scaled.Receptionist.jpg

There are two really great shows playing in town right now, featuring two outstanding performances by local actors: The Receptionist at Portland Center Stage, and American Buffalo at Third Rail Repertory, starring Sharonlee McLean and Tim True, respectively.

If you’ve been thinking about trying to see something, it’s probably not going to get any better this season than these two shows. I appreciate that theater tickets are expensive (I absolutely could not afford to go to most of the shows that I cover), but there are $20 rush tickets available for The Receptionist—show up early, and get in line, and if the show doesn’t sell out, you’re in. Plus, PCS isn’t stingy with the promotions, and they usually offer some sort of wacky deal (I suggest following them on Twitter, if you’re into that, and you can find more ticket info here). Third Rail, well, I can’t help you much there—tickets are $22-29 (more info here). I’ll have a full, gushing review in next week’s Mercury, but for now I’ll leave you with this: Arguably Portland’s finest theater company, one of Portland’s best actors, one of David Mamet’s best plays… I’d say it’s worth it.

I’d be particularly interested to hear people’s thoughts on The Receptionist—I thought it was great, obviously, enjoyed the performances and the script (my full review is here), but there are a handful of comments from irate subscribers on PCS’ blog who found it boring, overrated, and a “fluff of nothing with a ‘message’ tacked on the end.” (Avoid that link if you’re afraid of spoilers, and in this case you should be.) Of course, if you made a Venn Diagram of myself in relation to your average PCS subscriber, the only area of overlap would come at the theater itself… Anyone here seen it?

Alison Hallett served nobly as the Mercury's arts editor from 2008-2014. Her proud legacy lives on.

7 replies on “Theater You Should See.”

  1. The problem as I see it is that theater is competing with Three Buck Beer Movies.
    It really is a cost thing. Or if I want to see live people, there’s plenty of stuff in the $10 range. But then… I’m not the demographic for Theatre; not enough explosions.

  2. I’d agree with Graham. There’s a real glut of small-time theater companies at the moment (that anyone whose anyone seems to be involved with).

    So if I’m going to see something live, I’ll probably just see one of those and maybe score some friend points in the process. Plus you’re more likely to see the cast at the bar afterwards, which is a plus.

  3. What’re some of the smaller companies you’re more likely to see? I definitely agree that there’s worthwhile stuff happening on a small scale, but in terms of say, set design, or anything technical, really, you’re probably not going to find anything better than what Portland Center Stage can afford to do. Ditto the performances, though I’d use Third Rail’s company as an example in that case. There’s something to be said for paying your actors and all that.

  4. Yeah, I’ve seen some fantastic shows from Third Rail. With the the level of quality combined with the medium-ish size of the venue, I don’t blame them for their ticket prices at all. At the same time, I only saw them in the first place because a friend who had a subscription was out of town and sent some tickets my way.

    I’ve really liked stuff from (the?) Working Theater Collective, but mostly their experimental weekend only type things. Which is probably not helpful.

  5. I’ve only seen one of their shows, and it sort of made me want to die, but I should give them another shot, now that they’ve been around a while. They’re incredibly prolific and seem to have a ton of energy, which is great to see.

Comments are closed.