Meaning well
"The Birthday Party," Harold Pinter's terse, claustrophobic play, was over. We'd watched the walls close in -- literally and metaphorically -- on its characters. We wandered out onto Brattle Street, scratched our head, as we often do after seeing an American Repertory Theatre production, wondering about all the things that were either (a) ambiguous, (b) confused, or (c) way beyond our ability to figure them out. Why were the "bad guys" Goldberg and McCann -- whom Pinter called "rotting, scabrous, the decayed spiders" -- after this vague Stanley character who boarded at this couple's home? We felt much better over dinner, when we perused the program and found London critics in 1958 were angered by the uncertainty. And that the play's original director, Peter Wood, asked Pinter to write additional lines to clarify some of the mystery. Pinter refused and said ambiguity was crucial to the play, adding, "Meaning begins in the words, in the action, continues in your head and ends nowhere. There is no end to meaning." See what ART director JoAnne Akalaitis has done with this at the Loeb Drama Center at 7:30 p.m. Tickets: $35-$59 ($10 off for seniors). Students pay $12 -- and if they present a recent movie stub, the ART will match that price. 64 Brattle St., Cambridge, 617-547-8300.
La vie en rose
Edith Piaf died of cancer in 1963, but she lives on in the way Marlene Dietrich or Judy Garland will always live on: Young audiences fall in love with the fire in their music and the tragedy at their life's core. You can add to Piaf's history that this offspring of an alcoholic prostitute and a circus clown sang for (and entertained in her quarters) members of the Gestapo during World War II. The waif with the heartbreaking voice gained her greatest fame postwar but was devastated by a 1951 auto accident that led to morphine, more drinking, more men, and, well, you know. When she died, the archbishop of France forbade her a Mass; yet a mass of 40,000 flooded the streets of Paris for a ceremony. Back to the present: Piaf has been resurrected by Ziaf, which is actually the multifaceted alt-rock Boston band All the Queens Men, with vocals by Christine Zuffery, who hails from Switzerland and speaks French. Close your eyes and pretend you're on the Left Bank. Tonight's gig at ZuZu! is part of a Tuesday March residency. Music starts about 10:30. Free. 474 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, 617-864-3278.A `wrong' turn
Musicians are always getting picked on -- for playing in the wrong key, for showing up late at a gig half in the bag, for getting accused of being a robber when you're attempting to cash in your wife's life insurance policy to pay for her dental work. That latter scenario is the one the master, Alfred Hitchcock, plucked from real life for "The Wrong Man." The low-key but simmering Henry Fonda stars in the title role of this 1956 black and white film, which screens at the Brattle Theatre today at 5, 7:15, and 9:30 p.m. It's part of the "Hitchcock in Black and White" Monday and Tuesday series at the cinema. Tickets: $9.40 Brattle St., Cambridge, 617-876-6838.
Double shot of jazz
How many times has jazz been declared dead? (Go! does it every time we turn on "smooth jazz" radio, before we slap ourselves and realize it's just a misappropriation of term and genre.) Tonight, you have two fine choices: David Zoffer & Adam Larrabee, who return to the Regattabar for one set at 8, with a $12 ticket. It's a guitar-and-piano outing of jazz standards and originals as well as some new pieces. This decade-old duo will explore swinging grooves, Latin and funk rhythms, and soulful balladry. A couple of big names in jazz circles sing their praises. Can't quite come up with the cash? Over at the Uchida Building at Berklee College of Music, you can check out the Marc Rossi Group for free. Rossi, a New England Conservatory alum and a 15-year vet of the Berklee faculty, will premiere a number of works ahead of the group's next disc. Expect exotic time signatures, Indian modes and ragas, and Afro-Latin rhythms. Maybe classical touches, too -- Rossi is a participant in the Boston classical scene in the Just in Time Composers and Players. Rossi and his trio begin at 7:30. Regattabar, 1 Bennett St., Charles Hotel, Cambridge, 617-876-7777. Berklee, Uchida Building (David Friend Recital Hall), 921 Boylston St., 781-893-9424.Parting shots
If you're interested in weaving through the current morass of political and economic associations among the United States, Europe, and the Middle East, you might listen to Stanley Hoffman, the former chairman of Harvard University's Center for European Studies. Hoffman writes of US policy: "There's the argument of brute force: We have it in abundance, others do not. Hence allies, when they do not bend to our will, are both nuisances and unnecessary, and international laws and organizations that stand in our path can be ignored." Hoffman will speak tonight from 6 to 7:30 at the Boston Public Library.700 Boylston St., Mezzanine Conference Room, 617-542-8995 x112.
Events can always be canceled, rescheduled, or sold out; call to confirm. Go! can be reached at go@globe.com or by calling 617-929-8257.
