Theater
Bold, progressive theater in “The Elephant Man,” “Gin Game”
Through Feb. 5. Denver already has the nationally acclaimed handicapped theater company PHAMALy, which opens the drama “The Elephant Man” this weekend at the Aurora Fox. Now Nicki Runge, who appeared in PHAMALy’s last big summer musical, is debuting her own, like-minded Rocky Mountain Deaf Theatre with a production of the Pulitzer-winning play “The Gin Game” — featuring two deaf actors communicating through sign language. D.L. Coburn’s acclaimed play focuses on two dissimilar residents of a rundown nursing home who bond over card-playing. There will be voice interpreters at all performances for the benefit of those who who don’t know sign language. 8 p.m. today, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday at the 73rd Avenue Theatre, 7287 Lowell Blvd., Westminster, 720-276-6936 or . Meanwhile, PHAMALy is separately staging Bernard Pomerance’s Tony-winning play “The Elephant Man” based on John Merrick, the horribly deformed victim of rare skin and bone diseases who lived in London during the latter part of the 19th century. He goes from the star attraction in traveling freak shows to London society. 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays through Feb. 5 at the Aurora Fox, 9900 E. Colfax Ave., 303-739-1970 or . (The play also will be presented Feb. 24-26 at the Arvada Center.) John Moore
Fine art
A modern Marlboro Man
Through Saturday. Where do you find today’s Marlboro Man? Monique Crine turned to — where else? — Craigslist. The Denver artist was looking for a model who would offer an updated take on that classic Western icon, and she found her man in Tony James, a wiry Texan who recently returned from duty as a soldier in Iraq. What results is a kind of photojournalistic series of 10 psychological portraits — all titled just “Tony” — on view in an exhibition that closes this weekend at the Ironton Gallery, 3636 Chestnut Place. But these works are not the expected photographs but technically sophisticated oils on canvas that subtly or sometimes overtly explore the complicated relationship between painting and photography. In these portraits, Crine probes questions of identity, individualism and how we envision cowboys and soldiers in a tech-driven 21st-century America that would seem to have little place for such potentially anachronistic archetypes. In some, Crine peers straight on at James, who is sometimes drinking a beer or smoking. But in others, she poses him more dramatically, including two canvases where he is seen in the mouth of a tunnel, mimicking a scene from “The Searchers.” These multiple dimensions give these pieces a conceptual depth often missing in much ultra-realistic figure painting, and they help explain why Crine is one of the most promising and exciting young artists on the Denver scene. The exhibition is on view 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. today and noon to 4 p.m. Saturday. Free. or . Kyle MacMillan
