Battleworks

PSYCHOS NEVER DREAM. The novelist and poet Denis Johnson, who’s best known for his dark, impressionistic short-story collection Jesus’ Son and its subsequent film adaptation, returns to Provincetown’s Fine Arts Work Center — where he was a fellow back in 1981 — to direct a staged reading of his new play, with a movie-star cast that includes Lili Taylor, Obie winner Will Patton, David Urrutia, and Emily Cass McDonnell. Johnson describes Psychos as "a kind of warped love triangle among a prospector, a madwoman, and a murderous old hippie"; the reading, on February 12 at 8 p.m., is free. The Fine Arts Work Center is at 24 Pearl Street in Provincetown; call (508) 487-9960.

"SPEED, STYLE, AND BEAUTY: CARS FROM THE RALPH LAUREN COLLECTION." The Museum of Fine Arts takes a cue from MTV with an exhibit that scans like a cross between Pimp My Ride and Rich Girls. The exhibit brings 15 of Ralph’s "finest and rarest" vehicles (Bentleys, Bugattis, Porsches, Benz, Jaguars) to the MFA’s second-floor Gund Gallery, and another — a 1958 Ferrari 250 Testa-Rosa — to the West Wing lobby. It’s up March 6 through July 3. Tickets, issued for a specific date and time, are $22, and on sale now; call (617) 542-4MFA.

BATTLEWORKS. Choreographer Robert Battle’s troupe takes over the Zero Arrow Theatre, at Arrow Street and Massachusetts Avenue in Harvard Square, for a three-night run, March 18 through 20. Tickets are $30; call (617) 876-4275.