Can't Miss It: Thursday

Theatre: A production of Mr. Marmalade got introduced by Curtain Up thusly:

If you've always associated marmalade with sweetness, you're likely to expect the title character of Noah Haidle's play to be a sweet, lovable guy -- just the sort of imaginary friend for a four-year-old moppet named Lucy.

Well, think again. Playwright Haidle's Mr. Marmalade is a cocaine snorting, emotionally out to lunch businessman with a briefcase packed with kinky sex toys. Not a friend likely to offer much solace for little Lucy's loneliness and confusion as a child of divorce with too much access to adult television shows.

WET's Katjana Vadeboncoeur directs the always compelling Marya Sea Kaminski. You're warned not to bring your 4-year-olds for a drama playdate. (That's Michael Place and Marya Sea Kaminski in the photo by Victoria Lahti.)

8pm // WET, 608 19th Ave E // Tickets $15 general, $10 students/seniors

Art: Artist Joe Shlichta (brother of John) has an exhibit up at the Fetherston Gallery. He was born in Long Beach, California, and has put in stints at Otis Parsons in Los Angeles and Cornish College of the Arts. He's painting in case the bartending thing doesn't work out. Says Joe, "Some time ago, I gave up painting with a plan, trying to make the finished piece arrive at some idea or vision I had in the beginning. Those pieces never seemed to work for me. The ones that did were invariably those that I had let myself aimlessly wander, without any plan or goal." We like them.

11am-5pm // Fetherston Gallery, 818 E Pike St // FREE

History: The traveling exhibit Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War is at MOHAI over in Montlake. You been yet? Man took a bullet for the country. Maybe you can spare an hour of your time. Besides the usual dusty documents in that weird handwriting font, you can listen to Lincoln defend his record on civil liberties against critics, and help Lincoln solve the problem of slavery by choosing the right keys to unlock slavery from the Constitution. Our favorite topical part is the recreated Civil War jail cell, where you can play a computer game that lets you hold or release prisoners being held as "subversives."

10am-5pm // MOHAI, 2700 24th Ave E // Tickets $5 adults, $5 student/seniors

The listed events were chosen by the editors of Seattlest and brought to you by the 2009 Toyota Corolla.