Regional arts and entertainment events

Sunday

Knotted up The installation Heaven, Hell and Original Sin is a collaborative effort by mixed-media artist Melissa Maddonni Haims and painting duo Rachel Isaac and Rochelle Marcus Dinkin, who work as The Grimm Sisters. The three-part exhibit begins with Haims' vision of paradise, cumulus sculptures made from recycled fibers. Sin is represented by the Grimm Sisters' fanciful, mythological paintings. The last space is filled with huge knitted and crocheted sculpture, the result of a two-year project by Haims. The show is at the Highwire Gallery, 2040 Frankford Ave., to Nov. 29. Admission is free. Call 215-426-2685.

Ethical antics Bertolt Brecht was both an ideological and a theatrical provocateur in his writing. Stan Heleva puts both strains to work in The Good Puppet of Szechwan, his adaptation of Brecht's retelling of a Chinese parable about

the impossibility of determining a pure ethic, in which the story of a young woman tasked by the gods to be truly good is given further depth by adding puppetry. The B. Someday Productions show goes on at 2 p.m. Sunday at Walking Fish Theatre, 2509 Frankford Ave., and continues on a Wednesday-through- Sunday schedule to Nov. 22. Tickets are $16; $12 seniors and students. Call 215-427-9255.

Musical theater The breathy-voiced one-man band Doveman (a.k.a. Thomas Bartlett) follows up his acclaimed (really!) cover of the Footloose soundtrack with the dramatic chamber-pop gem The Conformist. He opens for the similarly inclined Oscar-winning duo The Swell Season at 8 p.m. at the Merriam Theater, 250 S. Broad St. Tickets are $38. Call 215-893-1999.

Monday

Supergroup Hello, Philly, are you ready to get . . . emo? The quartet Monsters of Folk, teaming indie-pop superstars Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis of Bright Eyes, Jim James of My Morning Jacket, and M. Ward of She & Him, plays at 8 p.m. at the Academy of Music, Broad and Locust Streets. Tickets are $40.50 and $50.50. Call 215-893-1999.

Tuesday

Another country When singer-songwriter Kevin So looks back on Bruce Lee's death in the sensational "Long Forgotten Question" off his album Best Foot Forward, it's in a Dylanesque guitar- and-harmonica setting that seems jarring at first, until it hits: Lee changed the view, and So is filling us in. He plays at 7:30 p.m. at the Asian Arts Initiative, 1219 Vine St. Tickets are $10 to $20. Call 215-557-0455.

Wednesday

Bergman, part one Ingmar Bergman's 1967 drama Wild Strawberries, about an aging professor who looks back on his life while traveling to an awards ceremony, is perhaps the best movie ever made about growing old. The film screens at 7:30 p.m. at the County Theater, 20 E. State St., Doylestown. Tickets are $8.75. Call 215-345-6789.

They're next On our latest episode of Why Aren't They Big Stars?: Morningwood has the fantastic Chantal Claret on powerhouse vocals, one of the band's works as a TV theme song ("Best of Me" from Daisy of Love), and a smart, high-energy rock sound anchored by Pedro Yanowitz's bass. It's only a matter of time. They play on a dynamite bill with Papa Roach, Jet, and Kill Hannah at 7 p.m. at the Electric Factory, 421 N. Seventh St. Tickets are $37. Call 215-336-2000.

Thursday

The hills are alive The Sound of Music just begs to be parodied, and the hip-hop dance troupe Doug Elkins & Friends hits the mark square with Fräulein Maria, featuring choreography that subverts both the musical and dance history. The show goes on at the Annenberg Center's Zellerbach Theatre, 3680 Walnut St., at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, and 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $20 to $45. Call 215-898-3900.

Bergman, part two Made for TV in 1997, Bergman's In the Presence of a Clown is a sequel of sorts to his auto- biographical films Fanny and Alexander and Best Intentions, in which his mad Uncle Carl sets out to create a new kind of movie-making in the 1920s. The invaluable Andrew's Video Vault pairs it with Gene Kelly's 1962 drama Gigot, starring Jackie Gleason as a mute janitor who befriends a street urchin. The films screen at 8 p.m. at the Rotunda, 4014 Walnut St. Admission is free. Call 215-573-3234.

Friday & Saturday

Jazz time The Philadelphia Chamber Music Society steps out a bit, presenting alto saxophonist Bobby Watson at the University of the Arts' Gershman Hall, 401 S. Broad St., at 8 p.m. Friday. Tickets are $23. call 215-569-8080. . . . World-music pioneer Peter Apfelbaum brings his New York Hieroglyphics Orchestra to the Painted Bride Art Center, 230 Vine St., at 8 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $25. Call 215-925-9914.

Words and music The incandescent soprano Hila Plitmann is the guest artist as James Freeman conducts Orchestra 2001 in poetry set to music by Libby Larsen and Esa-Pekka Salonen, plus Franz Schreker's rarely heard 1916 Chamber Symphony, at the Independence Seaport Museum, 211 S. Columbus Blvd., at 8 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $30; $20 seniors. Call 215-893-1999.