7Days: Regional arts and entertainment, by Michael Harrington

Bard on film Choose your Shakespeare masterpiece on the big screen, as performed by the National Theater: King Lear, starring Simon Russell Beale as the tragic monarch, screens at 12:30 p.m. at the Ambler Theater, 108 E. Butler Ave., Ambler. Tickets are $18. Call 215-345-7855. . . . Hamlet, starring Rory Kinnear as the melancholy Danish prince, screens at 1 p.m. at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute, 824 W. Lancaster Ave., Bryn Mawr. Tickets are $20; $10 for students. Call 610-527-9898.

Chamber music Conductor Dirk Brossé leads the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia in an all-Tchaikovsky program featuring soloist Saeka Matsuyama, violin, at the Kimmel Center's Perelman Theater, Broad and Spruce Streets, at 2:30 p.m. Sunday and 7:30 p.m. Monday. Tickets are $24 to $81. Call 215-893-1999.

Funny lady The estimable 1812 Productions brings back its hit A Tribute to Phyllis Diller, featuring classic routines (and songs!) by the pioneering comedienne, plus bits by female comics who followed her. The show goes on at Plays & Players Theatre, 1714 Delancey St. at 7:30 p.m. Monday and Tuesday. Tickets are $25. Call 215-592-9560.

Smart pop Damon McMahon's avant-rock project Amen Dunes has expanded from a home-taping phenomenon into a full band. Members play psychedelic-folk gems off their dynamite new album, Love, at 8:30 p.m. at Boot & Saddle, 1131 S. Broad St. Tickets are $10. Call 267-639-4528.

Dance pop The sharp retro-beat duo Chromeo must surely get you moving at 8:30 p.m. at Union Transfer, 1026 Spring Garden St. Tickets are $30. Call 215-232-2100.

They're next Just out of their teens, brothers Mikaiah and Anaiah Lei go back to the basics with their hard-driving guitar-and-drum punk sound as the Bots. With any luck, they may be the ones to save rock for future generations. The sibling prodigies play at 8 p.m. at the North Star, 2639 Poplar St. Tickets are $12. Call 215-787-0488.

Motion pictures The troupe Anne-Marie Mulgrew and Dancers performs multimedia works by Mulgrew and Ashley Searles at Christ Church Neighborhood House, 20 N. American St., at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 3 p.m. next Sunday. Tickets are $20; $15 for seniors and students. Call 215-462-7720.

That's him He has been known to do one of father's songs once in a while, but A.J. Croce is an excellent singer-songwriter in his own right (his bluesy, Beatle-y "Right On Time" tops our playlist these days). He plays at Steel City Coffee House, 203 Bridge St., Phoenixville, at 8 p.m. Friday. Tickets are $20. Call 610-933-4043.

Sound and vision Go for the artwork, stay for the music: The intrepid quartet So Percussion performs works by Steve Reich, Bryce Dessner, Oscar Bettison, and Dan Trueman at Grounds for Sculpture, 18 Fairgrounds Rd., Trenton, N.J., at 8 p.m. Friday. Tickets are $35 (includes park admission). Call 609-586-0616.

Out in the streets Two novelists consider the costs of activism: Hilary Plum, in her book They Dragged Them Through the Streets, about Iraq war protesters, and Simone Zelitch, in her latest, Waveland, about women taking part in the Freedom Summer of 1964. They read at Musehouse, 7924 Germantown Ave., at 7 p.m. Saturday. Admission is free. Call 267-331-9552.