1 Shakespeare's "Pericles" does not invite deep character study, and perhaps the Guthrie Theater's new artistic director, Joseph Haj, considered that a reason to focus on the visual and ritual strengths of his signature production. What we see is a director's distinctive eye for imagery — large in the billowing sea that rolls over the stage in fabric, small in the powerful, shamanistic ritual where a doctor (Barzin Akhavan) revives prince Pericles' ditzy wife, Thaisa (Brooke Parks). In a jaw-dropping tableau, actor Emily Serdahl creates a human sculpture as the goddess Diana, suspended above the stage and presiding over peace and harmony. Haj's imagination in his fairy-tale staging is much welcome in this new age of the Guthrie. (Ends Feb. 21; guthrietheater.org)

2 "The X-Files" are worth reopening, now that the show has diverted from the Ultimate Conspiracy Theory in its premiere. The second episode featured a somber case involving abnormal children stripped from their families, a heartbreaking investigation that dovetailed nicely with Mulder and Scully's haunting memories of how they gave up their own son. This week's episode takes a much more comical tone as the agents hunt down a were-lizard, portrayed by an exasperated Rhys Darby ("Flight of the Conchords"). Come for the monster, stay for the inside jokes, which include Mulder's choice for a ringtone. (9 p.m. Mon., Ch. 9.)

3 Sloane Crosley was wise to make her first novel, "The Clasp," about more than three erudite college pals reuniting at a wedding. She adds a layer of globe-trotting intrigue that offsets the nostalgic navel-gazing of hip millennials Kezia, Nathaniel and Victor, on the hunt for a pricey diamond necklace that vanished during World War II. An amusingly satisfying literary aperitif for those who can quote Foucault or Tupac interchangeably.

4 The dark, brooding and romantic work of a Swedish art star has an unsettling, febrile beauty in "The Watercolor Worlds of Lars Lerin" at the American Swedish Institute. Huge snowflakes drift toward distant farm sheds barely visible through fog and mist. Taxidermied birds perch on wooden pedestals in old-fashioned ornithological displays. A solitary white fox crouches on barren tundra under a brooding sky. Books, chairs, birds, trees, apartments, ships, paintings and even a film get the Lerin treatment in his first U.S. show in 30 years. (Ends May 22; asimn.org.)

5 "The Lady in the Van" is the story of a codependent London couple who politely loathe each other without actually being a pair. The reality-based comedy hands the roles to the peerless Maggie Smith and Alex Jennings, who make their 15-year run of neighborly aversion into an ongoing border war delivered in classic British understatement. The film is silly and far from perfect, but uses Smith, a genuine national treasure and double Oscar winner, far better than those dreadful "Marigold Hotel" movies do.