Guild Hall's Drama On Screen and Off

A hypercritical mother, Mack the Knife, and Emma Goldman will appear in various incarnations at Guild Hall this week, starting tomorrow evening at 8 with a personal documentary by the Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Gayle Kirschenbaum, “Look at Us Now, Mother!”

Ms. Kirschenbaum’s parents documented her life from birth, and the film includes home movies and videos of her childhood in an upwardly mobile Long Island suburb, her teenage hippie years, family celebrations, fights, and tragedies. 

In 2003, Ms. Kirschenbaum moved behind the camera. Her father’s death around that time changed the dynamics of her relationship with her mother. The two women hit the road together, traveling through countries, continents, time zones, and their own history with a mixture of humor, honesty, and tenderness.

Both mother and daughter will attend the screening and hold a question-and-answer session afterward. Tickets are $15, $13 for members.

As for Mack the Knife, an encore screening of last Thursday’s performance at London’s National Theatre of Bertolt Brecht’s “The Threepenny Opera” will be shown on Saturday at 8 p.m. Rory Kinnear, an Olivier Award-winner, plays Macheath, with Rosalie Craig as Polly Peachum and Haydn Gwynne as Mrs. Peachum. The National Theatre Live website warns audiences that the production contains “filthy language and immoral behavior.” The price of such depravity is $18, $16 for members.

The John Drew Theater Lab will present a free performance of “Love, Sex, Anarchy,” a multimedia theater work by Melissa Bell based on the life of Emma Goldman, on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. A fiery speaker, Goldman was a proponent of workers’ rights, women’s reproductive rights, and free love. 

With a production that incorporates a fluid set, choreographed transitions, an original music score, and archival media, “Love, Sex, Anarchy” explores ways in which ideologies conflict with emotions and examines Goldman’s inner psyche in parallel with her political significance and influence.