Weekend Event Planner

These are the 11 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

I sure hope you're into music or theater, as the slate of events in and around Dallas this weekend is packed with both, sometimes in the same event. All of the theater events will involve local companies, while each of the music events involve musicians with national profiles. You can also see a great comedy show, enjoy athletes playing an unfamiliar sport, or celebrate a unique feature of a local city.

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.

Thursday, June 7

Audacity Theatre Lab presents Dallas Solo Fest
Audacity Theatre Lab's Dallas Solo Fest features six distinct one-person shows presented by performers from around the country. Among the shows, each of which will be performed three times at Dallas Children's Theater through Sunday, will be pieces involving a policeman seeking redemption, magic, an alcoholic lion, a meatball seance, Jesus in the 21st century, and a 34-year-old virgin.

AT&T Performing Arts Center presents Off Broadway on Flora: The Second City Summer Blockbuster
The Second City presents the next generation of comedy superstars in Summer Blockbuster. Taking place at Wyly Theatre through Saturday, surprises will abound as Chicago’s famed Second City ensemble combines great sketch comedy with on-the-fly improv to create new sidesplitting, knee-slapping, and sometimes groan-inducing realities out of thin air.

Dua Lipa in concert
English singer Dua Lipa is already making history with her self-titled debut album. She won two Brit Awards earlier in 2018, including Best Breakthrough Act and Best Female Artist, and she's had three huge hit songs in the the past year: "New Rules," "IDGAF," and "One Kiss" with Calvin Harris. After postponing her February date in Dallas, she'll play on Thursday at South Side Ballroom.

Shakespeare Dallas presents The Comedy of Errors
Shakespeare Dallas will present The Comedy of Errors as their first Shakespeare in the Park production of the season. The production, running at Samuell-Grand Amphitheatre through July 15, is Shakespeare's farcical comedy of twins and mistaken identity involving Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse and Antipholus and Dromio of Ephesus.

Friday, June 8

Dirk Nowitzki's 2018 Heroes Celebrity Baseball Game
Dirk Nowitzki’s 2018 Heroes Celebrity Baseball Game features celebrity players slugging it out for a good cause. Among the players scheduled to appear at Dr Pepper Ballpark in Frisco will be Dallas Cowboys Dak Prescott and Zeke Elliott; Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban; Demarcus Ware, Herschel Walker, and Von Miller. The event, benefiting the Dirk Nowitzki Foundation and the Heroes Foundation, also features family-fun festivities, a Heroes Special Olympics All-Star Softball Game, and a post-game fireworks finale.

Lyric Stage presents Guys and Dolls
Considered by some to be the perfect musical, Guys and Dolls is a romantic comedy involving the unlikeliest of Manhattan pairings: a high-rolling gambler and a puritanical missionary, a showgirl dreaming of the straight-and-narrow and a crap game manager who is anything but. The musical, presented by Lyric Stage at Majestic Theatre through Sunday, features songs like "Adelaide’s Lament," "I’ve Never Been in Love Before," "If I Were a Bell," and "Luck Be a Lady."

WaterTower Theatre presents The Last Five Years
Jason Robert Brown’s intimately observant and often funny musical, The Last Five Years, follows the story of Jamie and Cathy through opposing intersecting chronologies. The relationship of the two 20-something artists in New York blossoms and sours, and the beginning, the end, and everything in between is put into perspective in this touching and sympathetic tale of love, loss, and timing. The musical will run through July 1 at WaterTower Theatre in Addison.

Saturday, June 9

Canal Fest
Canal Fest is one of Irving's signature events, celebrating the diversity that exists within its borders. Taking place along the city's Mandalay Canals and Lake Carolyn, the free event showcases the dance, music, art, and foods of many countries. The expanded festival will feature four distinct areas — Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas — each with its own performance stage.

