Performance Search
BREAK
Fri., Nov. 20, 8 & 11 p.m.Current Runs
Playwright J. Stephen Brantley, a native Texan turned New Yorker, presents a short work in which a drug addict breaks into the home of an upward English ex-pat on a Long Island night. In other words, backgrounds collide. Also, commonalities are exposed. Brantley is a graduate of NYU's Experimental Theatre Wing and his play, Distortion Taco: Analog Hunger in a Digital World was named a Village Voice Pick of the Year by Eric Bogosian. $5 (suggested)
More Bange For Your Buck
Fri., Nov. 20, 8 p.m.Comedy/Improv
Christopher Bange is a Seattle-based, classically trained magician, clown, and actor (schooled at the International School of Physical Theater in Northern California). Excited reviews from his recent tour of the Canadian Fringe circuit suggest that his lightning-quick hands will make your skepticism about magic shows disappear. $15
Fool for Love
Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Continues through Nov. 21Current Runs
Fool for Love unfolds in a dingy motel room on the edge of a desert in the American West, a landscape of limitless possibilities whose characters are nonetheless trapped... by their own feelings. Former lovers May (Val Landrum) and Eddie (Chris Harder) face off one last, no-holds-barred night of fighting and recrimination. That Landrum and Harder have a palpable chemistry might be due to their off-stage relationship—the two are married "in real life," though it's safe to assume their offstage relationship is more functional than the one here, in a pair of tremendous performances, described. AH $25
ExpecTUtion
Through Nov. 21, 8 p.m.Dance
KO&Co.'s upcoming dance performance promises to be unique.
$12-15
Mortified
Nov. 21, 8:30 p.m.Comedy/Improv
People like you read from their embarrassing teenage diaries.
$10/$12
Nosferatu
Fridays, Saturdays, 10 p.m. Continues through Nov. 21
503-927-5699Current Runs
Atomic Arts launched themselves onto the radar of Portland's nerd cognoscenti (we are legion) with last summer's Trek in the Park, an unexpectedly fresh, funny live adaptation of the Star Trek episode "Amok Time." For their sophomore production, an adaptation of the 1922 silent film Nosferatu, the ensemble offers a straightforward treatment of their material, avoiding horror-movie kitsch and opting instead for a restrained take on the film's bloodsucking subject. The result is considerably more somber than the lighthearted Trek—but clocking in at just over an hour, the show is short enough that its weaknesses (largely, amateurish acting and an uncertain tone) never really begin to grate. AH $15
We Bombed in New Haven
Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Continues through Nov. 21Current Runs
Joseph Heller's We Bombed In New Haven only sounds like a play about flunking out of Yale. In fact it picks up where Catch-22 left off, huddling in the trenches of an absurd war. This time around, an army captain is ordered to bomb Constantinople and Minnesota. Say what? (No show on October 31st.) $12
Bandage a Knife
Fridays, Saturdays, 9 p.m. and Thursdays-Sundays, 7 p.m. Continues through Nov. 22Dance
Linda Austin (co-director, choreographer, and performer) leads a multi-media dance performance loosely inspired by Seiun Suzuki's 1967 cult classic Koroshi no Rakuin (Branded to Kill). The quotient of sexed-up Japanese noir retained is left as a surprise. (Seating is limited and intimate at the 26-chair Performance Works NW space.) $10-$15
Ben Franklin: Unplugged
Tuesdays-Sundays, 7:30 p.m. Continues through Nov. 22Current Runs
One morning, performer Josh Kornbluth looked in the mirror to realize he'd come to resemble none other than founding father Benjamin Franklin—and thus, a monologue was born. Kornbluth's show serves as both a crash course in Ben Franklin's family life, and a glimpse into Korbluth's own history as well. But rare is the monologue that can justify demanding an audience's attention for two hours, and rarer still the monologist who can deliver it.The monologue strings together several plotlines that tie together neatly, if unsurprisingly, at the show's conclusion—the payoff, when it comes, is too predictable to justify the two hours preceding it. And the writing, while occasionally funny, is more often the sort of bland wackiness usually relegated to weekend public radio shows.
Everyone Who Looks Like You
Thursdays-Sundays, 8 p.m. Continues through Nov. 22Current Runs
Hand2Mouth's Everyone Who Looks Like You is a freefall through childhood memories and adult perceptions, a collage of movement, sound, and sentiment that explores the dimensions of family life. But for all the clarity and humor the show offers, there's a fair amount of noisy, grating chaos as well; by the end of the just-too-long show, Everyone's backward focus feels both cloying and claustrophobic. AH $15
Fat and Sassy II: One Size Fits
Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. and Sundays, 2 p.m. Continues through Nov. 22Current Runs
The fat empowerment movement takes to the stage, with a musical about "women of substance, and who's getting rich off America getting fat." Thursday & Friday shows will take place at the Rose City Presbyterian Hall at 44th & Sandy. $10-12
Henry IV Part II
Thursdays-Saturdays, 7 p.m. and Sundays, 2 p.m. Continues through Nov. 23Current Runs
The Northwest Classical Theatre Company goes sequel crazy! Henry IV Part II is the Bard-tastic conclusion to the Bard-a-licious Henry IV Part I, performed in the park last summer by NWCTC and Portland Actors Ensemble. The narrative picks up with Henry IV wracked with guilt and on the edge of losing it all (kingdom, family and health are teetering). Meanwhile, Prince Hal (Henry V) slides closer to the throne, and his sidekick Falstaff makes joke after heartfelt joke. The comedy is Bard-rageous! $18
Hopeless
Fridays, Saturdays, 8 p.m. and Sundays, 3 p.m. Continues through Nov. 22Current Runs
Melanya Helene's one-woman adaptation of the writings of American Buddhist nun Pema Chodron. She performs stories, songs, and "moments of profound stillness" that meditate on the theme of not getting what you want, and giving up wisely. Helene is the artistic director of The Brooklyn Bay, and co-creator of Play after Play children's theater. $15
The Order of Ostara & That Party Crashin' Pervert
Thursdays-Sundays, 8-10 p.m. Continues through Nov. 22Current Runs
The press release for this play, "a dramatic representation of Easter 1954," includes no description, only a warning of the "Shock & Awe, Strobe Light, Violence, Lewd Behavior, Drinking & Nudity" contained therein, which is really a description unto itself. $10-$20 (November 22nd show is pay what you can)
Puppetz Vs. People™
Sat., Nov. 28, 8 p.m.Comedy/Improv
In Puppets Vs. People, the comedians from ComedySportz battle the hand-imated creatures from Tears of Joy Theater in an improvisational decathlon in which neither wooden heads, working eyes, or extra z's can be claimed as an advantage. The winner will be the species that can tell the best family-friendly jokes to an auditorium of people expecting hilarious enchantmentz. $16
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