For an intimate, unadulterated theatrical experience, the Shoe Box Theater is one of the best spaces in town. With the players hardly more than a long arm’s reach from the audience, this isn’t the place to go for majestic sets or astounding special effects. Rather, it’s a space for absolute actor engagement and—as late director […]
TEMPLE LENTZ
Posted inTheater & Performance
Tales of Ordinary Madness
We’re all a little bit crazy, but isn’t that what makes life interesting? In CoHo Productions’ latest effort, Tales of Ordinary Madness, twentysomething slacker Peter (Brian Allard) is living evidence that truth is stranger than fiction. His blood-obsessed mother (Dalene Young) has taken to barking; his meek father (Michael Chambers) keeps trying to fit a […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
The Clean House
“Life is about context,” Lane tells her maid, Matilde, in Artists Rep’s production of The Clean House. “If I met you at a party… I might say you’re very interesting… but I don’t want an interesting person to clean my house.” A Pulitzer finalist, playwright Sarah Ruhl’s The Clean House is engaging, amusing, and blissfully […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Alaska
One of the fantastic things about dance is that it doesn’t require translation. The emotions expressed in a successful dance performance come through clearly, regardless of where the work is created or performed. Though a few of us Pacific Northwesterners might argue the accuracy of the reference, the Alaska of Argentinean choreographer Diana Szeinblum’s imagining […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
A Scandal in Bohemia
Bail on the office holiday party, put off going to see that lame blockbuster movie, and get down to the Shoe Box Theater for a completely genuine theater experience. A Scandal in Bohemia, a Sherlock Holmes story, is a mostly fast-paced, lighthearted romp of a show, delivered with absolutely no pretension or arrogance. From the […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
arose
Fever Theater at the Goldsmith Building Performance Lab
I could tell you what happens in Fever Theater’s arose, but it wouldn’t really matter. I can tell you that you’ll arrive not quite knowing what to expect. You’ll leave not quite knowing what you saw. And when you try to put words to it and figure it out, the only thing you’ll be able […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Mars on Life: The Holiday Edition
Artists Repertory Theatre
Attention all theater companies and performers: If you’ve been wondering why it’s so hard to recruit new, younger audiences to your shows; why theater as an art form has such a hard time being taken seriously; or even why reviewers get pissier when you put out light, airy puff pieces that miss the mark than […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Six Degrees of Separation
Profile Theatre at Theater! Theatre!
John Guare’s Six Degrees of Separation explores the race, class, and cultural tensions implicit in the fact that we’re all much more dependent on our little bubbles of isolation than we like to think we are. When Paul, a young black man, bursts into the lives of a rich white couple, he claims to know […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Mariela in the Desert
Miracle Theatre Group blazes into their 24th season with a pitch-perfect production of Mariela in the Desert, the Northwest premiere of the play by Karen Zacarías. This production, by turns enlightening, hilarious, and heart wrenching, is a joyous reminder that we are ridiculously fortunate to have the Miracle here in Portland. They produce newer work […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
House and Garden
House The Artists Repertory Theatre opened their 2007-2008 season with a real crowd-pleaser, sure to leave season ticket holders resting easy about their financial commitment to the arts. It’s fluffy stuff, engaging and fast-paced, with a hook that can’t help but impress: Alan Ayckbourn’s House/Garden consists of two interlocking plays, performed simultaneously by one cast […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Generic Hospital
Brody Theater at the Brody Studio
The Brody Theater’s Generic Hospital is a mess: a series of shuddering stutter-stops, missed cues, failed plot lines, and weak stabs at gimmickry. Successful improv is rooted in a troupe that trusts each other—yet at no point during this show do you get the sense that these guys would trust each other to get a […]
Posted inBooks
Shorts Are Wrong
by Mike Topp (Unbearable Books)
Thank god for the independent press, and thank god for poet Mike Topp. While mainstream poetry (if there is such a thing) remains the province of flowery phrases, musings about mother, and forgotten childhood as embodied by an idly swaying swing on the empty playground, the independent press reminds us that a kid probably fell […]