Weekend Event Planner

These are the 12 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

Valentine's Day weekend around Dallas will be full of events centered on romance, black history, and big names. They include two different odes to star-crossed lovers, two theater productions focused on African American characters, a visit from a popular presidential candidate, insight from a big-name actor, and a day of wellness with a woman so famous she only goes by one name.

Below are the best ways to spend your free time this weekend. Want more options? Lucky for you, we have a much longer list of the city's best events. Still looking for Valentine's Day dinner plans? We have a list for that, too.

Thursday, February 13

Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents Tchaikovsky's Romeo & Juliet
Just in time for Valentine's weekend, Dallas Symphony Orchestra will present one of Tchaikovsky’s most beautiful scores. The timeless story of Romeo and Juliet is told through the interlaced threads of the feuding Montagues and Capulets, the heavenly harp arpeggios of Friar Laurence’s chorale, and the impassioned theme of the star-crossed lovers. The concert, which will also include Martinu’s Fourth Symphony and the world premiere of Chickasaw composer Jerod Tate’s new concerto, will play four times through Sunday at Meyerson Symphony Center.

Kitchen Dog Theater presents Alabaster
Alabaster is about Alice, a noted photographer who sets out to explore the topography of “scars.” Her subject is June, an artist who lost her entire family in an Alabama tornado who is now covered from head to toe with scars, and suffers from agoraphobia and crippling PTSD. But Alice is carrying scars of her own and is desperately trying to outrun her own pain. Kitchen Dog Theater will present the play at Trinity River Arts Center through March 8.

Friday, February 14

Sesame Street Live: Make Your Magic
In Sesame Street Live: Make Your Magic, Elmo discovers that magic can be found anywhere when you believe in yourself. The audience will join the furry friends on a journey filled with surprising and spectacular illusions. The family-friendly show will play six times through Sunday at the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco.

Lyric Stage presents Abyssinia
Lyric Stage celebrates Black History Month with the rarely-produced Abyssinia. Based on the novel Marked by Fire by Joyce Carol Thomas, the musical centers on Abyssinia "Abby" Jackson, who is blessed with the gift of song and a voice that thrills and delights the entire community. Like Job, Abby is fated to undergo a series of trials, and she must learn to heal herself before she can help others. The production will have four performances through Sunday at Majestic Theatre.

Avant Chamber Ballet presents Romeo and Juliet
Paul Mejia’s romantic and tragic Romeo & Juliet features live music which brings the famous Tchaikovsky score and the timeless story to life. Also featured during the performance will be George Balanchine’s Raymonda Variations, a world premiere collaboration between ACB director Katie Cooper and local composer Quinn Mason, and a guest company appearance by Ballet Frontier from Fort Worth. There will be two performances — one Friday and one Saturday — at Moody Performance Hall.

Dallas Black Dance Theatre presents Cultural Awareness
Dallas Black Dance Theatre's annual Cultural Awareness program will navigate culture and an eye-opening window into the human spirit through music and dance. Celebrating 20 years with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater as a dancer and choreographer, featured choreographer Hop Boykin combines her words with her movements to describe and display a heart's longing. There will be three performances through Sunday at Wyly Theatre.

Rally in Dallas with Bernie Sanders
In what will likely be the first of a number of public appearances in the Dallas area by candidates hoping to secure the Democratic nomination for president, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders will hold a free rally at Mesquite Arena. The local rally will cap a busy day for the politician, as he will hold two rallies earlier in the day in North Carolina.

Theatre Arlington presents A Raisin in the Sun
A Raisin in the Sun portrays a few weeks in the life of the Youngers, an African American family living on the South Side of Chicago in the 1950s. When the play opens, the Youngers are about to receive an insurance check, and each of the adult members of the family has an idea as to what he or she would like to do with the money. This landmark play was the first play on Broadway written by an African American female, Lorraine Hansberry. The production will run at Theatre Arlington through March 8.

Saturday, February 15

Oprah’s 2020 Vision: Your Life in Focus
This special event at American Airlines Center will feature Oprah Winfrey and high-profile guests bringing a full-day wellness event to Dallas. Attendees will spend the day with Oprah as she shares the personal ups and downs of her wellness journey and guides them to develop their own 2020 action plan through motivating conversations, the latest in wellness research, and insightful interactive workbook exercises. Oprah will also sit down for an intimate one-on-one conversation with actress Tracee Ellis Ross.

