Here’s a list of what to do this weekend—feminist theater, metal, virtuoso violin, and more. Visit the Knoxville Mercury online calendar or pick up this week’s issue for a full list of the weekend’s offerings.
FRIDAY, MARCH 31
Clarence Brown Theatre: Top Girls
Clarence Brown Lab Theatre • 7:30 p.m. • $15
If you could invite anyone, living or dead (or maybe even fictional), to a dinner party, who would it be? The protagonist of Caryl Churchill’s 1982 play Top Girls celebrates a recent promotion by hosting a restaurant dinner attended by some of the most remarkable women in history and literature. It’s a commentary on history, feminism, and British politics in the Thatcher era that remains relevant in 2017. Through April 16.
Killswitch Engage
The International • 7:30 p.m. • $25-$200

Metalcore madness! Massachusetts quintet Killswitch Engage was once at the vanguard of the New Wave of American Metal; now they’re a veteran act, with nearly two decades of hard touring behind them. The band’s latest album, Incarnate, was released in 2016. With the Devil Wears Prada and Jasta.
SATURDAY, APRIL 1
Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra with Rachel Barton Pine
Oak Ridge High School • 7:30 p.m. • $25

Rachel Barton Pine frequently alludes to heavy metal performers as among her inspirations. “When they’re onstage, they’re getting everyone headbanging,” she told The New York Times in 2013. “Within classical music my goal is to do the same thing, to give 150 percent and get everyone caught up in the emotions.” She’ll be performing twice this weekend in Oak Ridge—as a soloist on Dvorak’s Violin Concerto on Saturday (the program also includes music by Vaughan Williams, Sibelius, and Smetana) and a solo recital on Sunday. (Not coincidentally, she played a set of hard rock and metal covers with ORSO members on Thursday night.)
SUNDAY, APRIL 2
Covenant Health Knoxville Marathon and Half-Marathon
7:30 a.m. • $60-$100
The big one. And the other even bigger one. Knoxville’s largest and longest running events take thousands of runners through the city’s downtown and historic neighborhoods, with a dramatic finish inside Neyland Stadium.
Eugene Chadbourne
Pilot Light • 7 p.m. • $8 • 18 and up

It’s not like Eugene Chadbourne should have been a pop star—the iconoclastic North Carolina guitarist and composer’s explorations of far-out jazz and country music (and the intersection of the two) is challenging stuff. But Chadbourne does deserve the critical adulation he’s gotten over the decades. He’s a distinctly Southern musician with connections to some of the most heralded names in the underground and a complex catalog of recordings that defy expectation.
Senior Editor Matthew Everett manages the Knoxville Mercury's arts & entertainment section, including the comprehensive calendar section—Knoxville’s go-to guide for everything worth doing in the area. You can reach Matthew at matthew@knoxmercury.com.
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