Boca’s centennial celebration drones on in the best way, an Afro-Cuban musician funks up the Kravis Center, and Dramaworks unveils a world-premiere play. Plus, avant-garde cinema in Lake Worth Beach and more in your week ahead.
WEDNESDAY TO SUNDAY
What: Screenings of “Vortex”
When: 1 p.m. Wednesday, 6 p.m. Friday, 3 and 5 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 4 p.m. Sunday
Where: Lake Worth Playhouse’s Stonzek Studio, 713 Lake Ave., Lake Worth Beach
Cost: $9
Contact: 561/296-9382, lakeworthplayhouse.com
“Vortex,” an innovative and shattering French-language drama from director Gasper Noé, isn’t a new release—it premiered in theaters in 2022—but any theatrical engagement of a movie this unique and uncompromising is rare in the increasingly homogenized South Florida cinema-scape. It’s set in the apartment of an elderly couple, referred to as “him” and “her,” who are forced to confront their mortality due to his weakening heart and her progressive dementia. Their son, Stephane, urges them to move to a care center, but the husband refuses to let go of his space and the memories they contain, resulting in a fracturing that the film’s director, Noé, presents as a split-screen effect that persists throughout the movie, placing viewers in a similar state of disruption as his characters.
THURSDAY
What: Opening night of “The Dying Gaul”
When: 7 p.m.
Where: Island City Stage, 2304 N. Dixie Highway, Wilton Manors
Cost: $43
Contact: 954/928-9800, islandcitystage.org
It only took 27 years, but Craig Lucas’ drama “The Dying Gaul”—hailed as the best American play of the year by the Wall Street Journal and USA Today in 1998—will finally make its South Florida premiere courtesy of Island City Stage. Though its title evokes an ancient Roman sculpture of the same name, the setting of Lucas’ play is the contemporary Hollywood Hills, where Robert, a grieving screenwriter, has penned a highly personal script about his late boyfriend’s fatal bout with AIDS. But when a studio executive, Jeffrey, decides he will only produce the film if Robert changes the dynamic to a heterosexual relationship, Robert is forced into a devil’s bargain that becomes something more. A love triangle rich with betrayals, compromises and the then-novel phenomenon of internet chat rooms, “The Dying Gaul” runs through June 15, and stars Amir Darvish, Jorge Amador, Autumn Kioti Horne and Ted deChatelet.
FRIDAY
What: Opening night of “Dangerous Instruments”
When: 7:30 p.m.
Where: Palm Beach Dramaworks, 201 Clematis St., West Palm Beach
Cost: $107, includes preshow reception at 6:30 p.m.; regular show tickets run $92
Contact: 561/514-4042, palmbeachdramaworks.org
Palm Beach Dramaworks concludes its historic 25th-anniversary season with a timely world-premiere drama from a South Florida playwright. Gina Montet’s “Dangerous Instruments” gestated at Dramaworks in 2023, when the West Palm Beach theatre company provided the play with its first public reading, and the relationship continues with its first full production. As with many shows without a production history, information about the show is light on specifics, but the story centers on Laura, a single mother whose brilliant son Daniel finds himself overtaken by darkness. Determined to seek help, Laura finds only roadblocks when navigating the American health care system. Dramaworks’ Bruce Linser said, “the play is a passionate, thoughtful, and fascinating indictment of our current educational, social services, and mental health care systems,” with a twist ending few will see coming. The production runs through June 8.
What: Cimafunk
When: 8 p.m.
Where: Kravis Center, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach
Cost: $39.68-$108.68
Contact: 561/832-7469, kravis.org
Singer, songwriter and musician Cimafunk, aka Erik Alejandro Iglesias Rodríguez, reflects both his Cuban heritage and his country’s wider diaspora in the United States. Marrying Afro-Caribbean and Cuban musical traditions with funk and hip-hop, Cimafunk’s songs mix languages as fluidly as genres, earning recognition well beyond the often-insular world of Latin rock. The New Yorker compared Cimafunk’s dynamic stage presence to that of James Brown; his approach to funk is inspired by the style’s most preeminent export, George Clinton, who has recorded with Cimafunk; and he performed at the 47th annual Kennedy Center Honors ceremony last year to pay tribute to Arturo Sandoval, another Cuban-American musical sensation. The Grammy nominee brings his expansive band, La Tribu (the Tribe), to the Kravis for this rare engagement.
SUNDAY
What: Centennial Celebration Weekend Drone Show
When: 8:30 and 9:30 p.m.
Where: Boca Raton Innovation Campus, 5000 T-Rex Ave., Boca Raton
Cost: Free
Contact: boca100.com
We’ve been honoring Boca Raton’s centennial all year, but the birthday celebration will peak this weekend, with the Memorial Day holiday marking the exact 100th anniversary of the city’s incorporation. The city has amassed a whizbang lineup the weekend prior, with a sold-out performance by Weezer on Saturday and a drone show that will light up the night on Sunday with two performances preceded by family-friendly dance music from a live DJ. The drone company, Firefly, can create images of just about anything in the sky, from animals and pop-culture characters to Neil Armstrong planting a flag on the moon. For these performances, Firefly’s tech wizards have devised custom images taken from Boca’s rich history. Stick around after the final 12-minute drone show for a 9:45 p.m. fireworks display.
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