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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (April 6, 2007)
on stage Artists Repertory Theatre presents The Retreat frOm Moscow, a nuanced tale of domestic heart break about a quiet history teacher who wants out of his 34-year marriage to a theatrical poet, through April 29. Old pros Keith Scales and JoAnn Johnson, together with new comer Alex Moggridge, craft a particular elegance from the intimate, real-time moments of this private tragedy. Little new is revealed, but there are unspoken truths. (Call for times. 1516 SW Alder St. $15-$42 50 from 503-241-1278.) Arts Equity presents The Long Voyage Home, Eugene O'Neill's four one-acts about an ethnically diverse group of sailors, through April 22. (7:30 pm Thursday-Saturday, 2 pm April 22. 606 Main St., Vancouver, Wash. $8-$24 from 360-695-3770.) Blue Monkey Theater Company presents The Wrestling Season, an intense physical and emotional play set within the powerful arena of high school wrestling, where eight students struggle with the destructive power of rumors, through April 7 at West End Theater. (7 pm. 1220 SW Taylor St $10-$20 from 503-777-4506.) The Bluestockings presents Other Women, gay playwright Jonn Jorgensen's stage monologues celebrating fascinating, frank, funny and furious females who defy convention, extended through April 15 at Theater Theatre. What works so well here is how refreshingly underplayed these sophisticated women's monologues are, each delivered with tender restraint rooted in one-to- one reality with a strong sense of feminine individuality. (Call for times. 3430 SE Belmont St. $12-$ 15 from 503-274-9309; Thursdays are “pay what you will.") The Bluestockings presents The Fall of the House, a serialized soap opera with ongoing bi and lesbian storylines, with a new episode each week through April 14 at Theater Theatre. Like a good soap opera, this theater of the ad lib is addictive. Individually, everything's fairly collegiate with a semi-scripted pace that's sometimes stop-and-go. But collectively, a cast of fresh faces delivers engaging characters with honest emotions and spontaneous charm. Here’s hoping the series gets picked up for another season. (9:30 pm Thursdays, 10:30 pm Fridays and Saturdays. 3430 SE Belmont St. $10 from 503-274-9309; Thursdays are “pay what you will. “) BroadArts Theatre presents a quirky urban-folk rock 'n' roll musical spiraling around 40 WonderBroads: The Babes and Broads Who Broke the Rules April 13-May 5 at Rose City Park Presbyterian Church. (8 pm Friday and Saturday, 2 pm Sunday. 1907 NE 45th Ave. $18-$22 from 503-288-5181.) Duke Productions presents Gonzo—A Brutal Chrysalis, a raw, unflinching and intimate look at the life of Hunter S. Thompson during the critical and catalytic years between 1968 and 1971, April 18-28 at various venues. (Call for times and locations. $10-$ 15 from www.gonzoduke.com.) Ferris Wheel Productions presents The Star- Spangled Girl, Neil Simon's hilarious play about two young educated roommates who struggle earnestly to publish a liberal political magazine with a beautiful blond conservative from the South living next door, through April 21 at Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center. (Call for times. 5340 N Interstate Ave. $21 at the door, $17 in advance from 503-616-4791.) Hand2Mouth Theatre presents Repeat After Me, one part karaoke sing-along gone wrong, one part dance theater and one part nightmare to get at the heart of what it means to be an American, April 12-29 at Goldsmith Performance Lab. (8 pm Thursday-Sunday. 20 NW Fifth Ave $10-$ 15 slid ing scale from 503-235-5284.) Imago Theatre ends the 20-year run of Frogz, perhaps the most famous show to originate from Oregon, through April 29. (Call for times. 17 SE Eighth Ave. $16-$27 from 503-231-9581.) A son plays scorekeeper, goalpost and referee between his fending parents in The Retreat from Moscow through April 29 at Artists Rep. Lakewood Theatre Company presents Arcadia, Tom Stoppard's play about a country house's mysterious links to poet Lord Byron, through April 7. More than three hours of poky trivial erudition, rather than sprightly mind-bending detective games. (Call for times. 368 S State St., Lake Oswego. $23-$25 from 503-635-3901.) Lirninal Performance Group presents The Theory of Love, a traveling multimedia lecture opera proving conclusively that everyone's favorite emotion is more than mere hypoth esis, April 13-29 at various venues. (8 and 10 pm Friday and Saturday, 8 pm Sunday. Call for locations. $8 $ 15 sliding scale from 503-890-2993 or www liminalgroup.org.) Minh Tran ft Company presents Forgotten Memories, the gay choreographer's fusion of traditional Asian and con temporary Western techniques, through April 7 at Wonder Ballroom. (7:30 pm Friday, 7:30 and 9 pm Saturday. 128 NE Russell St. $20-$22 from box office or Ticketmaster) Miracle Theatre Group presents Rosalba y los Llaveros, a Spamsh-language comedy of manners in which a defi ant young woman tries to "liberate" her cousins from their provincial lives, through April 28. English superti- ________________ i ties at all shows except opening night and Saturdays. (7:30 pm Thursday, 8 pm Friday and Saturday, 2 pm Sunday. Thursday, Friday and Sunday starting April 8. 