Leigh Evans
Dec. 5-13, Noh Space

WHAT DO YOU do in a world that seems to be going mad? You can be apathetic, and simply change the channel. Or you can march, write letters, and sign petitions. And if you're an artist, you can also channel your hurt and anger into work that helps heal wounds, points out alternative ways of being, and dares to hold up a mirror to complacency. Which is exactly what Leigh Evans is trying to do with her first full-evening solo work, When Day Became Night, which follows the tale of a journalist in denial who is confronted with ghosts of the past. Evans is best known in the Bay Area as a quietly mesmerizing Butoh performer; she has worked internationally in Europe and Asia. She set Day in Nazi Germany, but she isn't only interested in history. Drawing on her eclectic training in Butoh, Odissi, Suzuki, and Authentic Movement – and her broad interest in Asian performance traditions – Evans wrote, choreographed, and composed the songs for this parable on violence and the need for redemption. That's a big goal for a single, soft-spoken artist. But then these aren't times in which the timid will prevail. Through Dec. 13. Fri.-Sat. and Dec. 11, 8 p.m., 2840 Mariposa, S.F. $15. (415) 695-8889. (Rita Felciano)