The Wellesley College Botanical Gardens, in conjunction with the school’s Jewett Gallery, next week will begin hosting an art exhibit among its many plants.  Greenhouse Ghosts features life-sized white silhouettes of threatened, endangered and extinct species, presenting a stark contrast against the colorful plant life.

Opening Reception: Thursday, Jan. 26. 4-5:30pm, Botanic Gardens Visitor Center
Exhibit Dates: Jan. 26-June 8, 2012
Hours: 8am-4pm Daily

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Christmas comes but once a year with good reason, as Alan Ayckbourn’s dark comedy, “Season’s Greetings,” put on by The Wellesley Summer Theatre Company, reminds us.

Everything about the setting and circumstances seems typically English — relatives are gathered to celebrate Christmas. There is a well-stocked home bar and a nearby pub, which, under ordinary circumstances, should be enough to bubble everybody along through three days of closeness.  The Christmas tree, given pride of place, of course, towers over wrapped gifts of the noisy variety.

The adults claim to have given themselves over to the idea that Christmas is for children, after all, so what’s a bit of clamor and a few toy guns thrown in for good measure?  The audience is given to understand that there are plenty of children around, but we never see them.  Or not the chronologically aged ones, anyway.  The actual appearance of any children, and their accompanying antics would tip the play into full-out chaos.  Since the adults in this holiday fiasco hog up all the childish behavior for themselves, there is no need to completely exhaust the audience with the spectre of real children.

As the play moves along, each of the nine adults reveals their inner child, and a spoiled child it is.  Belinda, the lady of the house played by Ashley Gramolini, mood swings between martrydom and VERY warmly welcoming her sister’s love interest to her home. As Belinda’s determination grows to seduce (attack?) Clive, played by Dan Roach, she lets nothing stand in her way, not even her sister, who is, literally, standing in her way.  Clive may as well be a swing at the playground that Belinda is determined to have, and her sister, played by Christine Hamel, a not-very formidable obstacle.

Bernard, played by Derek Stone Nelson, effectively takes the play to its emotionally darkest place, even as the room itself is at its brightest and most cheerful.  As he becomes more bungling and short-tempered during dress rehearsal for a puppet show, his yearly contribution to seasonal jolliness,  he turns on his allies with contempt he should reserve for his foes.  Finally, all are either against him, disgusted by his behavior, or sobbing.

As the family members interfere with and tear each other’s projects apart, be they wrapped presents or dinner preparations, the audience would not be surprised if, when the Boxing Day scene came around, things suddenly got  very literal and the set was actually transformed into a ring.  The action goes futher than that, however, and Clive, dressed in grey in the early scenes, and looking perhaps a bit like the big bad wolfe in Bernard’s puppet show, may end up the scapegoat in family lore for this Christmas that won’t soon be forgotten.

Director:  Shelley Bolman
Designers: Ken Loewit (lighting design)
David Towlun (scenic design)
George Cooke (sound design)
Nora Hussey (directing consultant)

Ticket prices are $20 general admission and $10 for seniors and students

The play runs until Jan. 29 on Thursdays-Sundays at the Ruth Nagel Jones Theatre at Wellesley College

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But now you know the town is really gaga over the Bruins, who are on the hottest of hot streaks, when a Wellesley art gallery has a painting of the famed 1970 flying Bobby Orr goal in its front window on Washington Street.

RELATED: Wellesley-based pro hockey agent has seen it all

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Wellesley College’s Davis Museum is ramping up for the northeast premiere of artist Radcliffe Bailey’s exhibit, called Memory as Medicine, running Feb. 15-May 6. A free opening reception will be held from 5-7pm on Feb. 15.

Museum director Lisa Fischman says in a statement: “Bailey’s art, informed by a strong social and historical consciousness and solidly grounded in family and community, combines a rich, narrative content with a high-level of abstraction and poetic resonance to explore questions of history and memory.”

Translation, uhh, go see the exhibit, which features mixed-media paintings and installations, including Windward Coast, seen above (it features hundreds of piano keys). The exhibit was on display June-September at Atlanta’s High Museum of Art.

Fun fact: Bailey is married to an actress/dancer named Victoria Rowell.

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The Wellesley Community Art Project has struck again, this time at the old Wellesley Hills Whole Foods location. The windows now display a variety of art, including from Wellesley potter Elizabeth Cohen, whose work inspired by botanical and marine life is shown here.

Separately, a new art display from those taking lessons via the Wellesley Council on Aging is at the former Betsy’s space next to the Wellesley Square fire station.

RELATED: Livening up Wellesley’s empty storefronts

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Now we know how Wellesley High School drama teacher and play director Stephen Wrobleski gets kids to learn their lines and nail their numbers: He does a little fire eating and fire breathing, as he did for lucky attendees of one Wellesley Christmas party over the weekend (he only showed off fire eating that night). He was there as an auction prize.

Wrobleski has really been showing his versatility of late, not only performing parlor tricks, but directing the recent Wellesley High production of “Hairspray” and starring in Weston Friendly Society’s recent production of “The Music Man.”

RELATED: The lesson of Wellesley High School’s “Hairspray”

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We came across perhaps the ultimate Wellesley tattoo from Wellesley Underground — a 2008 Wellesley College grad’s ode to the classic lamp posts on campus AND to the inimitable Oscar Wilde (and came across another from a 2007 grad with just the lamp post, below)

Which of course leads us to ask: What other Wellesley-themed ink is out there?

Wellesley Raiders?

Wellesley PD and Fire Department?

Wellesley Zoning Board of Appeals?

Wellesley Mothers Forum?

The Swellesley Report? (We’d be honored, depending on where you put it)

If you’ve got a Wellesley Tatt that you just can’t keep to yourself, send along a picture here for us to share with the community: theswellesleyreport@gmail.com

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A little birdie, and not the metal eagle weathervane that once soared above the tower on the old Wellesley High School and is now shown below, caught a glimpse of a stunning new logo and other aspects of the new Wellesley High School lobby.

The new building is opening to students in February and will be dedicated next May (See Wellesley Turn on the Lights schedule).

RELATED: World premiere of Wellesley High School architectural video packs ‘em in

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