Pinocchio. This professional production by the famous children's Hour Theater will undoubtedly inspire youngsters and big people alike (and also small old people). For one dollar you can see Pinocchio, Gepetto, and a very long nose. (It actually grows on stage, we're told.) It's sponsored by the Kirkland Nursery-Kindergarten, where some of the most intelligent, likeable, and well-directed kids we know go to school. Saturday, January 18, 10 a.m. --Rick and Dottie Briney

Good Time Charley. I suppose it was only a matter of time. The idea was obvious, the time so ripe, that my only question is, "what took so long?" A musical about Joan of Arc. It only took the Church 500 years to canonize her. Better late than never, is one tempted to explain? It won't do. Reports have it that this charcoal-broiled musical may be the worst even Boston has seen in recent years. What can you sing about a 21 year-old peasant girl who died? Joel Grey, fresh from a White House appearance doing the "Money, money, money" number from Cabaret for Sec'y of the Treasury William Simon (who remarked, as Grey tossed dollar bills in his direction, "We need more of these) stars, though, and it's hard to imagine this being a total loss if it's as bad as people say. It probably won't last long, considering what's at stake, and before it goes up in smoke, you might want to see it, especially considering how cathartic an experience writing this has been for me. At the Colonial Theater in Boston, Mon--Sat 7:30 p.m.

The Mother, by Bertold Brecht, someone who really knew how to handle Joan of Arc on stage. At the Charles St. Meeting House, Fri, Sat and Sun at 8 p.m.

Also, The Real Paper claims "Brecht's [sic] contemporary classic, Waiting for Godot," is being presented at some place called the Arts Center in the Pinebank in Jamicaway. I suspect neither exist, but you never know.

In keeping with the marked obsession of this week's capsules with the twin themes of Brecht's St. Joan of the Stockyards will open Jan 31 at the Harvard Epworth Church. Sometimes, everything seems to come together like some vast jigsaw puzzle...