(Stratton Mccrady)
THEATER
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM Robert Walsh, as Bottom the weaver, aspiring thespian, and sometime donkey, sets the comic pace for a nimble ensemble in this midwinter delight. Directed by Benjamin Evett, it thrusts four young Athenians and their romantic complications into a contemporary urban environment. Pictured (from left): Michael Kaye as Oberon and Maurice Emmanuel Parent as Puck. Through Jan. 24. Actors’ Shakespeare Project. Midway Studios, Fort Point Channel. 866-811-4111, www.actorsshakespeareproject.org
GROUNDSWELL The scars of apartheid burn again in this drama by South African playwright Ian Bruce, who explores questions of individual responsibility and moral debt as two desperate men - one black, one white - try to persuade a retired businessman to invest in their diamond-mining scheme. Through Jan. 30. Lyric Stage Company. 617-585-5678, www.lyricstage.com
SLEEP NO MORE Prepare for some close encounters with the cast in this adventurous, immersive, and mostly wordless reworking of “Macbeth,’’ a coproduction by the American Repertory Theater and Punchdrunk, the experimental British theater troupe. Extended through Feb. 7. American Repertory Theater. Old Lincoln School, Brookline. 617-547-8300, www.americanrepertorytheater.org
THE DONKEY SHOW If disco be the food of love . . . oh, wait, wrong play. In this splashy debut by new ART artistic director Diane Paulus, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream’’ is transmogrified into a Studio 54-style phantasmagoria. Go ahead, try not to have a good time. Just try. Extended through next summer. American Repertory Theater. Oberon, Cambridge. 617-547-8300, www.americanrepertorytheater.org
DON AUCOIN
DANCE
MOVEMENT AT THE MILLS The Boston Center for the Arts’ new dance initiative invites patrons to view dance as art, setting simultaneous performances in three galleries and encouraging audience members to walk about and observe. The latest “exhibit’’ of dance features performances by Mariah Steele, Screech to a Stop, and Michael Jahoda’s White Box Project. 6-9 p.m. Jan. 8. Free. Boston Center for the Arts’ Mills Gallery. 617-456-1132, www.bcaonline.org KAREN CAMPBELLGALLERIES
TIMOTHY KADISH: NEW PAINTINGS; JESSIE MORGAN: NIGHT TIDES Kadish sets iconic forms - apples, serpents, gun-wielding soldiers, rainbows - over fluid, abstract grounds. Morgan builds lush, painterly surfaces over Plexiglas and aluminum in tones that recall the ocean at night. Through Jan. 30. Clark Gallery, 145 Lincoln Road, Lincoln. 781-259-8303, www.clarkgallery.comNETHERWORLD: CARL D’ALVIA, JULIA HECHTMAN, KYONG AE KIM Beth Kantrowitz and Kathleen O’Hara curate a show that straddles the line dividing fantasy from reality, including D’Alvia’s sculptures of hybrid creatures, Kim’s visionary landscapes, and Hechtman’s video “The Vanishing.’’ Through Feb. 6. Judi Rotenberg Gallery, 130 Newbury St. 617-437-1518, www.judirotenberg.com
GARY SCHNEIDER: DRAWN FROM LIFE Schneider has been exploring photographic portraiture for decades. This show features fragmented close-ups from the 1970s, performance-based portraits from the 1980s, and photographs of flashlight-traced subjects he has made in the last 20 years. Through Feb. 9. Howard Yezerski Gallery, 460 Harrison Ave. 617-262-0550, www.howardyezerskigallery.com
CYNTHIA PACKARD The Provincetown artist’s new collaged paintings explore femininity. Delicately rendered figures of young girls emerge from abstracted and isolating fantasy landscapes, often clad in lace, evoking themes of beauty, youth, innocence, abuse, reticence, and secrecy. Through Jan. 31. Chase Gallery, 450 Harrison Ave. 617-859-7222, www.chasegallery.com
CATE McQUAID
MUSEUMS
THE SECRETS OF TOMB 10A: EGYPT 2000 BC The contents of a tomb discovered by archeologists almost a century ago, including a mummified head, an elaborately painted coffin, and dozens of wooden models of boats, are featured in this intelligent and engrossing exhibit. Through May 16. Museum of Fine Arts. 617-267-9300, www.mfa.orgDISPARATE DIALOGUE: A ROGER KIZIK RETROSPECTIVE Bright and colorful paintings, both abstract and representational, from all phases of this Dartmouth artist’s career. Through Jan. 17. New Bedford Art Museum, New Bedford. 508-961-3072, www.newbedfordartmuseum.org
KRZYSZTOF WODICZKO: . . . OUT OF HERE: THE VETERANS PROJECT A sound and projection-based installation re-creating the experience of an ambush of US soldiers in Iraq by this world-renowned, MIT-affiliated Polish artist. Through March 28. Institute of Contemporary Art. 617-478-3100, www.icaboston.org
ALBRECHT DÜRER: VIRTUOSO PRINTMAKER An impressive survey of the museum’s strong holdings in engravings, etchings, and woodcuts by this peerless Renaissance printmaker. Also includes two drawings. Through July 3. Museum of Fine Arts. 617-267-9300, www.mfa.org
SEBASTIAN SMEE 
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