Hawthorne actively resists the squeaky-clean, quirky-dumb depiction of Portland seen, you know, everywhere. Credit: PAT MORAN

Hawthorne actively resists the squeaky-clean, quirky-dumb depiction of Portland seen, you know, everywhere.

Hawthorne actively resists the squeaky-clean, quirky-dumb depiction of Portland seen, you know, everywhere. PAT MORAN

There’s a particular subcategory featuring flawed, hard-boiled lady detectives and/or spies that’s lighting up teevees across the country right now—praise be to The Fall‘s Detective Superintendant Stella Gibson, Marvel’s Jessica Jones, Homeland‘s Carrie Mathison, and OG Detective Olivia Benson. So it was only a matter of time before Action/Adventure Theatre, purveyors of youthful theater that appeals to those of us who watch too much Netflix (THESE THINGS EXIST!), entered the fray with their latest, the Portland-set Hawthorne, featuring antiheroine private investigator Anne Winters (Zoe Rudman). And I’m so happy they did. (I may have said “YAY” as soon as I saw the synopsis. I may have.)

Though it’s noticeably slower than Action/Adventure’s typical offerings, which are often kinetic verging on mercurial, Hawthorne has a lot going for it.