Iron Anthem Theatre at Theater! Theatre!, 3430 SE Belmont, 238-7680, Thurs-Sat 8 pm, through Sept. 25, $15 Set entirely in a Scottish prison, Rona Munro’s Iron centers around Fay (Lorraine Bahr), a woman who killed her husband with a knife and is paying the price with a life sentence. One day, 15 years after the […]
Justin Wescoat Sanders
Posted inTheater & Performance
Miss Saigon’s Big-Ass Helicopter
Miss Saigon’s Big-Ass Helicopter Keller Auditorium, SW 3rd & Clay, 790-ARTS, one week only, September 7-11 @ 7:30 pm, Sept 12 @ 1 & 6:30 pm, $23-64 Miss Saigon is billed as an epic musical about two lovers torn apart during the 1975 American evacuation of Saigon during the Vietnam War. I saw the show […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Richard Foreman Mini-Festival
Richard Foreman Mini-Festival Performance Works NW, 4625 SE 67th, 777-1907, August 20-21, 8 pm, $15-30 Theater is a thrashing thing, an ancient life form that perpetually struggles to survive/stay relevant in the current entertainment ecosystem. But even decades ago, before it had to compete with films and computers and video games and televised poker tournaments, […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Shakespearean Death
Love’s Labor Lost Lynchwood Park, 170th & SE Haig, 467-6573 (parks change weekly), Sat-Sun 3 pm, through Sept 6, free The Portland Actor’s Ensemble’s annual outdoor Shakespeare production, Love’s Labor Lost, is currently making the rounds at Portland’s parks. Lost is a whimsical comedy about a group of noblemen who form a cult devoted to […]
Posted inNews
Junk’s Last Chance
Justin Sanders Discovers a Delicate Ecosystem of Addicted Shoppers and Crap at the Goodwill Bins
We’re on the telephone, so I can’t see Scrappers’ face–but I imagine if I could, his eyes would be darting to and fro and his nostrils would be flaring. “I tried to break away,” he hisses. “I tried to go back to school this last term. But I just couldn’t wait for summer break so […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
The Best of the Best Sketch Fest
The Best of the Best Sketch Fest Artists Repertory Theater, 1516 SW Alder, 258-1681, Fri-Sat 8-midnight, $8 single ticket, $28 four-show pass, $54 festival pass Sketch comedy is the thing that doesn’t quite fit in. It’s not exactly theater, but it’s definitely not improv either. We like to say it’s like Saturday Night Live, but […]
Posted inNews
The Deepest Fear
There Is No Worse Way To Go Than Drowning
It dawned on me when I was 10 years old that drowning is the most terrible way to die. And it happened in the movie theater, watching James Cameron’s The Abyss. In the first scene a nuclear sub crashes underwater and the entire crew drowns with horrific realism; I was in tears. I realize other […]
Posted inMovies & TV
The Movie-Kid Mold
Valentin Battles Formula, Loses
Valentin dir. Agresti Opens Fri June 18 Various Theaters Valentin (Rodrigo Noya) is a movie character with whom we are well acquainted: a precocious, abnormally intelligent eight-year-old whose joyously naive plans and dreams make the adults in his life seem like dreary, embittered dullards. In the hands of writer/director Alejandro Agresti, this cliche premise is […]
Posted inArt
Fall Arts Guide!
Art! Theater! Books! Ego! It’s all here.
illustrations by Carson Ellis Animals typically hibernate in the wintertime, but not the wild, raging beast that is the Portland fine arts scene. That crazy creature sleeps during the summer. While you’re flocking to your “barbecues” and your little “picnics,” and sucking back your little “PBRs” (still Portland’s #1 domestic beer!), the fine arts scene […]