Three For The Show: January 31-February 2

Every Friday, we highlight three shows from great local performing artists that you can see this coming weekend.

Solo Performance: Flipping Cancer
Friday, January 31st at 5:30 PM at UNC Swain Hall

It’s lonely in the spotlight.

For the last four years, the Communications department at UNC has staged “Solo Takes On,” a home for one-person shows in development. Somewhere between stand-up comedy and fully-staged drama, solo plays boil down storytelling to its essence: one voice talking to a group of listeners. Three performers a year use this series to unveil and shape their stories for an appreciative audience.

A highlight of this year’s festival comes from Ph.D student Marie Garlock, whose Flipping Cancer grows out of the intersection between the arts and medicine. Garlock created this piece as part of an ongoing project that uses performance to help those fighting cancer; her own family has been affected by the disease, and now she wants to develop healing and coping systems for others to use. After this emotional and triumphant solo show, stay on for tea and a discussion. Note that the performance will also play on Saturday night at 7:30.

No Shame Theatre
Saturday, February 1st at 8 PM at the ArtsCenter

The ArtsCenter’s “No Shame Theatre” keeps proving that you don’t have to sacrifice quality when you up the quantity. This monthly show is performance art for the ADD generation – fifteen different pieces, with none over five minutes long. It’s fast, funny, and packs more variety than your average variety show. You could see a comedian followed by a magician, followed by a singer, followed by a fire-juggler, followed by a ballet dancer. The only rules are that all the material has to be original, and the act can’t damage the stage or the audience (so be careful, fire-juggler). Anything goes!

Private Lives
Sunday, February 2nd at 2 PM at the ArtsCenters

Noël Coward was the poet laureate of the Bright Young Things. The infinitely stylish playwright, songwriter, and performer was the toast of both London and New York in the era between the wars. With a wit second only to his predecessor Oscar Wilde’s, he wrote all the most quotable lines. And his 1930 comedy Private Lives is an unquestioned masterpiece, combining that trademark verbal wit with outrageous physical farce.

Playmakers stalwarts Jeffrey Cornell and Julie Fishell play Elyot and Amanda, on the rebound after a vicious divorce. But just as they settle in with their new spouses in a chic French hotel, they discover that the other is honeymooning next door! What ensues is an evening of passion, insults, laughter and romance. And Playmakers offers a special treat for this show only: for an extra $20, audience members can leave their seats and sit at cafe tables next to the stage, complete with drinks and hors d’oeuvres!

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