Sat. Feb. 6

 Usain Bolt, the record-setting sprinter, may now be Jamaica's best-known face. But through the 1970s - and really, well beyond - it's been Bob Marley. Without whom ... well, you know. Bob was born Feb. 6, 1945 meaning he'd 65 had he not been stricken with cancer. Boggles the mind doesn't it? But then you think of Mick Jagger and Ray Davies and Paul McCartney and realize, there is no cut-off point for making good rock 'n' roll and we're sure it would have been the same in Marley's case. And we wonder, much as we did with Jimi Hendrix: What direction would he have taken his music? It's something to ponder Saturday Feb. 6 when Ila Mawana and friends celebrate at the Middle East Upstairs.

Ila Mawana is a 9-piece original reggae band doing pure roots reggae and experimental driving dub. From the most mellow to intense songs, iLa Mawana, called "one of the best roots/jam bands coming out of Boston over the past two years' by Ingenious Concepts, is celebrating a self-titled 6-track EP recorded and mixed in iLa Mawana's home studio in Brighton. The album is resonated with the warmth of the family, featuring thick rhythmic roots, and well-blended vocal and horn melodies. Support from Buffalo Soul. Doors at 8, tix $12.

472 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, 617-864-3278 www.mideastclub.com

ongoing - Sun. Feb. 7 

My take on "Sleep No More" has been up on site for a while and, yes, it remains. But recently, my niece, playwright Deborah Yarchun visited and saw the show. Her play "FreezeFrame," debuted off-Broadway in 2006 through the Young Playwrights Fest XXIV. She is a past recipient of the Kennedy Center’s VSA Arts’ Playwright Discovery Award and current Literary Assistant at Salvage Vanguard Theater in Austin, TX.) Her critique - in italics. - follows mine.

Here were some of the things that came to mind during “Sleep No More”: “Twin Peaks, “Eyes Wide Shut, “Macbeth” … and a highbrow version of one of those Spooky World haunted houses. “Sleep No More” is a two-and-a-half hour play/interactive performance art piece put on by the English company Punchdrunk in conjunction with the A.R.T., and up at the unlikeliest of venues, the Old Lincoln School in Brookline. The school, Brookine’s town hall for a while after its school days ended, certainly looks like a school from the outside, but on the inside, well, it’s totally surreal, an alternate universe.

 ongoing - Sun. Feb. 7

 "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."

So ends F. Scott Fitzgerald’s "The Great Gatsby." Since it was written in 1925, this timeless tale of love and loss has become a staple in schools and a book that thousands turn to again and again. It is a human story and a super-human story and it is a book that few can put down once they start. Such is the premise of “GATZ,” a play that is being brought to the American Repertory Theater by the internationally-acclaimed company Elevator Repair Service (www.elevator.org) through Sun. Feb. 7 at the Loeb Drama Center.

In this marathon six-hour performance (which is presented with two parts separated by a dinner interlude), a typical Everyman finds a copy of Fitzgerald’s masterwork in his office and, instead of using his time for company business, begins to read. As with so many readers of the story of the mysterious life of Jay Gatsby (ne Gatz), he cannot put it down. In fact, the more he reads, the more he sees how the lives in the book reflect those in the real world. The more he reads, the more the worlds of reality and fiction blend and the more is revealed in both.

 ongoing Sun. Feb – 7

I met Arthur Miller once. It was at an A.R.T. party with a lot of other theater world notables. I was covering the event for the Globe, writing what was then called "Names & Faces." (Now that it has more faces on the page, it’s been renamed "Names.") When I was introduced to Miller, my head was spinning with possible things to say/ask. I mean, Lord … As it turned out, I probably mumbled something along the lines of "pleased to meet you, it’s an honor." Which was certainly better than I might have blurted out: "You were married to Marilyn Monroe! What was that like?"

If I’d asked about theatre, he might have responded, "The production of a new play, I have often thought, is like another chance in life, a chance to emerge cleansed of ones imperfections." He did say that to someone, once.

This is recalled because Miller’s "All My Sons" - it ran for 328 shows on Broadway when it opened and won a Tony - is up at the Huntington Theatre through Sun. Feb. 7 and it remains, under the direction of David Esbjornson, one of the most emotionally wrenching and powerful plays you’d care to see.

Thurs. Feb. 4

 "If you don't want a wild one/Quit hangin' 'round with me," sings one of the three gals who goes by the surname Darlin. Later, another (the same?) Darlin sings, "I'm drivin' nails in my coffin/Every time I drink a bottle of booze/I'm drivin' nails in my coffin/Though I'm drivin' those nails over you." And then there's a song that proclaims proudly, but with some shame, that one of Those Darlins ate a whole damn chicken. "Not just the leg/Not just the wing/The whole damn thing!" They blame it on the booze. Those Darlins are bassist Kelley Darlin, guitarist Jessi Darlin and Nikki Darlin on, yes, baritone ukulele. You'd probably call 'em an alt-country group, but the Darlins opt for pop/2 step/garage on their myspace page. By picking the same last name, the mini-skirted Darlins, of course, reference the brothers Ramone. A gang. In it together. All equal. As Kelley says, “I think we approach things in a unique way, a very egalitarian way, where there’s not the lead singer and ego and all that.”Or as Nikki puts it, “We perform, the three of us, and we’re straight in a row on the front of the stage.  No one’s holding back.”  I'd say that punk rock informs their attitude, but this trio from Murfreesboro, Tenn. - which has a drummer of indeterminte gender somewhere in the mix - is a country group in the same way the Knitters is a country group.. They play T.T. the Bear's Thursday Feb. 4. with the Pine Hill Haints opening around 9. Tix: $10.

10 Brookline St., Cambridge, 617-492-0082 www.ttthebears.com