Weekend Event Planner

These are the 9 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

Although it's full speed ahead for many organizations when it comes to in-person events, theater companies are still taking the slow and steady approach, as the productions premiering this weekend are all either virtual or socially-distanced. Other choices will include comedy from a couple of big names, concerts both classical and country, and a huge soccer match.

Below are the best ways to spend your precious free time this weekend.

Thursday, May 27

Undermain Theatre presents Hedda Gabler
Hedda Gabler is Henrik Ibsen’s masterpiece of realism that permanently changed the face of world drama. It is the story of an extraordinary woman trapped in a conventional life of secrets and lies that fuel her own personal explosion. Blake Hackler adapts this classic, presented by Undermain Theatre virtually through June 13.

Bishop Arts Theatre Center presents What If...?
In What If...? by Cynthia G. Robinson, a young woman’s need to fight for justice unleashes her mother’s fears for her child’s life. This show commemorates the death of George Floyd, and the company hopes that viewers watching this piece will have a change of heart and bring awareness. The production will be available to stream at any time through May 31.

Over The Bridge Arts presents First Draft
Over the Bridge Arts will present First Draft, a platform for creative works-in-progress. The event opens with artists from Echo Theatre reading opening scenes from selected entries to their “Big Shout Out 3 — International New Play Contest for Women+ Playwrights.” The second half of the program will feature The Pollinators, an original satirical musical that deals with authoritarian hot head characters who would flaunt science, undermine progress, and commit unlawful acts. The in-person performance will be at The Wild Detectives in Oak Cliff.

Very Good Dance Company presents Tenants/Tenets
Very Good Dance Company presents Tenants/Tenets, a futurist dance theater performance that spontaneously generates a fully functioning society in which its community must determine their responsibility to each other. Throughout the process of creating this work, an interview process will devise the performance which will also create an experiential encounter for the audience, revealing the process behind the performance through engaging the audience in the interview process. The production, part of AT&T Performing Arts Center's Elevator Project, will play at Wyly Theatre three times through Saturday.

Improv Arlington presents Craig Robinson
While Craig Robinson is well known now, he wanted to be a teacher for a long time. It was while he was studying education in Chicago that he also discovered his love of acting and comedy when he joined the famed Second City Theatre. He's arguably best known for his role as acerbic Dunder-Mifflin employee Darryl Philbin on NBC’s Emmy-winning The Office, but he's starred in a number of other movies and TV shows. He'll perform six times through Sunday at Improv Arlington.

Friday, May 28

Improv Addison presents Ron White
Comedian Ron “Tater Salad” White first rose to fame as the cigar-smoking, scotch-drinking funnyman from the Blue Collar Comedy Tour phenomenon, but now as a chart-topping Grammy-nominated comedian and a feature film actor, White has established himself as a star in his own right. He'll perform six times through Sunday at Improv Addison.

Wynonna & The Big Noise in concert
There are few musicians more synonymous with country music than Wynonna Judd. For almost 40 years, Wynonna has been a brand name, either has one half of The Judds with her mom, Naomi, or as a solo artist since the early 1990s. She has released nine full-length albums in her career, and she released the EP Recollections in 2020. She'll play with her band The Big Noise at Arlington Music Hall.

Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents The Firebird Suite
This concert from the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Krzysztof Urbanski and featuring violinist Vadim Gluzman, will include Glinka's Overture to Russlan and Ludmilla, Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 2, and Stravinsky's The Firebird: Suite. There will be three performances through Sunday at Meyerson Symphony Center.

Saturday, May 29

MexTour: Mexico vs. Iceland
MexTour, the Mexican National Team’s annual tour of the United States, returns with an opening match against Iceland. Mexico’s game against Iceland will serve as a critical preparation match for the CONCACAF Nations League Finals, which will be played in June. Manager Gerardo “Tata” Martino is expected to bring his top roster to this match at AT&T Stadium.

Craig Robinson will perform six times, May 27-29, at Improv Arlington.

Photo courtesy of Craig Robinson

Craig Robinson will perform six times, May 27-29, at Improv Arlington.

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Movie Review

Rose Byrne plays one stressed-out mom in If I Had Legs I'd Kick You

Photo courtesy of A24

Conan O'Brien and Rose Byrne in If I Had Legs I'd Kick You

Movie history is littered with depictions of stressed-out mothers who have breakdowns due to the pressure put on them by their children, spouses, or society in general. Recent examples include Hereditary, Tully, and Nightbitch, with each of them finding different ways to depict their main character’s struggles. Yet another put-upon mother goes through the wringer in the oddly-named If I Had Legs I’d Kick You.

When we meet Linda (Rose Byrne), she’s already in the middle of a huge ball of stress. Her daughter (Delaney Quinn) suffers from an unnamed illness that requires around-the-clock care and frequent doctor visitors. Her husband, Charles (Christian Slater), is a boat captain whose job keeps him away from home for long periods of time. And her job as a therapist requires her to hear other people’s problems, necessitating her seeing a fellow therapist (Conan O’Brien) on a daily basis.

Nearly everyone else she encounters in the movie adds to her anxiety, including Caroline (Danielle Macdonald), a new mother who’s constantly worried about her baby; Dr. Spring (Mary Bronstein), who constantly harps on Linda to get her daughter to eat; an officious parking attendant at the hospital; and a sneering desk clerk at the motel she and her daughter are forced to stay at after a plumbing disaster at home. Consequently, she dismisses James (A$AP Rocky), another motel worker, the one person who treats her with a modicum of kindness.

Written and directed by Bronstein, the film is a harrowing experience that somehow also manages to be darkly funny at times. Linda is dealing with way too much for one person to adequately handle, something that is compounded by the fact that nobody really listens to her, not even the therapist she’s paying to do so. Scenes bounce back and forth between Linda demonstrating righteous anger at what the world is throwing at her and crushing guilt over supposedly not doing enough for her child.

Bronstein depicts Linda’s journey in a number of interesting ways, some straightforward and others not so much. Bronstein makes liberal use of close-ups on Linda’s face, heightening the feeling that the world is closing in on her. The plumbing problem at her home results in a huge hole in the ceiling, which becomes the source of some unexplained phenomena, a choice that might have been unnecessary.

What’s most striking about the film is how hardly anyone is on Linda’s side. Since the film joins the story as it’s already in progress, the audience is left to guess as to how Linda has behaved in the past to garner such negative interactions from people who should be helping her. While she’s not a perfect person, she also doesn’t appear to be such a jerk that she should be treated with disdain everywhere she goes.

Byrne, who’s gravitated toward lighter roles in recent years, is an absolute marvel in this part. The more stress Linda feels, the more she becomes disheveled, and Byrne makes you feel every ounce of the character’s pain. O’Brien, who’s rarely had to play anyone but “Conan O’Brien” before, is surprisingly good, tamping down his comic sensibility to complement Byrne well. A$AP Rocky also makes a nice impression, elevating a character that’s a little underwritten.

The role of a mom is never an easy one, and that’s in the best of circumstances. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You - a title that is never explained yet still somehow fits - earns its stripes by demonstrating how the often thankless job of motherhood can become even more distressing when the mom in question is given little to no support.

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If I Had Legs I'd Kick You is now playing in select theaters.

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