Weekend Event Planner

These are the 8 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

If culture has been missing from your life, this will be a very good weekend to remedy that. Among the offerings around Dallas are a national tour of a Tony Award-winning play, two separate but equally impressive dance ensembles, a conversation with a renowned author, and student tributes to a civil rights icon.

Below are the best options for your precious free time Thursday through Sunday. Don't like what you see? Lucky for you, we have a much longer list of the city's best events.

Thursday, January 12

Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents Beethoven Symphony No. 8
It's always interesting when the Dallas Symphony Orchestra takes on Beethoven, so this concert series — taking place through Sunday at Meyerson Symphony Center — should be a memorable one. Led by conductor Karina Canellakis and featuring David Cooper on horn, selections include Beethoven's Symphony No. 8, Strauss' Horn Concerto No. 1, and Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra.

Second Thought Theatre presents Grounded
Questions of empathy and moral responsibility in the face of impossibly difficult choices live at the heart of Grounded, a moving portrait of a young woman confronted with the harsh realities of modern warfare. The production, playing through February 4 at Bryant Hall, explores the clash between a career in the typically masculine world of war and the more traditional role of wife and mother.

AT&T Performing Arts Center presents The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Winner of five 2015 Tony Awards, including Best Play, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time features 15-year-old Christopher, an autistic boy who is exceptionally intelligent but ill-equipped to interpret everyday life. When he falls under suspicion for killing his neighbor’s dog, he sets out to identify the true culprit, which leads to an earth-shattering discovery and a journey that will change his life forever. The production plays through January 22 at Winspear Opera House.

Friday, January 13

25th Annual Gardere MLK Jr. Oratory Competition
The annual MLK Jr. Oratory Competition challenges students to deliver original three-to-five-minute speeches in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This year, students answer the question, "If Dr. King were alive today, what would he say about Muhammad Ali’s contribution to society?" The event takes place at Majestic Theatre.

TITAS presents Shadowland by Pilobolus
A mix of shadow theater, dance, circus, and concert, Shadowland incorporates moving screens to create a performance experience that is full of magic and wonderment. Pilobolus’ Shadowland was the first show of its kind to combine shadow theater with dance and has since inspired many similar productions around the world. It plays at Dallas City Performance Hall on Friday and Saturday.

Avant, Dru Hill, and Jagged Edge in concert
R&B lovers will be in heaven at the Music Hall at Fair Park on Friday night, as Avant, Dru Hill, and Jagged Edge team up for this special concert. Avant is appearing in support of his 2015 album, The VIII, while Dru Hill and Jagged Edge are performing a variety of their biggest hits.

Saturday, January 14

Arts & Letters Live: Zadie Smith
In her first-ever event in Dallas, Zadie Smith is in conversation with KERA’s Krys Boyd to discuss her new novel, Swing Time. The book is a story about friendship, music, and stubborn roots, and how we are shaped by these things and how we can survive them. The event takes place at the Dallas Museum of Art.

Red Bull Flying Bach
Urban culture fuses with high society as the Red Bull Flying Bach tour comes to Dallas. The award-winning and globally recognized dance crew the Flying Steps perform to a genre-bending mix of classical, hip hop, and electronic music. There are four performances through Monday at Majestic Theatre.

Red Bull Flying Bach is at Majestic Theatre January 14-16.

Photo by Carlo Cruz/Red Bull Content Pool

Red Bull Flying Bach is at Majestic Theatre January 14-16.

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Movie Review

Andrew Garfield leads peasant rebellion in medieval film The Uprising

Photo by Betina La Plante/Focus Features

Andrew Garfield in The Uprising.

Writer/director Paul Greengrass made his name with a cinéma vérité style of filmmaking that brought immediacy and depth to three Jason Bourne films, United 93, Captain Phillips, and more. In The Uprising, he uses those skills to tell the story of the so-called Peasants’ Revolt in 14th century England.

Greengrass wastes no time starting the main plot as Ploughman (Andrew Garfield) and his fellow villagers object to onerous taxes put on them by the country’s nobility, led by the young King Richard II (Woody Norman), to fund an ongoing war. Ploughman initiates a violent response over the tone-deaf — and unseemly — way the king’s guard go about their business, and the rebellion soon starts to spread across the countryside, with the citizens looking for a degree of autonomy.

The ever-expanding group makes their way toward London to try to make their case to the king himself. Meanwhile, the king’s top advisors, including Archbishop Sudbury (Stephen Dillane) and Treasurer Hales (Tom Hollander), try to usurp power from the inexperienced monarch even as the king’s mother (Katherine Waterston) tries to get him to be more assertive.

The history of the English monarchy is long and lurid, as Shakespeare detailed in multiple plays, including Richard II. Though the events in the film took place almost 650 years ago, it’s easy to see parallels between what the peasants were fighting for and modern-day politics. Greengrass’ storytelling intent is solid, and the righteous anger the citizens feel is initially relatable and palpable.

But the populism theme of the story soon gets bogged down in drudgery and minutiae that is difficult to understand, especially when the details are lost in the thick regional English accents. The leaders of the rebels — including John Ball (Jamie Bell), Wat Tyler (Cosmo Jarvis), and Alyce (Thomasin McKenzie) — are shown doing a lot of planning, but the strong feelings they have about their quest don’t come across well, leaving the audience as passive observers.

When there is action, Greengrass and his team employ a frenetic style that is not great for comprehension. While the gist of what is happening and what side is winning is legible, individual moments go by so quickly so as to be nearly meaningless. Save for Ploughman, any connection that has been made with various characters proves futile, as Greengrass doesn’t seem to have any time for emotion. Scenes that should feel thrilling or heartbreaking instead come off as empty.

Garfield is a two-time Oscar nominee who has done great work across multiple genres. He’s fine in this role, but whether it’s the story, the filmmaking, or something else, he’s not as captivating as usual. The same goes for other strong actors like Bell, McKenzie, Dillane, Hollander, and Waterston, who each seem to be giving their all to their performances but are somehow muted in the process.

Done right, The Uprising could have been a rip-roaring account of people standing up against their oppressors. What Greengrass has made, though, is a film that can’t translate its medieval story for a modern audience and concentrates too much on unexciting elements and too little on thrilling ones.

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The Uprising is now playing in theaters.

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