WinStar World Casino and Resort PBR Global Cup
The Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo ended last weekend, but the rodeo action continues this weekend with the fourth edition of the PBR Global Cup, the only nation vs. nation bull riding competition. Taking place at AT&T Stadium in Arlington on both Saturday and Sunday, the event will feature six teams representing five competing nations: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and the United States.

William Shatner Live on Stage with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan screening
Capt. James T. Kirk himself, William Shatner, will be on hand at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving to participate in a conversation and Q&A following a screening of the classic movie, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Shatner will be sharing stories from his career spanning over 50 years as an award-winning actor, producer, director, and writer. Fans will have a chance to ask questions during the Q&A.

Sunday, February 16

Dallas Museum of Art presents "Flores Mexicanas: Women in Modern Mexican Art" opening day
"Flores Mexicanas: Women in Modern Mexican Art" will survey representations of women in Mexican Modernism, featuring works by Alfredo Ramos Martínez, Frida Kahlo, María Izquierdo, Diego Rivera, and Francisco Dosamantes, among others. The highlight of the presentation will be the monumental painting Flores Mexicanas by Martínez, being shown for only the second time in nearly a century. The exhibition will be on display at the Dallas Museum of Art through September 20.

Oprah Winfrey will present Oprah’s 2020 Vision: Your Life in Focus at American Airlines Center on February 15.

Photo by George Burns/Harpo Productions Inc.

Oprah Winfrey will present Oprah’s 2020 Vision: Your Life in Focus at American Airlines Center on February 15.

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Movie Review

Alexander Skarsgård commands the bold, offbeat drama Pillion

Photo courtesy of A24

Alexander Skarsgård and Harry Melling in Pillion.

Describing the new movie Pillion is almost an act of futility. It contains a variety of seemingly disparate parts that coalesce into a whole to make it utterly fascinating. Few other recent films have been able to walk the line between filthy and wholesome in quite the way this one does, and that’s only because few other filmmakers would actually dare to try.

It centers on Colin (Harry Melling), a meek man in his mid-thirties who still lives at home with his parents, Pete (Douglas Hodge) and Peggy (Lesley Sharp), while working a dead-end job giving out parking tickets. While performing in a barbershop quartet at his local pub, Colin catches the eye of biker Ray (Alexander Skarsgård), who summons him for a clandestine hook-up the following day (which just so happens to be Christmas Day).

With barely a word exchanged between them, Ray establishes a dominance over Colin that quickly leads to them starting a relationship in which Colin does anything Ray asks. And that means more than just sex: Colin, whether desperate for any kind of affection or unlocking a side of himself he hadn’t known, readily agrees to cook, clean, shop, and basically do whatever else Ray wants him to do.

Written and directed by first-time feature filmmaker Harry Lighton, the film is astonishing in the way it’s able to mine humor from Colin and Ray’s atypical bond. To call Ray “unfeeling” might not be totally accurate, but the way he treats Colin borders on cruel. However, the way Lighton structures the film, it’s easy to understand why someone like Colin would be willing to go along with the situation. It’s both hilarious and heartbreaking to see Colin debase himself in a variety of ways.

On the flip side is Colin’s heartfelt arc with his parents. It’s established right away that Peggy, who is sick with cancer, is a bit too involved with Colin’s love life, with the opening scene featuring her setting him up on a blind date. But their easy acceptance of his queerness and desire to see him find love is as heartwarming as it gets. The juxtaposition between the wholesomeness of their family and Colin’s new life is also the source of a good amount of comedy.

Lighton does not shy away from the sexual side of Colin and Ray’s relationship, and the scenes he depicts are as graphic as you are likely to see in an R-rated film. Some go up to and a little past what might be expected in a mainstream movie (including the use of a certain fake appendage). Other times they play out in a comical way to illustrate just how far Colin has progressed from the person he was when the film started.

Skarsgård, who stole the show in the Charli XCX movie The Moment, is the attraction in more ways than one in this film. The part calls for someone who’s not only impossibly handsome, but also a person who can stop dissent with just a glance, and he lives up to both qualities equally well. Melling, best known for playing Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter movies, also embodies his role perfectly. He plays Colin as weak enough to be run roughshod over by Ray, but not so hopeless as to not be worth rooting for.

Pillion (which is the name of the secondary seat on a motorcycle on which Colin rides multiple times in the film) operates at a storytelling level that is difficult to achieve. Many people will not fully understand the film’s central relationship, but the way it is showcased by Lighton makes it compelling, gut-wrenching, and sexy.

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Pillion is now playing in theaters.

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