“The Mountaintop,” an award-winning play by Katori Hall, opens Thursday at 8 p.m. at the Chester Theatre in the Chester Town Hall, 15 Middlefield Road, Chester.
The play is set entirely in Room 306 of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, on the night of April 3, 1968, the day before the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
“The Mountaintop” begins with a weary MLK in his room, wanting nothing more than a cigarette and a cup of coffee. What he gets instead is a visit from Camae, an irreverent motel maid, who, in a heated dialogue, forces King to confront his humanity, his legacy and, ultimately, his mortality.
The play received the Olivier Award for Best New Play when it opened in London in 2009. At the time, theater critic Charles Spencer of The Daily Telegraph wrote, “It is a beautiful and startling piece, beginning naturalistically before shifting gear into something magical, spiritual and touching.”
“The Mountaintop” opened on Broadway in 2011.
Performances are at 8 p.m. on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and at 2 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, through Aug. 28.
There will be talkbacks following Thursday matinees and the Saturday evening performances.
Cast conversations will follow Friday matinees, and a panel discussion will be held following the Aug. 21 matinee.
Tickets cost $37.50; $10 for students and Chester residents. To reserve, visit chestertheatre.org or call 800-595-4849.
Hatfield native Emily Parasiliti and her folk-rock band, The Coteries, will be in the area Thursday from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. for a gig at The Lumbar Yard, 383 Main St. in Amherst.
The group recently released its debut EP, “Reason in the Road.”
In the summer of 2014, the trio of musicians quit their day jobs, bought a VW bus and took off on an 11,000-mile journey across North America. The music played by the trio, fronted by Parasiliti on vocals and harmonica, is steeped in their travels on the backroads of America in Trusty Rusty, their old VW bus.
Roger Salloom presents his annual free concert at Look Park in Florence Thursday, with guests Grammy Award-winner Seth Glier, Johnny Joelson and Evelyn Harris. The master of ceremonies will be Rick Haggerty of WXOJ.
“This concert has always been about being free to the people,” said Salloom, who has brought the concert to the park for 32 years. “Sure, we were playing music, but it was supposed to make people feel happy and good in a simple, free way.” The concert gets underway at 7 p.m.
Very funky
On Saturday, “The Day of FUNK,” a series of funky events in Northampton, will coincide with a visit by George Clinton and Parliament/Funkadelic Saturday to Mountain Park in Holyoke.
At an artists reception from 4 to 6 p.m. at Bang Bang Body Arts at 7 Armory St. in Northampton, three graffiti artists, Wane COD, Nero 156 and Stay COD, will paint on Nona Hatay’s photographs of Clinton, which are printed on canvas. Hatay, of Northampton, has worked with Clinton and P Funk since photographing the “Return of the Mothership” tour in 1996-97. Special guests will include John Gil, Funkadelic historian and Craig Black World of Funk DJ.
Hatay’s Funkadelic art will be on view along Main Street, at Birdhouse Music, Sam’s Pizza and Happy Valley.
The Mountain Park concert starts at 4 p.m., with three opening acts, Turkuaz, Sophistafunk, Fat Bradley.
There will be a free dance party (21+) from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. at Diva’s Nightclub, 492 Pleasant St. in Northampton, featuring all funk dance music and prizes for the funkiest outfits. Free parking.
Tickets for the George Clinton concert cost $30. To reserve, visit www.nbotickets.com.
Matthew Bourne’s “Swan Lake,” will be shown in HD Sunday at 1 p.m. at Amherst Cinema, 28 Amity St., Amherst.
Bourne’s interpretation of one of ballet’s classic stories replaces the all-female corps de ballet with a male ensemble. This production of “Swan Lake” is the longest-running ballet in the West End in London, and on Broadway in New York City. It has won three Tony Awards and an Olivier.
Tickets cost $18. To reserve, visit www.amherstcinema.org. Student tickets for $9 are available, with ID, at the box office only.
The Northampton Center for the Arts is accepting applications from performers who would like to participate in the city’s 32nd annual Northampton First Night, Saturday, Dec. 31.
For more information and for a performer’s application, visit www.firstnightnorthampton.org. Applications are due before Aug. 31.
Spot-on
The West County Jazz Trio will perform Saturday at 3:30 p.m. at the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum, 130 River Drive in Hadley. The performance is part of the museum’s “A Perfect Spot of Tea” series.
The group — Judith Williams on keyboards; Tony Rice on the drums; and Tom Ulrich on the double bass — plays original jazz pieces, jazz standards and Latin jazz tunes.
Admission costs $12. For information, call 584-4699 or visit www.pphmuseum.org.
Music in Old Deerfield
Bella Voce — Lisa Woods, mezzo-soprano; Teri LaFleur, soprano; and Jerry Noble, piano — will perform Sunday at 3 p.m. at Old Deerfield Sunday Afternoon Concerts, in the music room of Memorial Hall Museum, 8 Memorial St., Old Deerfield.
The first half of the program will consist of traditional African-American spirituals. After an intermission, the group switches to the show tunes of Gershwin, Porter, Sondheim, Rogers and Hart and Kern and Hammerstein, among others.
Tickets cost $10; $5 for seniors and students, and are available at the door.
For information, visit deerfield-ma.org.