THEATER: The esteemed Classical Theatre of Harlem is reviving Peter Weiss’s masterpiece Marat/Sade. The dizzying action takes place in an asylum in France, where the infamous Marquis de Sade is sequestered in 1808. To pass the time, he directs a play about the assassination of Jean-Paul Marat during the revolution. His asylum casting pool yields up some magnificent performances, though the production is almost squelched by the hospital administrator, a tool of Napoleon’s post-revolutionary regime. In the right hands, which CTH certainly has, the whole production is a multi-layered feast of subversion. - John Del Signore

Friday // 8pm // The Harlem School of the Arts Theatre [645 St. Nicholas Avenue, between West 141st & 145th Streets] // Tickets cost $36

MUSIC: Mercury Lounge has Tigercity, The Bon Savants, Up the Empire (senders of creepy cards...that we still have hanging on our fridge), The Shade and Black Moth Super Rainbow (ah, band names) all packing in to the venue tonight.

Listen: Stars at Noon.mp3 - Up The Empire

Saturday // 7:30pm // Mercury Lounge [Houston St @ Essex] // $10

EVENT: Adrian Grenier will be on hand in the "special guest" capacity this weekend at Asbury Shorts NY: "An Evening of the World's Best Short Films". He'll be introducing his short film: "Euthanasia" AND he'll be performing with his band The Honey Brothers (who we interviewed). So much more than just a pretty face, that one.

The 2 hour program will feature Asbury Shorts NY staff favorites from the past 10 years including: "Gulp" from Jason Reitman ("Thank you for Smoking") and "SPIN" the current two-time US film festival "Best of Show" from Colorado filmmaker Jamin Winans.

They will show the same film lineup Sunday.

Saturday // 7:30pm // The Brooklyn Lyceum [227 4th Ave, Park Slope] // $12

THEATER: In these Hoth-like weather conditions, Saturday might be the perfect day to park your Ton-Ton at The Chocolate Factory for Force, a 6 hour epic theater trilogy by Bryn Manion. Martin Denton calls it “the best new American play of the season so far; I haven't been this caught up in or affected by a piece of theatre since Angels in America.” The three plays that make up Force — Wanderlust, Threshold, and Convergence — can be viewed individually or, as is the case Saturday, in succession (with dinner break). In development since 2004, Force is loosely inspired by the lives, photographs, and writings of war journalists such as James Nachtwey and Chris Hedges, among others. Centering on “a fictional wartime journalist named Jack, and told on an epic scale through dreams, travel, memories, and magic realism, Force dissects the idea that man is as capable as nature of creating stupendous beauty and awesome destruction.”

The whole shebang, which will cost you a lot less rubles than that other three-play trilogy currently dominating New York, is the work of the Queens-based company Aisling Arts. There’s a great column on Culturebot in which Bryn Manion explains just how she and her collaborator (who’s due to give birth by month’s end) made six hours of theater on a $2,500 budget. - John Del Signore

Saturday // 2pm // The Chocolate Factory [5-49 49th Ave | L.I.C.] // Tickets for the trilogy cost $30.

EVENT: Brooklyn Botanic Garden is having its Lunar New Year Celebration and Flower Market this weekend. The day will feature music, dance, art and, of course, flowers. There will also be a traditional Korean drum-and-dance procession; and tours so you can learn about the garden's Asian plant collection. Don't forget to buy some for your home! Full schedule of events can be found here.

Saturday // 10:30am to 4pm // Brooklyn Botanic Garden [900 Washington Avenue, Prospect Park] // Free before noon, $5 after

MUSIC: Miss out on Stephen Malkmus tickets? That's okay, you didn't want to go to Jersey anyway. Head to good 'ol Park Slope for The Rosebuds and Sam Cohen (of Apollo Sunshine). Get a taste of The Rosebuds live show in the clip above.

Sunday // 9pm // Union Hall [702 Union St] // $10