Free Beer, Blago, Black Cats

classical Black Violet
The classical group Fifth House Ensemble teams up with the local graphic novelist Ezra Claytan Daniels to present the first installment of Black Violet. A highly original three-act production about a housecat who must fend for herself when the Great Plague hits London, Violet features Daniels's projected illustrations set to live music by Brahms, Shostakovich, Harbison, and Wagner. A couple of bonuses: The October 6th performance is free, while the October 8th performance includes a free beer and cheese reception (best not to ponder the links between cheese, rats, and the plague) with the musicians before the show, at 7:30.
GO: Oct 6 at 7: Free. Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E Washington. Oct 8 at 8: $12-$25. SPACE, 1245 Chicago Ave, Evanston. fifth-house.com

theatre The Mercy Seat
Playwright Neil LaBute hearts Profiles. ("I'm lucky to work with them. They understand my work," he said last year.) The mutual admiration society continues as Joe Jahraus directs LaBute's latest, a typically dark relationship drama set on 9/12/01. Expect black humor, intensity, and maybe even LaBute checking things out from the audience.
GO: Previews through Sep 30; Regular run continues through Nov 15. $30-$35. Profiles Theatre, 4147 N Broadway. profilestheatre.org

theatre Deathscribe 2009, Rhymes with Evil
Get in the Halloween mood early with two frighteningly original stagings. First up: Serial killers! Bloody hatchets! Foley artists! Deathscribe, Wildclaw Theatre's second annual festival of radio plays, features a corps(e) of splatter 'n' schlock horrormeisters. And then there's Rhymes with Evil: Charles Traeger's story of a stay-at-home dad is a solid argument against breeding. Think The Bad Seed—with puppets.
GO: Deathscribe: Oct 5 at 8. $15-$20. Music Box Theatre, 3733 N Southport. wildclawtheatre.com. Rhymes with Evil: Previews Oct 5-7; regular run continues through Nov 8. $15-$25. Infusion Theatre at Storefront Theater, 66 E Randolph. dcatheater.org

dance Paul Taylor Dance Company
Tickets are sold out for Merce Cunningham Dance Company's run this week at the Dance Center (well, basically; call for last-minute availability: 312-369-8330), but you can still catch Paul Taylor Dance Company—helmed by a choreographer our dance writer Lucia Mauro calls "one of the most eclectic, virtuosic, and sardonic of our time"—in a brief stop in the 'burbs. Other Cunningham alternatives: Nora Chipaumire at the MCA, Links Hall's 30th birthday bash, Hubbard Street at the Harris.
GO: PTDC: Oct 1 at 8. $36-$46. McAninch Arts Center, College of DuPage, 425 Fawell Blvd. atthemac.org