PORTLAND THEATER REVIEWS

THE UNDERTAKING and ART OF AGING PROJECT, two new pieces now in performance together as part of the 10th Anniversary Fertile Ground Festival, seek to spark a new conversation around aging and death, as well as provide space for seniors' voices....

Directed by Eric Tucker and with sets by John McDermott, Portland Center Stage's production of Kate Hamill's SENSE & SENSIBILITY is close to the Bedlam original....

Directed by Tea Alagic, Emma Stanton's NO CANDY reveals the power and fortitude of the human spirit. At times, it gave me chills. At times, it's also quite funny....

WITCH HUNT (featuring Sascha Blocker, Jeff Desautels, Amica Hunter, Emily Newton, and Maureen Porter), draws on Arthur Miller's The Crucible, along with the McCarthy hearings, the Federalist papers, the Puritan work ethic, and current events, to explore our cultural obsession with finger-pointing vi...

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TEENAGE DICK is a high school adaptation of Shakespeare's Richard III, a play about lust for power and revenge written during a time when a physical disability was thought to indicate a moral failing. There's a lot to unpack here, so to get straight to the point: Don't let the fact that it's set in ...

The national tour of THE KING AND I has all of the makings of a perfect classic musical production -- lavish sets, gorgeous costumes, excellent performances, and, of course, great music. But despite having the right ingredients, it doesn't quite rise to its full emotional potential....

IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE: A LIVE RADIO PLAY is a wonderful way to experience this time-honored classic -- great holiday fun for the whole family!...

This production of A CHRISTMAS CAROL is absolutely delightful. And somehow, it manages to still be surprising. If you're the type who's skeptical about holiday shows in general, do yourself a favor and give this one a chance....

A CHRISTMAS MEMORY/WINTER SONG is quiet and thoughtful -- a 90-minute break from the hecticity, when you can take a deep breath, relax, and enjoy some beautiful music while contemplating the joy and sorrow that come hand in hand during this season....

Lisa Kron's IN THE WAKE draws parallels between the personal and the political to suggest that even the most unimaginable outcomes aren't really that out there -- it's just that we're really bad at seeing past the end of our own nose....

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' EVERYBODY is not your normal holiday fare, but I highly recommend you find time in your busy schedule to see it...at least once....

It's that time of year again -- when the Cratchit family makes plans to murder Scrooge while he's on a journey back to the '80s with the Ghost of Christmas Past. Yep -- TWIST YOUR DICKENS is back at Portland Center Stage, irreverently skewering all that we hold dear about the holiday season....

A 1940S RADIO CHRISTMAS CAROL is a breath of fresh air. It allows you to slip briefly back to a time that, looking through today's lens, seems a little simpler....

Hand2Mouth Theatre's THE LAZARUS COMPLEX is part of a larger project by writer/creator Ben Moorad called 'Envelope of Suicides,' which was inspired by an envelope full of newspaper clippings about suicides and suicide attempts his grandfather collected between 1941 and 1948....

If you have time to see only one play this weekend, make it Anna Deveare Smith's FIRES IN THE MIRROR at Profile Theatre....

In Charlie O'Neill's HURL, a multi-ethnic hurling team, made of immigrants, aspiring immigrants, and children of immigrants from Africa, South America, Asia, and Eastern Europe, want to join the local athletic club and represent the county on the national level. But there's a problem -- they aren't ...

SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS is an ambitious, thought-provoking, heart-warming, and funny play about six people at a silent retreat....

Adam Bock's A LIFE, which was commissioned by Portland Center Stage, starts out with a lot of promise -- Nate, a man in his 50s, recently single and lonely, is contemplating what it's all about. But ultimately the show fails to land....

______ THE WOLF, a new devised piece now running at Shaking the Tree, draws on Little Red Riding Hood to explores how easy it is to become trapped in these familiar narratives, to be defined by your given role until you lose track of your own voice....

'Is it now? I thought I had more time.' That's Guy's first line in Will Eno's quietly profound play WAKEY, WAKEY, now on stage at Portland Playhouse. It gets straight to the core of many people's (me included) fear of death -- the fear that it may come before we're ready....

If a musical can heal the world, that musical is THE COLOR PURPLE -- specifically, the production now playing at Portland Center Stage. This star-studded production, headed by the luminous Felicia Boswell in the role of Celie, tells a story of empowerment that has probably never been more needed tha...

ORDINARY DAYS is a small musical -- four people, not much dialogue, a single piano, a sparse set -- but it's precisely this simplicity that allows the big picture to emerge. And that picture is extraordinary....

David Lindsay-Abaire's RIPCORD, now playing at Clackamas Repertory Theatre, is a madcap comedy with a dark side....

SKELETON CREW is a hard-hitting and deeply-moving play about people who are simply trying to survive in a world where the deck is stacked against them....