FALL ARTS GUIDE year. And while Hamlet and King Lear may tilt on the fate of nations, Clarke says the drama of Avengeance will be no less substantial or cutting in its portrayals of destiny and betrayal. “Right now, we’re in a tragic mode, but we don’t have to remain here,” she says, describing both the play’s setting and the neighborhood in which she still lives. “It’s a story of hope,” she adds, “and the hope is that people will come to understand that there is value here, and to stop giving up and walking away from it.” Avengeance premiers September 9 at 8 p.m. at the Annie alone ome in the ille neighborhood. For more information, visit stlshakes.org/production/ theville/ or call 314-531-9800. The performances are free. —Danny Wicentowski
Music at the Intersection Shakespeare in the Streets’ 2019 production of Love at the River’s Edge. The event is returning, this time as Avengeance, for three performances in September. | PHILLIP HAMER
den Variety” is scultpor Summer Brooks challenging beauty standards for African American women. A press release says the artist hopes “to engage viewers in conversations about stereotypes placed onto people of color by colorism and racism.” “Lorna Simpson: Heads” is an exhibition of two digital animation videos by Simpson herself. The videos detail Simpson’s process of working with collage and photo manipulation. “Kathy Butterly: Out of one, many / Headscapes” is a ceramic sculp-
ture exhibit. Butterly combines two different projects of hers, one set from 1996 to 2018 and one set mostly made just for the CAM exhibit. “Out of one, many” is based off pint glasses and explores female figures, while eadscapes surveys the mind. The Contemporary Art Museum is free and open to the public Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Fridays from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. beginning on September 3. —Jenna Jones
Sweat
September 8 through 26. Edison Theatre, 6465 Forsyth Boulevard, University City. $15 to $55. 314-935-6543. Written by two-time Pulitzer
Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage, Sweat explores the intersection of economics, race and cultural identity through a meeting of friends in a fictional bar in Reading, Pennsylvania, with reviews of the play noting that its characters represent blue-collar workers who voted for Donald Trump as president. Described as a “deeply heartfelt drama” with plenty of humorous elements, the play sees its characters’ friendship tested by layoffs and the outsourcing of work, as the friends are forced to decide between looking out for one another or fending for themselves. The Black Rep’s production of the award-winning play is directed by Ron imes, and runs from September 8 through 26. For tickets and more information, visit theblackrep.org. —Daniel Hill
Shakespeare in the Streets: Avengeance
8 p.m. September 9 through 11. Annie Malone Home, 2612 Annie Malone Drive. Free. 314-531-0120. All the world’s a stage, and the St. Louis Shakespeare Festival is once again venturing beyond its summer home in Forest Park to prove it with Shakespeare in the Streets. Marking its tenth production after a pandemic-canceled 2020, the
annual program, which is free to the public, ventures into St. Louis neighborhoods to stage a locally produced original play inspired by one of the bard’s timeless classics. This year, that classic is none other than Hamlet — but in this adaptation, titled Avengeance, the tragedy departs from Hamlet’s royal anxieties in Denmark to land in the Ville in north St. Louis, where a young man wrestling with the decision to leave his family home is visited by the ghosts of famed comedian and activist Dick Gregory and pioneering Black hair-care entrepreneur Annie Malone. Written by Mariah Richardson and directed by Ville resident Thomasina Clarke, the play pivots on the notion of revenge for the current state of a once-thriving neighborhood now hard-hit by depopulation, disinvestment and disillusionment. “Hamlet’s premise is his father’s ghost coming back wanting to be avenged,” Clarke notes in an interview. “These ghosts have come back to ask for change, not just from the community, but from the city at large, which has abandoned them.” Among the all-persons-of-color cast is Carl Overly, Jr., who played Cornwall in St. Louis Shakespeare Festival’s nationally lauded production of King Lear earlier this
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September 10 through 12. Grand Boulevard and Washington Avenue. $55 to $300. The inaugural Music at the Intersection Festival will see headliners including Roy Ayers, Gregory Porter and Lalah athaway joined by more than forty local acts spanning across such genres as blues, rock & roll, jazz, soul, R&B and hip-hop. Additionally, national acts including Lee Fields & The Expressions, Jon Cleary & the Absolute Monster Gentlemen, kebe Shakedown, eyon arrold, the Soul Rebels featuring A, Bettye La ette, D - un , the Baylor Project and Don Bryant featuring the Bo-Keys will all perform as well. The ambitious undertaking will take place across six venues in Grand Center, with performances at the Fabulous Fox Theatre, the Big Top, the Sheldon Concert all, the randel Theatre, Jazz St. Louis and the Open Air tent. Tickets are available in the form of single- or multi-day passes, ranging from $55 to $300 for VIPs. For more information, visit musicattheintersection.org. —Daniel Hill
Dreaming Zenzile
September 10 to October 3. The Loretto-Hilton Center, 130 Edgar Road, Webster Groves. $29 to $99. 314-968-4925 The Rep is hosting not one, but two world premieres this fall. Up first: the long-awaited debut of Dreaming Zenzile kicks off the season and hits the stage on Septem-
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