STOLEN SHAKES: Circle Theatre’s Exit, Pursued by a Bear takes its title from a single stage direction in Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale. It follows a woman in an abusive relationship who plans to leave her abusive husband, but not before she’s duct taped him to the recliner and covered him with honey. Then, it’s time to wait for the animal in the title to show up. This is the regional premiere of Lauren Gunderson’s comedy. And it sounds as if the newcomer is welcome. “For all her clever post-modern devices, Gunderson mostly gets her laughs and other emotional responses the old-fashioned way, through characterization,” Lawson Taitte writes in his dallasnews.com review before ending it with, “More Gunderson, please, and quickly. Can she really be this good all the time?” Jan Farrington was also happy with the show. “Domestic abuse isn’t a usual subject for comedy,” she writes on theaterjones.com. “But Lauren Gunderson’s Exit, Pursued by a Bear at Circle Theatre pulls off a deft juggling act: comedy and tragedy whirl around together, with all the balls, light and dark, revolving in the air at once.” And to round out the huzzahs, Mark Lowry calls the show “boisterously funny” in his dfw.com review. Sounds as if you’re best get thee to Circle by Sept. 14.

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE: This weekend, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra is going with an all-Russian program. That means a heaping helping of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff. It’s a way of honoring Van Cliburn and his 1958 victory at the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition. And to add to the Cliburn vibe, three competitors from this year’s competition will be back in Fort Worth to perform. You can catch up with those players and learn more about the weekend’s featured composers in a dfw.com preview.

A QUICK CATCH-UP: If you’re new to the Museum Tower-Nasher Sculpture Center story and looking to get caught up, you might want to check out a bloomberg.com piece that does a pretty solid job of bringing everything up to speed. The headline, “Dallas Tower Dithers as Glass Roasts Museum Masterpieces,” might clue you into how the writer, James S. Russell, feels about the whole affair.