Sun. March 25

 Five-plus acres of space, 15,000 varieties of plants, trees and shrubs, 1000-plus theatrical fixtures ... and it's all gone after Sunday. It seems like an awful lot of work for a short stretch of time - kind of like a butterfly's life - but there is an awful lot of beauty to take in at the 136th Annual New England Sping Flower Show at the Bayside Expo Center. We managed to go as the sleet was coming down, making the inside even more of a sanctuary. (Last snow of the winter, we're sure.) We marveled at Barbara Zielak's 36-flower design, which won second prize in the Magnificent Mass Design division. We dug Jacqueline Hauser's sharp-angled sculpture and Calla Lilly and Hala design. We smiled at the City of Boston's Parks & Recreation Department's sprawling exhibit which won the Herald's Urban Landscape Award with a comment of "Curb appealing." The soft sound of rushing water was omnipresent; a multiplicity of olfactory delights were everywhere - well, except when the fried dough from the food court area came wafting our way. We marvelled at the birds and foliage in Peter R. Sadeck's exhibit, which had a judge's placard stating, "Small plants and exotic birds make us wish it was our backyard." Our backyard is a concrete court, so we second that emotion. The trade show part of the exhibit hall is pretty tasteful, with the highlight being a stunning butterfly collection, where it was explained all the dead beauties behind glass were allowed to live out their glorious lives - two weeks - and then pinned for eternity. (Sort of like the "Body Works" exhibit that ran at the Museum of Science earlier this year, but featuring insects, not humans.) There's way too much to tell in this short space. We can say there are special events every day - music, food, presentations - and you can partake or just meander the lot at a measured speed. Don't rush it. This is your respite from the rest of life. It's not even that hard to tune out the other people. Just focus on the scenery, breathe in, and it's yours for a moment. The Show, presented by the Mass. Horticultural Society, raps up today, Sunday March 25, and is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Admission: $20. (Warning: Parking will run you another $12). Check the website below for particulars about different days.

200 Mt. Vernon St., 617-933-4900 masshort.org

 Sat. March 24 

We did not come away from “Oliver Twist” at the American Repertory Theatre’s Loeb Drama Center whistling “Consider Yourself,” that happy-go-lucky tune Jack Wild sang when he played the Artful Dodger in “Oliver!” many years ago. No, we left impressed with the dankness and darkness of the set, the shock of a certain character’s very realistic hanging, the high quality of the acting, and the timelessness of the story. We were also thinking about how well director Neil Bartlett used Gerard McBurney’s music to drolly explain plot, character and mood. Yes, 20-year-old Michael Wartella embodies all that is good about the human spirit, but there’s a lot of evil in the air. A.R.T. vets Karen MacDonald and Remo Airaldi must have had a hoot playing the officious Bumbles, who endure the raising of orphans. One of the best characters is Carson Elrod, a 32-year-old, Kansas-raised actor and NYU graduate who plays both the narrator and the Dodger, and often has to speed-shift between the two. We had a post-show chat.

JSINK:  How difficult is it to switch between the narrator and the Dodger?
ELROD: With a lot of actors, by the time you’ve been acting ten years you’ve done all these roles, from supporting roles to larger roles, and in my first professional play I played five ancillary characters. What’s unique about mine (in “Oliver Twist”) is that I don’t go off stage and come back as the Dodger. The narrator has a soft cut into the Dodger, which makes the audience have to decide which side the narrator’s on. Or is the Dodger the narrator? It asks the question: What’s the agenda of the narrator? I don’t think either are are malevolent. I would say “mischievous benevolence.”. When we read the Dickens novel, which had advantages and disadvantages, you realize the book is 100 percent different from the “Oliver!” musical or the Polanaski film. By the time you get to the end, you can’t believe how many plot lines he ties together! One thing Neil (Bartlett) is true to text is when Fagin (Ned Eisenberg) is in the cell. Dickens lets his own perspective in and it’s similar to my character who can be sarcastic, ironical and biting. Ultimately it is our job to serve Neil Bartlett’s view of the book. It is to a great degree a manifestation of the director’s feelings and desires. My own personal opinion is it’s a dark novel and weird, creepy things happen. One of the things that hits me is when the Dodger brings Oliver back to the (thieves) den, it’s like a crack house with these 12-year-old kids drinking gin, smoking clay pipes and playing cards, as if they were 35-year-old men.

