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Culture

Weekend!Arts

The Portland Tribune, Feb 22, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Joe Bolenbaugh (left) is humble roadie to Scotty Iseri in Fall Guy’s “The Big Rock Show.”

COMEDY

‘The Big Rock Show’

The only thing wrong with Fall Guy Theatre’s “Big Rock Show” is that it’s only here for one more weekend.

Oregon native Scotty Iseri has been doing this extended comedy sketch for years in his adopted Chicago and around the country, and it is both smoothly polished and hilariously fresh.

Think of those charming ditties Adam Sandler used to do on SNL (“Lunchlady Land,” “The Chanukah Song”), except brainier and more activist-minded. Sort of Jon Stewart meets Billy Bragg.

Throw in a comical roadie sidekick (played beautifully by Fall Guy regular Joe Bolenbaugh) and some hilariously cheesy special effects, and you’ve got a knockout combination of insurgent politics, winning humor and real musicianship. This is a great show.

— Eric Bartels

9 p.m. FRIDAY and SATURDAY, Feb. 22-23, Theater Theatre, 3430 S.E. Belmont St., 503-223-4240, www.fallguytheatre.com $10

‘Meet Your ______!’

Super Project Lab continues its run of this late-night improv event in which local luminaries, working off suggestions from the audience, get riffing with the help of SPL’s talented septet of comics.

This weekend features a sports-mad menu, with local columnist Ryan White tipping it off tonight and Blazer colorman Mike Rice mopping up on Saturday.

— EB

10:30 p.m. FRIDAY and SATURDAY, Feb. 22-23, Gerding Theater at the Armory, Studio Stage, 128 N.W. 11th Ave., 503-445-3700, www.superprojectlab.com $10

‘Monologic’

The Brody Theater gets its season of improv theater under way with a long-form event in which the audience selects a theme for the evening and cast members spin fiction out of actual stories from their lives.

— EB

8 p.m. SATURDAY, through March 8, Brody Theater Studio, 3314 S.W. First Ave., 503-224-0688, www.brodytheater.com $10, $7 with student ID

THEATER

‘Tales of Ordinary Madness’

Dumped by his girlfriend, 20-something slacker Peter swills beer and shuffles about observing the odd behaviors of his friends and family.

It doesn’t seem like much of a setup, but Czech playwright Petr Zlenka’s quirky comedy evolves into a compelling story that disguises itself cleverly before landing some pretty good punches.

CoHo Productions gets winning performances from Michael Chambers and Lauren Bair; Dalene Young is scary good as Peter’s crumbling mother. This is the final weekend.

— EB

8 p.m. FRIDAY and SATURDAY, Feb. 22-23, CoHo Theater, 2257 N.W. Raleigh St., 503-220-2646, www.cohoproductions.org, $20-$23

‘Dead of Winter’

Lurking behind this evening of ghost stories is local playwright Steve Patterson, whose collaboration with actor Chris Harder led to a Drammy-winning one-man show in 2006.

Here, he presents three well-crafted tales that produce some genuinely chilling moments, helped by solid performances from Ben Plont and Trisha Egan and some simple but effective stage trickery. This is the final weekend.

— EB

8 p.m. FRIDAY and SATURDAY, Feb. 22-23, Performance Works NorthWest, 4625 S.E. 67th Ave., 503-777-2771, www.theblustockings.com, $10-$12

‘The Clean House’

Sarah Ruhl’s play, a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2005, starts with a daydreaming Brazilian housekeeper who refuses to actually work for the doctor couple who hired her.

She’s too busy coming up with the perfect joke, something akin to the one her father used — inadvertently — to slay her mother.

From this gloomy premise comes a dizzyingly inventive romp in which characters circle around the truth and one another before realizing that the richest moments in life often are the messiest.

Amaya Villazan makes an outstanding ART debut as Mathilde, the housekeeper.

— EB

7:30 p.m. FRIDAY and SATURDAY, 2 p.m. SUNDAY, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, through March 2, Artists Repertory Theatre, Second Stage, 1516 S.W. Alder St., 503-241-1278, www.artistsrep.org, $20-$47

‘The Beard of Avon’/‘Twelfth Night’

“Beard,” Amy Freed’s superb comedy at Portland Center Stage, supposes that the real genius behind Shakespeare’s works was the disaffected aristocrat Edward DeVere, not the lowborn bit player from Stratford.

But the debate becomes academic as flawless stagecraft turns this ingenious yarn into the best ensemble piece in Portland this season.

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