THE ESSENTIAL A&E PICKS FOR APR 11 - 17 

• Courtesy photo

Plan-B: Bitter Lemon
There's a rich history of Shakespeare plays inspiring other creative artists to explore the supporting characters more deeply—and it's a history that continues with Bitter Lemon, in which Utah playwright Melissa Leilani Larson takes Macbeth's Lady Macduff, and attempts to dig beyond the single scene and 19 lines in which she appears. The premise finds Macbeth and Lady Macduff trapped together in a kind of purgatorial waiting room.

"There is a lot of pressure, a lot of expectation, when you adapt an existing work," Larson says via email. "People know and love the Shakespeare, so when someone like me approaches the text and starts to play with it, it's only natural that audiences will be wary. But when a text has been around for so long, it's only natural that will be studied and examined, and that questions will come up. ... I have always found the story of Lady Macduff very moving. She is one of those iconic, Shakespearean characters that you only see in one scene but that you remember long after. The tragedy of Lady Macduff is that she finds herself, by no choice of her own, on a collision course with Macbeth. Bitter Lemon is an attempt to reframe Macbeth as a figure who inflicts tragedy rather than someone who suffers from it."

Plan-B Theatre Company's production of Bitter Lemon runs April 11 – 28 at the Rose Wagner Center Studio Theatre (138 W. 300 South). Tickets are $15 - $25, and remaining tickets are limited at press time. Visit arttix.org for tickets and additional event information. (Scott Renshaw)

• Sharon Kain

RDT: Gamut
"Gamut" is one of those fun words that we only tend to see/hear in one specific context—something "runs the gamut," meaning that it covers the entire range or spectrum of something. It feels unnecessarily limiting, though, to say that something can only run the gamut. As Repertory Dance Theatre's spring production demonstrates, you can also dance the gamut.

Gamut offers a program that does exactly that, featuring a repertory classic, a recent favorite and a brand-new commission. The latter comes in the form of Trinidad and Tobago-based artist Yusha-Marie Sorzano's "Solfège," the title of which comes from the musical term for assigning syllables to the notes of the musical scale (á la "do re mi fa so la ti do"), and features quirky movements, according to the press release, "inspired by creatures both real and mythical." Ihsthan Rustem's 2021 RDT commission "Hallelujah" joins the fun with a joyous work set to the work of American composer John Adams, inspired by emerging back into the world after the pandemic lockdown. And the program also showcases Lar Lubovitch's 1978 work "Marimba," described in 2009 in Altitude Magazine as "Continuous, unison, circular, it explores humanity and togetherness." Combined in one evening of dance, these three pieces run the ... well, you get the idea.

RDT's production of Gamut runs April 11 – 13 at the Rose Wagner Center Jeanne Wagner Theater (138 W. 300 South), with performances at 7:30 p.m. nightly. Tickets are $30 general, $15 students and seniors; visit arttix.org to purchase tickets and for additional event information. (SR)

• Beau Pearson

Ballet West: Love and War
There's a certain irony in the history of Kurt Jooss's 1932 work The Green Table, one of the centerpieces of Ballet West's season-closing production titled Love and War. The anti-war work, inspired by medieval woodcuts and the stark sensibility of German Expressionism, won a 1939 German ballet competition, inspiring Adolph Hitler to invite Jooss to become the national choreographer for German—if he would dismiss his company's Jewish members. Jooss refused, and not just because Hitler clearly missed the point of his creation. "It never preaches right or wrong," says Ballet West artistic director Adam Sklute, "simply that the ultimate winner in war is always only death."

In addition to The Green Table, the program features a revival of Ulysses Dove's Red Angels, featuring four dancers and a Richard Einhorn score for electric violin performed by its original interpreter, Mary Rowell. Finally, there's the Utah premiere of William Forsythe's Blake Works I, a full-company piece set to the music of British songwriter James Blake. "Forsythe's way of moving demands a great deal of athleticism and speed," says Sklute. "His work requires dancers to change direction in an instant and extend movement beyond what they are physically used to. This is what makes the work exciting both for the artist and the audience."

Ballet West closes out the 2023-2024 main stage season with its production of Love and War at the Janet Quinney Lawson Capitol Theatre (50 W. 200 South) April 12 – 20, for five performances only. Tickets run $29 - $104; visit arttix.org to purchase tickets and for additional event information. (SR)

• StarTalk slash C. Picadas

Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson
Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson could be called a cosmic crusader. An astrophysicist, astronomer, author and philosopher, he's also a direct intellectual descendent of Dr. Carl Sagan as far as his musings on the universe and its connection to humanity. He's become a popular pundit in advocating for exploration of the cosmos, while putting those findings into spiritual context. "When I say spiritual, I'm referring to a feeling you would have that connects you to the universe in a way that it may defy simple vocabulary," he once stated. "We think about the universe as an intellectual playground ... but the moment you learn something that touches an emotion rather than just something intellectual, I would call that a spiritual encounter."

Yet he's also fully grounded. A staff scientist at the Hayden Planetarium, founder of the Department of Astrophysics for the American Museum of Natural History, a researcher who served at the behest of President George W. Bush, NASA associate and host of various scientific series on PBS, Fox and the National Geographical Channel, he's become one of the nation's most visible and vocal exponents for extraterrestrial research. He's been awarded many honors, but the one that impresses us the most is his accreditation as Sexiest Astrophysicist Alive courtesy of People magazine. His upcoming presentation, "The Cosmic Perspective," may suggest that his head's in the clouds, but his mind remains on what matters.

Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson speaks at Delta Hall at the Eccles on Weds, April 17 at 7:30 pm.

Tickets cost $50 - $95; visit arttix.org to purchase tickets and for additional event information. (Lee Zimmerman)