Final Day for Quantum’s ‘Chicken’s in the Yard”; PICT Running ‘Oliver Twist’ (Sun., 12/6/15)

Siovhan Christensen (foreground) does the chicken thing for Laurie Klatscher (L) and Alec Silberblatt.

1) Rule of thumb for enjoying a typical Quantum Theatre season: Do not bother to ask or even wonder what the next play is “about.” The value proposition is that it will be something that surprises you and can’t easily be explained in advance. Maybe an experimental work you haven’t heard of, or a play you’ve heard of but never imagined done the Quantum way, or something entirely new and bizarre. Chickens in the Yard is the last kind. The promo material that Quantum must put out to fill the maw of the mainstream media does attempt an explanation and description, because the maw expects these. A recent blurb mentions that Chickens in the Yard was created for Quantum by a Pittsburgh group called the Hatch Arts Collective; it deals with gay identity, and it’s funny. To borrow from the closing line of John Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” that is all ye need to know. 7 p.m. Ends today. At Javo Studios, 5137 Holmes St., Lawrenceville. (MV)

2) Are you ready for a play about nasty street gangs and institutionalized child abuse? PICT Classic Theatre’s Oliver Twist is quite different from Oliver!, the well-known musical adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel. Besides not being a musical, the PICT version is darker in tone and truer to Dickens’ original. Oliver Twist was first published in monthly magazine installments from 1837 to 1839, with Dickens using the episodes to depict harsh realities that loomed over lower-class youth of the time: The boy Oliver escapes a brutal workhouse for orphans, but only to be treated cruelly as a household servant, and then he’s hijacked into joining a criminal gang.

PICT’s adaptation was done by Alan Stanford before he took his present post as the company’s Artistic and Executive Director. This Oliver Twist premiered to good reviews at Dublin’s Gate Theatre in 2000. Like the novel, the play isn’t all grim. By portraying the young hero’s resilience and the kindness of some people he encounters, it tells a story of hope amid turmoil. 2 p.m. Performances through December 19. Charity Randall Theatre in the Stephen Foster Memorial, 4301 Forbes Ave., Oakland. (MV)

3) The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 – When last we left our heroine Katniss Everdeen she and other leaders of the rebellion where planning their siege on the Capitol and President Snow. At least I think so. I’ve seen all the earlier movies but can’t really remember what happened in each. I’m pretty sure that in Part 1 a bunch of people in oatmeal colored shifts were hiding out in a bunker while fighter jets were bombing them. I guess in this one they come outside and, judging from the trailer I saw, follow Katniss in her quest to bring down the empire. Closing out the franchise are Jennifer Lawrence, Elizabeth Banks, Liam Hemsworth, Julianne Moore, Jena Malone, Josh Hutcherson, Woody Harrelson, Donald Sutherland, Stanley Tucci and, in one of his last performances, Philip Seymour Hoffman. Check Fandango for screens and times. (TH)

4) The Steelers, who are coming off a loss against the Seattle Seahawks, line up this week against the Indianapolis Colts. Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger will be back under center for the first time since he took himself out of last games with concussion like symptoms. Let’s hope Big Ben is fully recovered! And if he sees two Steeler receivers where there’s only one, gun it for the middle space between them.  Go Steelers! 8:30 p.m. 100 Art Rooney Ave., North Shore.

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