Opening This Week
Variations on Measure for Measure The brillian critic, playwright, and actor Charles Marowitz comes to Portland to mount this provacative version of Shakespeare's play in which a virgin must choose between deflowering or her brother's life. TYGRES HEART SHAKESPEARE COMPANY
One Week Only
Lady M
See Music Bio (p 21). HOLLYWOOD THEATER, 4122 NE Sandy Blvd, 281-4215, Thur-Sat, 8 pm, $12
* Menopausal Gentleman
53-year-old Peggy Shaw burns up the stage in this one lesbo-show. She dresses like a swaggering Sinatra, riffs on the differences between the sexes, and waxes poetic on the varied vagaries of menopause. Proceeds benefit the Lesbian Community Project. DO JUMP AT THE ECHO THEATER, 1515 SE 37th Ave, 224-8499, Fri-Sat, $17.50
Not I
Samuel Beckett's minimalist meditation on human futility. FIR ACRES THEATRE, LEWIS & CLARK COLLEGE, 0615 SW Palatine Hill Rd, 768-7495, Thurs-Sat, 8 pm, call for ticket prices
The Velocity of Gary
Former child star Danny Pintauro brings his one-person show to Portland, in which a male hustler confronts his life. TRIANGLE PRODUCTIONS! AT THEATER! THEATRE!, 3430 SE Belmont St, 239-5919, Thur-Sat, 8 pm, $18
Current Runs
The Beauty Queen of Leenane
An incessantly bickering mother-daughter duo lives in poverty in Leenane, a tiny town in Ireland. ARTISTS REPERTORY THEATER, 1516 SW Alder St, 241-1278, Sun, Tues-Thurs, through Oct 15, $13.50, 241-1ART
A Careless Rage for Life
A theatrical biography of British mystery writer and Dante translator Dorothy L. Sayers. TAPESTRY THEATRE COMPANY AT THE LITTLE THEATER, PCC-SYLVANIA, 12000 SW 49th Ave, 452-0818, Fri-Sat, 8 pm, through Oct 14, $10-$12
The Duck Variations
A creditable job on David Mamet's brief, two-character play about friends meeting in a park and using the ducks they observe as metaphors for life. ASYLUM THEATRE, AT THE RUSSELL STREET THEATER, 116 NE Russell St, 775-4324, Fri-Sat, through Oct. 14, $8
Life is a Dream
Pedro Calderon de la Barca's play from the 1600s embraces magical realism as it tells of kings and imprisoned heirs. MIRACLE THEATER, 525 SE Stark St, 236-7253, Fri-Sat, 8 pm, through Oct 14, $12-16
* Middlemove
The Brody Theater's fifth season opens with this improv evening in which audience suggestions are used to start scenes in media res. BRODY THEATER, 1904 NW 27th Ave, 224-0688, Fri-Sat, 8 pm, through Oct 21, $8
* No Exit
Imago revives its popular and award-winning 1998 production of Jean-Paul Sartre's play about Hell being other people. IMAGO THEATER, 17 SE 8th Ave, 231-9581, Thurs-Sun, through Oct 15, $14-16
Paint Your Wagon
Lerner and Loewe's musical about a marriage triangle in the old Northwest. MUSICAL THEATER COMPANY, EASTSIDE PERFORMANCE CENTER, 531 SE 14th Ave, 916-6592, Fri-Sun, through Oct 15, $16-$28
* Popcorn
British comedian-turned-playwright Ben Elton has fashioned a tale of a Quentin Tarantino-style film director who, on Oscar night, is confronted with characters inspired by his violent movies. Though not as intellectually challenging as it could have been, the play is funny, and the cast of this production does it justice. THEATRE VERTIGO AT THE RUSSELL STREET THEATER, 116 NE Russell St, 306-0870, Thurs-Sun, ends Oct 15, $10-12
The Tinker's Wedding and In the Shadow of the Glen
Paula Productions commences its 14th season with two short plays by John Millington Synge, the first about a wedding day squabble among traveling gypsies, the second a Ryan's Daughter-style tale of a May-September marriage. PAULA PRODUCTIONS, AT THE JACK OAKES THEATER, 2820 NE Sandy Blvd, 238-9692, Thur-Sat, 8 pm, through Oct 28, $10
THE WOODS David Mamet's play about two lovers who use a weekend getaway to learn about each other. DEFUNKT THEATRE, AT THE BACK DOOR THEATER, 4319 SE Hawthorne Blvd, 235-8779, Thur-Sat, 8 pm, Sun, 4 pm, through Oct 21, $5-15
