Patrick Brassell

Once the second half begins the acting becomes more subtle and the actors relax; they're not trying to imitate anything, they're creating characters we haven't seen before, and they can add their own touches to the roles.

Very slowly - though without losing his sense of humor - Baitz draws us deeper and deeper into the Wyeths' drama, and the further we go, the more intense it becomes, until you're absolutely certain no one's coming out of the evening alive.

Northwest Classical is amazingly good at cramming massive historical plays into their tiny Shoebox Theatre, and here director Elizabeth Huffman has worked miracles.

The play is uproarious throughout, McPherson finding ways to make the characters' desperation funny, but underneath there's a deep well of sadness that finally explodes toward the end.

Subtitles covering the signed and unspoken language are projected on the set, and rather than just translating the American Sign Language, the titles also react to music, gestures, and characrers' thoughts in a visually appealing way.

You will, at the end of the evening, be holding a ten-dollar bill that will become your ballot as you vote for one of the five approaches to ending poverty in Multnomah County..

It's a thoughtful script about Arab-American relations, a wacky comedy about a couple who invite another man into their sex life, and a dry look at how men and women view each other. And while each of these things is interesting, they make for very strange bedfellows...as do the three characters in the play.

John Kander and Fred Ebb may be the last practitioners of the old-fashioned show tune, the kind that gets you tapping your toes, cocking your ear, and smiling throughout.

This being a Durang play, the characters have offbeat opinions about everything under the sun, but there's anger and regret underneath the quips, and eventually the deeper emotions come to the surface.

Director/choreographer Jessica Wallenfels does a brilliant job of telling us what the story is, showing us where to look, and taking us into the minds of the characters with just a simple change of lighting.

When you walk into the theatre, you're greeted by ticket takers, ushers, and assorted others all in Dickensian costume, all sporting English accents; a young urchin who looked to be about eight tried to sell me a raffle ticket in a voice that came right out of Oliver Twist.

The Mystery of Irma Vep has a plot, but I'm not going to bother you with it. It's an excuse for groanworthy puns, asides to the audience, and a few thousand costume changes.

It's a hot-blooded, passionate account, with sex, partying, and lots of blood, and it takes a strong company to pull it off. Luckily, Northwest Classical is up to the challenge.

Buried under all the quips, banter, and snark is an interesting play, with a plot that could really be moving and funny if played right.

The show isn't awful. It borrows good ideas from better shows, mixes things up in a mildly charming way, and sells itself as family entertainment, though I can't imagine a lot of the under-16 set being amused by an Elvis sketch or a song about rehab.

Twist Your Dickens is two hours of sketch comedy using Dickens's tale as a very rough basic structure but going off in dozens of different directions, from parodies of classic holiday TV specials (A Charlie Brown Christmas gets banged around) to rewrites of familiar carols.

When Crumpet (the character's 'elf name') gets annoyed with the other elves, the children, and their parents, Pierce doesn't get bitchy; he goes into full Shakespearean revenge mode, plotting his vengeance like Iago, and it's all the funnier for that.

Actors adore Shakespeare and can't wait to share that love with the rest of us, and it brings out the zest in their acting. And who doesn't want to watch actors having fun?

Thelma and Jessie have a messy relationship, and there are a lot of questions both women have for each other. Some get answered and some don't.

At first we think they do not know each other - they have the strained politeness of strangers who are forced into a situation together - but gradually we see connections between them, and past arguments begin to spill out.