From the beginnings of the modern detective story, there have been eccentric detectives. For instance, Sherlock Holmes never would have fit in with the typical late Victorian or Edwardian London population. I can’t imagine him bellying up to the bar at the neighborhood pub, shooting the breeze about the latest rugby match.

The years between the end of World War I and the rise of Hitler were tough times for the German people as they were recovering from a monstrous defeat. Still, aspects of German life were humming. 1919-1933 was a golden age for the arts.

The lesson to be learned from the Barrington Stage Company production of “King James” is that a play does not have to be profound in order to enjoy and learn from it.

Grammy Award-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein performs works by Stravinsky, Philip Glass, and Benjamin Britten at Maverick Concerts in Woodstock, N.Y., on Saturday at 6pm, followed by a concert at New Marlborough Meeting House in New Marlborough, Mass., on Sunday at 4:30pm.

Kaatsbaan Cultural Park in Tivoli, New York, hosts its 2025 festival guided by Michele Steinwald’s artistic vision, a dancer, programmer and longtime advocate for contemporary performance whose work places audiences at the center of the process.

A sign that summer is almost over is that the Travers race, which is held annually at Saratoga Race Track, has come and gone. Another is that almost every summer theater company has opened its final show.

Innovation continues at PS21: Performance for the 21st Century tonight and tomorrow with Life in This House is Over, a darkly comedic American premiere by director and performer Samantha Shay. Previously staged in Iceland and Poland, this piece blends movement, music, and text to explore grief with humor and poignancy, inspired by the plays of Anton Chekhov and the dances of Pina Bausch. The title comes from Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard.

Interdisciplinary artist Samantha Shay brings Life in this House is Over, an original dance-theatre piece about the social awkwardness of grief, to PS21 in Chatham, N.Y., tonight and Saturday at 8pm.

When Fall Is Coming, Quand vient l’automne ,a multi-layered French film, directed and co-written by Francois Ozon, which opened in American theaters this spring, is the sort of film that a viewer can digest in several parts.

The Shakespeare & Company production of August Wilson’s “The Piano Lesson” proves why the play, first produced on Broadway in 1990, deserved winning the Pulitzer Prize for drama as well as the Tony Award for Best Play.