Martin McDonagh’s The Lonesome West occurs in a squalid shack inhabited by two feuding brothers in a small, troubled Irish town. Valene (John Steinkamp) is neurotic, greedy, selfish, and anal-retentive. Coleman (Tim True) is sloppy, broke, conniving, and crass. The mixture is volatile. Their father’s dead by shotgun at play’s outset, but both are too […]
Justin W. Sanders
Posted inFeature
Making the Grade
The Mercury Food Issue Checks In with Old Standbys
Making the Grade
Posted inUncategorized
Mediterranean Moxie
Blue Olive Stands Out on Fremont
The upper-40s blocks of NE Fremont are like a microcosm of the greater Portland area. You’ve got your hardware store for the crafters, your coffee shops for the stubbly intellects, your Pier 1-esque knickknack outlets and yuppie microbrewery for the Pearlies, and Stanich’s for the PBR-guzzling, burger-chewing retro-throwback set. With all that hubbub, it’s easy […]
Posted inArt
Han, Solo
Charles Ross’ One-Man Star Wars Trilogy
All manner of nerd jokes aside, Charles Ross’ theatrical achievements are astounding, and not just because the Canadian actor performs a one-man stage adaptation of ALL THREE original Star Wars films, and not just because he executes this task in ONE HOUR. No, what’s really impressive about Ross’ stunt is the reception it’s received: a […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Like I Say
Over the years, local fringe stalwarts defunkt theatre (lowercase and bad spelling intentional) and Theatre Vertigo have evolved in different directions. defunkt has become small and tight, with a four-person member base as skilled in the technical aspects of the craft as the performative. Meanwhile, Theatre Vertigo has blown up, somehow compiling an impressive list […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Silent Pill
Game-to-Film Adaptation Tough to Swallow
The premise of Silent Hill, the videogame, is excellent in its simplicity: Your character, a man, awakens from a car accident in a small, creepy-as-hell ghost town. There’s mist everywhere, and hideous, groaning things that attack from the ground and sky. Your daughter’s missing as well, and as you wander the town, clues to her […]
Posted inUncategorized
Gone Mashin’
New Brewpub Finds its Groove
I had planned on reviewing Mash Tun months ago, closer to its opening, but at that time its brewing equipment was defunct, looming sadly in the corner, shiny and new and inoperative. Now it’s up and running, and Mash Tun can stand proud by its status as a “brewpub.” In the few months that have […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Barred Bard
A Cast of Convicts Puts on Shakespeare
In a key scene in Hank Rogerson’s documentary, Shakespeare Behind Bars, play director Curt Tofteland pauses rehearsal to dwell on a line from Shakespeare’s The Tempest: “The rarer action is virtue than vengeance.” At Kentucky’s Luther Luckett Correctional Complex, this sentence can be seen as commentary on actions the inmates have taken to arrive at […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Frozen
With Frozen, Artists Repertory Theatre (ART) has gotten its hands on a great play. British playwright Bryony Lavery tells the story of a child serial killer, Ralph (Keith Scales); an American psychologist, Agnetha (Karen Trumbo); and the mother of one of Ralph’s victims who believes she has the strength to forgive him, Nancy (Linda Williams […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Hit Me in the Stomach
Carol Triffle—the lady half of Imago—created Hit Me in the Stomach, a dreamlike assemblage of loopy characters and conversational non sequiturs garnered from observations she made in a casino. A fully functional automatic garage door combined with fake grass and aluminum siding creates the prototypical suburban scenario: folks kicking it in their driveway. Jackie (Danielle […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Benumbed
Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center, 5340 N Interstate, 774-0997, 8 pm April 7-9, 2 pm April 9, $10-12
Modern Dance is an art form struggling to find audiences, in Portland, and all over. It is, at its core, a wordless mode of expression, primal, and frequently alienating to viewers saturated by email, text messages, and American Idol. I don’t profess to know the solution to this dilemma, but I’m happy to report that […]