Center stage
  > > For a comprehensive events listing, refer to the University's calendar.

Fair Ladies at a Game of Poem Cards and The Learned Ladies, through May 28. Based on an 18th-century Japanese puppet play, Peter Oswald's Fair Ladies features four young lovers who challenge the state's rigid order.

LINKS Court Theatre The University of Chicago Presents Renaissance Society Music department performances Basic Program lectures

Molière's Learned Ladies tells of a bourgeois household where women rule the roost and passion for learning eclipses all else. The two plays are performed in rotating repertory. Court Theatre; call 773/753-4472.

Emerson String Quartet, April 28 at 8 p.m. In this exclusive Chicago appearance, the ensemble plays Haydn's Quartet op. 33, no.2; Shostakovich's Quartet no. 14 in F-sharp Major; and Mendelssohn's Quartet in F Minor, op. 80. Mandel Hall; call 773/702-8068.

Franz West, May 11-June 25. Known for his plaster-slathered, paint-spattered forms, this Viennese sculptor will place several of his pedestal works and a series of his graphic works in a larger setting devoted to staging musical performances, of which there will be several during the course of the exhibit. Renaissance Society; call 773/702-8670.

University Symphony Orchestra and University Chorus, May 26 at 8 p.m. and May 28 at 3 p.m. Barbara Schubert and Randi Von Ellefson conduct the orchestra and chorus in Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra; Brahms's Alto Rhapsody; and Dvorák's Te Deum. Mandel Hall; call 773/702-1300.

"Was Moses an Egyptian? Freud's Account in Moses and Monotheism," June 2 at 12:15 p.m. Adam Rose, AM'93, Basic Program staff instructor, lectures. Chicago Cultural Center; call 773/702-1722.