PEPPERLAND It was 51 years ago today Sgt Pepper taught the band to play. Actually, going by the song’s chronology, it was 71 years ago. But enough of that, Mark Morris Dance Group last year designed “Pepperland” to celebrate the golden anniversary of The Beatles’ seminal album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Appropriately, “Pepperland” premiered in Liverpool, and it reaches Zellerbach Hall for four performances this weekend as part of Cal Performances’ season. London’s Daily Telegraph said “Pepperland” is “a truly joyous, celebratory work of art… a brilliant homage to one of the great rock albums.” Friday, Sept. 28, 8 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 29, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 30, 3 p.m., Zellerbach Hall.
A HARD DAY’S NIGHT Because you can’t have too much of The Beatles, you could pair seeing “Pepperland” with a digital restoration of Richard Lester’s classic A Hard Day’s Night. Mark Morris chose the film as part of a mini-season at BAMPFA of movies that influenced “Pepperland” (others include Blow-Up, The Producers and Persona). Saturday, Sept. 29, 3:30 p.m., BAMPFA, 2155 Center St.
DAKHABRAKHA I know our great Andy Gilbert has already written about DakhaBrakha, but I couldn’t resist “Ukrainian ethno-chaos.” No, that’s not a reference to Putin’s efforts to destabilize neighboring Ukraine (although I could be wrong). It’s the description of DakhaBrakha (left), who are playing two gigs at the Freight & Salvage this weekend (Saturday is standing room only). Here’s what they say: “Ukrainian ‘ethno-chaos’ band DakhaBrakha creates a world of unexpected new music. Accompanied by Indian, Arabic, African, Russian and Australian traditional instrumentation, the quartet’s astonishingly powerful and uncompromising vocal range creates a trans-national sound rooted in Ukrainian culture.” Saturday, Sept. 29, 8 p.m., and Sunday, Sept. 30, 7 p.m., Freight & Salvage, 2020 Addison St.
BODYSCAPES The Women’s Cancer Resource Center’s fall show opens on Friday night with an artist poetry reading and light refreshments. The group show, Bodyscapes: Drawing What Ails Us, is curated by Diane Sciarretta, an art educator whose practice is making art with people living with serious illness and trauma. She developed her Bodyscapes technique initially to describe her own illness and feelings about it to doctors and family, and subsequently shared with other patients her methods of communicating ailments. The show will run through Nov. 15. Opening Friday, Sept. 28, 6-8:30 p.m., JanRae Community Art Gallery, Women’s Cancer Resource Center, 2908 Ellsworth St.
WISH YOU WERE HERE If you ever fancied yourself a collagist, you can strut your stuff on Saturday at Fourth Street Fine Art. To mark the opening of Wish You Were Here, a show featuring artists Sherrod Blankner, Maggie Hurley and Mike Young, the gallery is opening for a collage-making event Saturday afternoon. “Join us to assemble your own postcards that represent the places you’d like to go. We’ll provide stacks of magazines and other needed supplies to inspire you to create your very own works of art.” Sounds like a good tonic for a week when the news probably made you think of escaping somewhere very far away. Saturday, Sept. 29, 3-7 p.m., Fourth Street Fine Art, 2000 Fourth St.
Don’t miss these other events covered on Berkeleyside:
‘Detroit ’67’ at the Aurora Theatre is both inspiring and emotional
Big Screen Berkeley: ‘Bisbee ’17’ and ‘Bad Reputation’