8pm Theater

8pm Theater

Peter Shaffer messes with the minds of audience and actors as he plays with light and dark in his wacky farce “Black Comedy.” It begins in total darkness, but it’s supposedly light for the cast. When the lights come up on stage, it’s because a blackout has just occurred during a big bash at an artist’s loft--and now the cast must behave as if it is in the dark.

“Black Comedy,” Center Theater, 300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach, Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends March 17. $27 to $35; opening night, $50 to $60. (562) 436-4610.

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8pm Performance Art

No drugs will be prescribed. With the disclaimer that this is a performance art event only, not bona fide therapy, performance artists Paul Zaloom (a.k.a. “Beakman”), the Dark Bob, Marcus Kuiland-Nazario, Johanna Went, Leigh Grode, Selene Luna and Stuart Miller are putting on “Shrink,” a “psychoanalysis marathon” that offers audience members a 10-minute, improvised, one-on-one talking encounter with the artist of their choice.

“Shrink,” Crazy Space, 1629 18th St., No. 2, Santa Monica, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. Free. (310) 829-9789.

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all day Movies

Robert Guediguian’s “The Town Is Quiet” opens with a long pan over the French port city of Marseille. The shot foreshadows the broad scope of the film, which tells stories about characters rich and poor, immigrant and nationalist, all dealing with a changing economy and personal dramas. Ariane Ascaride stars.

“The Town Is Quiet,” opens Friday for one week at the Nuart, 11272 Santa Monica Blvd., West L.A. $6 to $9. (310) 478-6379.

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8pm Music

Van Cliburn began his meteoric rise to fame in 1958 after winning the gold medal at the First International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow. The honor garnered the Texas native a hero’s welcome upon returning stateside that included a full-blown ticker-tape parade in New York. Cliburn’s soloist skills will be on display in Thousand Oaks when he joins the New West Symphony for a special all-Tchaikovsky concert under the baton of Boris Brott. Program: “Romeo and Juliet,” Fantasy-Overture; Suite from “Swan Lake”; Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor.

Van Cliburn, New West Symphony, Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza’s Kavli Theatre, 2100 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd., 8 p.m. $150-$200. (805) 497-5800. www.newwestsymphony.org.

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8pm Dance

Although they hail from Philadelphia, Philadanco ain’t no cream cheese. Instead, look for this 30-year-old dance ensemble on the cutting edge of African American movement expression. The current tour repertory features Jawole Willa Jo Zollar’s “Hand Singing Song” and Bebe Miller’s “My Science,” two works from the company’s daringly politicized “Messages From the Heart” program. David Brown’s “Labess II” and Ronald K. Brown’s “Exotica” prove more conventionally celebratory but, fasten your seat belts: In this kind of vehicle the dancers become what an L.A. Times review called “the ultimate, inexhaustible speed demons of modernism.”

Philadanco, Marsee Auditorium, El Camino College, 16007 Crenshaw Blvd., Torrance. 8 p.m. $23 and $26. (310) 329-5345. Also Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 7 p.m. in Campbell Hall, UC Santa Barbara campus, Santa Barbara. $16 (students) to $25. (805) 893-3535.

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7:30pm Pop Music

The biggest-selling album of 2001 wasn’t from one of pop’s established names--it’s the debut album from Linkin Park, a Los Angeles band whose mix of crunching rock, rap and electronics forms a vibrant, aggressive tapestry. With “Hybrid Theory” just past the 6-million sales mark, the group is headlining its “Projekt: Revolution” tour.

Linkin Park, with Cypress Hill, Adema, DJ Z Trip, Long Beach Arena, 300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach, 7:30 p.m. Sold out. (562) 436-3636.