525 SE Stark St. $15-$ 18 from 503-236-7253.) ’ New Century Players presents Fatal Passage, a dinner theater murder mystery aboard a trans- Atlantic ocean liner, April 20-28 at The Ainsworth House. Formal dress encouraged. (6:30pm Friday and Saturday 19130 Lot Whitcomb Drive, Oregon City. $40 from 503-367-2620.) Hollywood Theatre screens an early concert from The B-52's on April 18. eatingout eatingout eating out Northwest Children's Theater presents William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet through April 15 at Northwest Neighborhood Cultural Center. (Call for times. 1819 NW Everett St. $16- $20 from 503-222-4480.) eatingout — MK. MOTO RICE BOX MENTION THIS AD FOR 10% OFF! healthy asian food 503-221-3045 <” ne in or out 413 NW 21st Ave. • Portland, OR 97209 (BETWEEN FLANDERS & GLISAN www.pQrtlandwings.com PassinArt: A Theatre Company presents Medal of Honor Rag, an absorbing play that provides a view into what happens when many of our brave men and women return from war and seek help to move on with their lives, through April 14 at CoHo Theater. (8 pm Friday-Sunday. 2257 NW Raleigh St. $17 at the door, $12-$15 in advance from 503-321-5163.) Portland Center Stage presents Fences, August Wilson's Pulitzer and Tony winner exploring the African-American experience in mid-20th century America, April 13-May 6 in Gerding Theater at the Armory. (Call for times. 128 NW 11th Ave. $28-$59.50 from 503-445-3700.) Portland Center Stage presents Bad Dates, a one-woman show about a single working mother who manages an upscale Manhattan restaurant and decides to start dating again, April 20-June 10 in Gerding Theater at the Armory. (Call for times 128 NW 11th Ave $21.50-$41.50 from 503-445-3700.) Portland Opera's Broadway Across America presents The Light in the Piazza, a musical set in the summer of 1953 about a North Carolina woman's determined efforts to prevent her daughter's romance with a high-spirited Florentine, April 10-15 at Keller Auditorium. (Call for times 222 SW Clay St. $23-$70 from Ticketmaster.) Portland Story Theater presents Always Say Yes!— a collection of stories about going with the flow, staying open to possibilities and embracing life as it comes to us- -through April 14 at Brooklyn Bay Performance Space. (8 pm Friday and Saturday 1825 SE Franklin St. $15 from 503-793-5484; includes one complimentary beverage and light snacks.) Profile Theatre Project continues its Wendy Wasserstein season with The Sisters Rosensweig, a night of bickering and bonding among siblings on a search for love, self-definition and fulfill ment—whether it's with a gay man, as a Jewish woman in a WASP world or by seeking out a pair of designer heels—through April 22 at Theater Theatre. This is a well- crafted, polished production with a comforting sheen of tradition reflecting the hard lessons of happiness and fulfillment. Performances are compassionate, maturely drawn—and often very funny—from a uniformly generous and keenly composed ensemble (especially Barbara Kerr's genuinely complex Sara and Shelly Lipkin's disarming Mervyn, not to mention Leif Norby strutting around in eating o ut eatingout eatingout boxers). (8 pm Thursday-Saturday, 2 pm Sunday. 3430 SE Belmont St. $10-$28 from 503-242-0080 ) Profile Theatre Project continues its Wendy Wasserstein season with a staged reading of Old Money, a farcical look at the past and present as old and new money collide in a historic Manhattan townhouse, April 8-18 at Theater Theatre. (7 pm Sunday-Wednesday. 3430 SE Belmont St. $10-$15 from 503-242-0080.) Readers Theatre Repertory imports original one-acts with New Plays from the New South April 13 and 14 at Blackfish Gallery. (8 pm. 420 NW Ninth Ave $8 from 503-295-4997 ) Readers Theatre Repertory presents the West Coast premiere of Address Unknown, the story of a German Jew and a German gentile separated by an ocean, divid ed by world politics and devastated by moral choices, April 20-29 at Brunish Hall. (Call for times. 1111 SW Broadway. $11.50-$23.50 from TicketsWest.) Slocum House Theatre presents Vanities, a bittersweet comedy that chronicles the divergent lives of three Texas girls, April 20-May 13. (8 pm Friday and Saturday. 4 pm Sunday 605 Esther St, Vancouver, Wash $8$ 10 from 360-696-2427.) Third Eye Theatre presents Sam Shepherd's Pulitzer Prize-winning Buried Child, through April 14 at Back Door Theatre. Like its Midwestern gothic storyline, this production has traces of hope, but Shepherd's underlying tension is thinned and the tone is flat. What's missing is compulsion: What ties these people here and now, saying what they're saying—or, more importantly, forcing them to remain silent and immobile? (8 pm Thursday-Saturday, 2 pm Sunday. 4319 SE Hawthorne Blvd. $15$ 18 from 503-970-8874 ) The Tragedies Theatre Company presents Beyond the Fringe, a legendary British comedy revue featuring sketches about capital punishment, schmaltzy World War II propaganda, stupid people in the media, royalty, Shakespeare and weapons of mass destruction, April 12-May 5 at Village Ballroom. (8 pm Thursday-Saturday. 700 NE Dekum St. $10 from 503-367-2100, opening night is “pay what you will.") Reviewed hy T imothy K rause or W inston GOODBODY. Read more and comment at followspot. blogspot .com. eatingout eating out
