1223 Wood St., myspace.com/neveroddeven.

I don't know if the sadly sullen women in Brooklyn-born artist Stella Im Hultberg's ink drawings and paintings in watercolor and oil on wood and paper are based on her or her friends. But if Egon Schiele � of whose lean, gawkiness her work is most reminiscent (with a hint of pastoral anime) � had known gorgeous, pouty babes like this, he wouldn't have been so pissed off.

�A.D. Amorosi

Reception Thu., May 12, 5 p.m., runs through June 17, Art Star, 1030 N. 2nd St., 215-238-1157, www.artstarphilly.com.

 

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A Lot to Juggle
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Now and Again
Leonard Part 41
Reality Bites
Giver Delivers
Star Witnesses
Messing with the Bull
V for Victory
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