Closing This Week

Blue
Hand2Mouth concludes its late-summer run of the fascinating street spectacle Blue with a performance at Last Thursday on Alberta. 2215 NE Alberta, 235-5284, Thurs 7:30 pm

One: The Musical
A yoga practitioner and tea drinker, Sid Arthur gets discovered by music label bigwigs while playing at a peace demonstration. His songs are reminiscent of Lilith Fair circa 1994, but somehow these industry snakes think they can turn him into a star. A ditching of what's real for the seedy world of rock schmooze ensues, replete with lavish but incomprehensible dream sequences driven forward by a relentless stream of terrible songs with terrible melodies and lyrics. The sight of respectable local actors like Andrés Alcalá and Susannah Mars, and even writer/star Wade McCollum himself, energetically hurling themselves into lyrics like "there's always a sunrise in your eyes," makes One a nearly unbearable experience. JWS Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell, 234-0973, Thurs-Sat 8 pm, $20-35

Trust, Cab Chiaroscuro
The cofounder of Write Around Portland (WRAP), Ben Moorad is also a poet and solo performer. This new "verse show" incorporates images from William Blake's Gates of Paradise and features light design from defunkt's James Moore. Ogle, 310 NW Broadway, 232-2246, Fri-Sat 7 pm, $15

Current Runs

Dirty Story
Third Rail's production of this extended cartoon by John Patrick Shanley is an extremely tight, professional production with impeccable staging from director Slaydon Scott and some stellar performances, particularly from Michael O'Connell as an overstuffed cowboy named Frank, and Damon Kupper as his foppish British sidekick Watson. The play itself is a shockingly unoriginal satire befitting of a Saturday Night Live skit, filtered through the three-hour musings of a brilliant playwright. This strange elemental clash of informed intellectuality and knock-knock joke makes it oddly compelling, though not recommendable. JWS Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center, 5340 N Interstate, 235-1101, Thurs-Sat 8 pm, Sun 2 pm, through Oct. 8, $15-20

Silence
The inimitable Johnny Stallings presents a one-man show that isn't King Lear or Hamlet. On the contrary, Silence "explores the noise inside our heads and what happens when it falls silent." Brooklyn Bay, 1825 SE Franklin, Bay K, 241-9765, Fri-Sat 8 pm, EXTENDED, $15

Dreampuffs of Lorna
Set in a near-future of food scarcities and war, Stark Raving's Dreampuffs opens promisingly, but soon veers into artistic and intellectual irrelevance. Lorna is a single woman living alone with her cat, Mitzi. Her craving for authentic, unfiltered experience has led to a decision to join the army. Ignoring the objections of her mother, Ellie, and neighbor, Mr. Loveland, Lorna is determined to go fight in the war of "liberation." The first half of the play focuses on Lorna's impending departure, and exposes a sly sexual element in the relationship between Lorna and Mitzi, suggesting both the depth of Lorna's unhappiness and the extent to which people often anthropomorphize their pets. Act II, though, is a downward spiral into banality. AH Coho Theatre, 2257 NW Raleigh, 232-7072, Thurs-Sat 8 pm, Sun 7 pm, through Oct. 8, $10-20

Elliot, A Soldier's Fugue
Under the steady hand of artistic director Olga Sanchez, the rapidly improving Miracle kicks of their new season with Quiara Alegria Hudes' play about a military family in Philadelphia. The Miracle Theatre, 525 SE Stark, 236-7253, Thurs 7:30 pm, Fri-Sat 8 pm, Sun 2 pm, through Oct. 15, $16-20

The Hyacinth Macaw
defunkt theatre presents part two in its ongoing effort to produce all four installments of Mac Wellman's deliriously weird Crowtet series. Directed by Ben Plont. Back Door, 4321 SE Hawthorne, 481-2960, Thurs-Sat 8 pm, Sun 4 pm, through Oct. 22, $8-15

Comedy/Improv

Fiddy Cent's Back to School Shopping Spree
For their fifth installment of sketch comedy shows, the folks at Renob Control recruited funny Brody Theater alum Nate Halloran to direct. Back Door Theater, 4319 SE Hawthorne, 750-5363, Fri-Sat 10:30 pm, through Oct. 8, $7