Arts & Events

THURSDAY, MAY 28 -more-

“I myself poisoned thousands. ...” Faust, Goethe’s hero—and one of the great figures drawn by European modernity—gives his cynical, unsolicited confession to his assistant, Wagner, rejecting the tokens of love and respect Wagner reminds him that the people have given Faust and his physician father since their ministrations during an outbreak of the plague. Faust’s withering reply is to expose the charlatanism of his own medicine, the emptiness of his knowledge, his egotism. -more-

Charles Hamilton, retiring music director of the Berkeley High Jazz Ensemble, will play this Sunday afternoon, 1-3 p.m., at A Jazz Blast in Live Oak Theater with his group, Charles Hamilton and Friends. -more-

Berkeley Akademie will feature the final performance of the season this Sunday evening at First Congregational Church, with Bach’s Italian Concerto (in a modern arrangement for chamber orchestra by Joachim F. W. Schneider); Charles Ives’ Symphony No. 3 (“Camp-Meeting”) and Beethoven’s Septet in E-flat Major, Opus 20. -more-

In the 1960s, artists, disenchanted with the commercialization of art reached beyond the White Cube. Animated by the compelling masculine power of Abstract Expressionism, they went to isolated deserts and mountains and moved the earth, creating monumental works on a high plateau in New Mexico, in Great Salt Lake, in the Nevada desert. These enterprises, grandiose as they were, also indicated an entropic disregard of nature. -more-

In the back room of a mansion, a Pepto Bismol-swigging investigative reporter complains to his artist buddy that he hates parties, like the one still raging outside that he has fled. In fact, he hates a society that doesn’t “speak from the heart.” -more-

An unusually good production of A Streetcar Named Desire goes into its final performances at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and at 2 p.m. Sunday, at Altarena Playhouse. Director Sue Trigg and her cast stage Tennessee Williams’ masterwork in the round, and do it justice by making every detail build on the last. The final scenes are indelible. 1409 High St., Alameda. $17-20. 764-9718. www.altarena.org. -more-

Oscar Wilde’s wry predecessor to Earnest-ness, Lady Windemere’s Fan, is onstage now at the Masquers Playhouse, updated by director Patricia Inabnet to the status-seeking 1950s. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 2:30 p.m. Sundays. 105 Park Place, Point Richmond. $18. 232-4031. www.masquers.org. -more-

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second in a series on Cloyne Court. -more-

Mr. and Mrs. American Home Buyer, are you suffering from Stinky House Syndrome? Do strangers cover their noses and flee your dwelling soon after entering? Do relatives plan family gatherings at the homes of family members who are less scintillating than you? Are you engaging in microbial experiments without possession of the pertinent advanced degree? Does your house smell bad? If you answered yes to any of the above, you may be a candidate for dehumidifier ownership. -more-

THURSDAY, MAY 28 -more-