Leon Bridges in concert with Jon Batiste and Stay Human
Just back from touring in South America and Mexico with Harry Styles, Fort Worth's Leon Bridges will be the headliner for this concert at the Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving. Bridges is touring in support of his just-released album, Good Thing. He'll be joined by Jon Batiste and Stay Human, the house band for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Maroon 5 in concert with Julia Michaels
Now that The Voice is done for the season, Adam Levine is freed up to get back to his day job, i.e. heading up one of the biggest bands on the planet. That band, Maroon 5, is touring in support of their latest album, 2017's Red Pill Blues, but they'll be sure to play their big hits like "This Love," "Makes Me Wonder," "Moves Like Jagger," and "One More Night." They'll be joined at American Airlines Center by Julia Michaels.

Sunday, June 10

Styx, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, and Tesla in concert
Classic rock fans will be in heaven at the Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory on Sunday when three favorites from the 1970s and '80s team up for a blowout concert. It won't be all old songs, though, as Styx — which has been without former lead singer Dennis DeYoung since 1999 — Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, and Tesla remain active, with each group releasing an album of new work in the past five years.

Maroon 5 will play at American Airlines Center on June 9.

Maroon 5/Facebook

Maroon 5 will play at American Airlines Center on June 9.

event-planner

Movie Review

Iranian film It Was Just an Accident is a thriller with deep meaning

Photo courtesy of Neon

Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr, Majid Panahi, and Hadis Pakbaten in It Was Just an Accident.

American filmmakers, for the most part, enjoy luxury and freedoms when making movies in the United States that filmmakers in other countries could only dream of. Not only does Iranian writer/director Jafar Panahi not have millions of dollars with which to make his films, he also has to deal with a government that has previously arrested him for being critical of their policies.

And yet he persists, returning to the screen with the taut It Was Just An Accident. The film begins with a kind of misdirect, showing Eghbal (Ebrahim Azizi) and his family driving home at night, during which they strike and kill a dog. That accident sends Eghbal into the orbit of Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri), who works at a business that helps repair Eghbal’s car.

Recognizing the distinctive sound of Eghbal’s prosthetic leg, Vahid believes him to be the same man who kidnapped and tortured him and others in a recent government arrest spree. Desperate to confirm his suspicions, Vahid kidnaps Eghbal and takes him to a series of people who were also imprisoned under the man they named “Peg Leg,” including Shiva (Mariam Afshari), a wedding photographer; Golrokh (Hadis Pakbaten), the bride being photographed; and more.

Most filmmakers have the ability to use sets and take as much time as they need - within reason - to get the shot they need. Panahi employs a type of guerrilla filmmaking rarely seen these days, stealing shots in broad daylight while trying not to gain the notice of Iranian authorities. The daring nature of the making of the movie infuses the story with an extra tension that elevates what is otherwise a relatively simple story.

The film puts the audience directly in the shoes of the various characters as each of them wrestles with the complicated feelings arising from their actions. As they were all blindfolded while imprisoned, they can’t be 100 percent sure they have the right man, and debates/arguments between the characters keep viewers guessing as to who he is and what they will do with him. Even if he is who they think he is, will enacting some kind of revenge on him soothe their consciences?

Through it all, the idea that a former political prisoner is making a film about former political prisoners who are engaging in conduct that could get them arrested again - just as Panahi is doing with his film - makes this meta filmmaking on another level. The simplicity of the story belies the complexity underscoring the entire film, and it delivers one of the most impactful endings of any recent movie.

While a few of the actors have acted before, including in previous Panahi films, most of them are making their first appearance in a movie. Despite this lack of experience, each of them does well, especially Mobasseri and Afshari, who share a number of heated scenes that bring out the best in both of them.

It Was Just an Accident is the type of film that constantly keeps the audience on their collective toes, never knowing where it will head next. And that’s even if you didn’t know the details of how and why it was made; once that is discovered, it becomes something much deeper and more important than most other movies that will be released in 2025.

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It Was Just an Accident is now playing in select theaters.

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