Busy theater weekend: '33 Variations,' 'On the Way to Timbuktu,' 'New Jerusalem,' '1984'

A busy weekend in theater includes an area premiere of "On the Way to Timbuktu," a work about the philosopher Spinoza and an adaptation of that feel-good novel, "1984."

James Rocco recently has been hobbled by a bad Achilles' tendon (the result of too much dance on his 53-year-old legs), but this has not stopped the Ordway's vice president of programming from hiking over to Park Square Theatre each day, while directing the Minnesota premiere of "33 Variations."

Rocco and Park Square's artistic director, Richard Cook, worked together on "Grey Gardens" in 2009 and have been looking for a follow-up project.

When it came to "33 Variations," Rocco said, "I had to make it work. I wanted to do something by Moisés Kaufman ["The Laramie Project"], and Richard creates an atmosphere where everyone gets to collaborate."

Kaufman's play uses parallel tracks to investigate Beethoven's "33 Variations on a Waltz by Anton Diabelli" and a musicologist's obsessive quest to figure out why the aging Beethoven would spend so much energy on these variations on a theme by a minor music publisher.

This is not to suggest the Beethoven work lacks substance. Music lovers from pianist Alfred Brendel to composer Arnold Schoenberg reserve high praise for the "Diabelli Variations."

Karen Landry plays musicologist Katherine Brandt — a role played by Jane Fonda in her celebrated turn on Broadway in 2009. Edwin Strout portrays Beethoven (the play alternates between eras). Pianist Irina Elkina, internationally recognized, will play some of the variations in Park Square's production. Elkina is best known for her performances with her twin sister, Julia. They have performed at Lincoln Center, Ravinia and Sommerfest.

"He changes the game as he goes along," Rocco said. "As a director, I'm trying to get some consistency in the world that the play lives in."

The cast includes Jen Maren, Michelle Meyers and Nathan Cheeseman.

7:30 p.m. Fri.-Sat. & Thu., 2 p.m. Sun., ends Nov. 2, Park Square, 20 W. 7th Pl., St. Paul, $38-$58, 651-291-7005 or www.parksquaretheatre.org

The "dark lady" who inspired many of Shakespeare's sonnets holds a particular fascination for Petronia Paley, the actor-turned-director-and-playwright best known for her roles on daytime soaps such as "Guiding Light" and "Another World." "Black Luce" or "Lucy Negro," as Shakespeare's muse was called, worked in the sex trade in Tudor England. Paley set out to find out more about her as part of her one-woman show, "On the Way to Timbuktu."

The production, which kicks off Penumbra Theatre's new season and is directed by Talvin Wilks ("The Ballad of Emmett Till"), centers on a Shakespearean scholar who has a psychic break. The affected professor goes on a healing journey through history and the present as she navigates fraught relationships.

7:30 p.m. Thu.-Sat., 2 p.m. Sun., ends Oct. 26, Penumbra Theatre, 270 N. Kent St., St. Paul, $25, 651-224-3180, or www.penumbratheatre.org.

Whether in religion or politics, the Middle East or North America, the news is full of extremists who are bent on enforcing their purity tests. Playwright David Ives takes on the topic in "New Jerusalem."

The drama, directed by Kurt Schweickhardt for Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company, is set in 17th-century Amsterdam. After fleeing the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal, the reconstituted Jewish community agrees to root out and punish heretical beliefs. But what if the person suspected of not being a true believer is in line to be the chief rabbi?

Spinoza's ideas would become important cornerstones of the Enlightenment. But's that's for another play. "New Jerusalem" confronts substantive and timely issues that seem ripped from the headlines, including the nature of God.

7:30 Wed.-Thu., 8 p.m. Sat., 1 & 7 p.m. Sun., ends Nov. 9, Hillcrest Center Theater, 1978 Ford Pkwy., St. Paul, $19 -$28, 651-647-4315, or www.mnjewishtheatre.org.

And to think, they didn't even have cellphones or the Internet in 1984.

Theatre Pro Rata is producing an adaptation of Orwell's classic, opening Friday at Intermedia Arts in Minneapolis. Grant Henderson plays Winston Smith, the pitiable bloke caught in the state's spider web of oppression.

Written by San Francisco playwright Michael Gene Sullivan, the play takes place in an interrogation room, after Winston has been detained for his thought crimes.

Carin Bratlie, Pro Rata's artistic director, will stage the work. John Middleton gives voice to O'Brien, the sinister party member who befriends Winston in order to trap him.

7:30 p.m. Fri.-Mon., Thu., ends Oct. 26, Intermedia Arts, 2822 Lyndale Av. S., Mpls., $14-$41, 612-234-7135, theatreprorata.org.

Graydon Royce • 612-673-7299