Fri. March 23 - Sun. March 25

The bawdy, the boozy, the subversive and the outrageous come together every year in Boston for BUFF, the Boston Underground Film Festival, which begins its ninth year Thursday March. 22 with “American Stag,” Benjamin Meade’s look at stage films from the ‘20s onward. Standards of beauty and cinematic technique were different back then, but you can imagine the novelty: Ohmygod, we’ve got a camera! Let’s do it. Of course, they were more subversive in that they were slightly harder to find than two clicks away. We’ve seen a few of these old flicks and were struck by fleeting eroticism, but, mostly, tedium. Hoping to add zip to it all is the Alloy Orchestra, who’ve written the score to “American Stag,” (in photo) which is at the Brattle Theater at 7:30, opening the festival. (There’s actaully a nine-minute short film and a brief collection of silent stags, featuring the Alloys, too.) It’s a pretty good signal of what’s to come. You may see films that don’t have the professional gloss of a Hollywood product, but you’ll see themes rarely addressed elsewhere and you’ll feel part of the cinematic equivalent of punk rock. The opening part after “Stag” takes place down the road in Harvard Square at the Hong Kong and there will be a performance by Black Cat Burlesque, and a dj turn by Brother Cleve spinning, lounge, exotica and Bollywood faves. Swag bags including chocolate, and sex toys will be handed out. Details: the screening is $5 and the party $15 and runs from 10 p.m. –2 a.m. There are five Friday films at the Brattle Theatre from 3 p.m. til post midnight and at the Harvard Square Cinema at 7 (“End of the Line”) and 9:30 (“Bulldog in the White House.”) There are six Saturday films at the Brattle starting at 12:30 p.m and going past midight and four at the Harvard Square Cinema starting at 3:30. A Friday night party take place at Tommy Doyle’s  and is hosted by Dewars, with experimental films looped at the club all night to the accompaniment of Pete Sutton’s band, Temper. There is a Saturday party too, destination TBA. Sunday afternoon, there are two films at the Harvard Square Cinema starting at 2:30, and four at the Brattle, starting at 1:45 – with a live female wrestling bout somewhere in the middle - and climaxing at 8 with “Roman,” the New England premiere of Angela Bettis’s film, the story of a lonely man and his horrifically unlucky love life. Party follows at Z Square with Brother Cleve. You can buy a screening to any film for $5 or drop $50 and get into most everything (parties and passes – although they don’t hold seats at the screenings for pass holders.) Please check the website because things can and do change in the BUFF world.

Brattle Theater, 40 Brattle St., Cambridge, AMC Lowes Havard Square Cinema 10 Church St.,, Cambridge, Doyle’s, 96 Winthrop St., Cambrdige, 3rd floor, Hong Kong, 1288 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge. Bostonunderground.org

Thurs. March 22

 Great music, free. Great space, djs. That's the short story concerning the evening WBCN promotions manager/dj Chris Rucker is hosting at the Enormous Room Thursday March 22. What you've got are the gals of Barnicle playing a set, folowed by a solo stint by Stephen Brodsky (the Cave-in, Octave Museum) and Rucker dj-ing. The musicians will also take to the booth after their sets, playing their faves. Note: The Enormous Room's name is a bit of a joke - it's not, it's quite an intimate hip lounge. And it's located behind Central Kitchen. Starts at 9 p.m.

567 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, 617-491-5550 enormous.tv