Opening This Week: What's New on Portland Stages March 16-22

There's an Erotic Japanese Ghost Story at Imago and Mean Catholic Schoolgirls in "No Man's Land".

By Enid Spitz

Openings & previews

Chicago

It's been a while, Zeta-Jones. The Tony, Olivier and Grammy-winning sing-along about pretty jazz dolls killing and high kicking tours to Portland. Extra shows 7:30 pm Thursday, March 17 and 7:30 pm Sunday, March 27. No show 2 pm Sunday, March 13. Brunish Theatre, 1111 SW Broadway, 800-273-1530. 7:30 pm Friday-Saturday, 2 pm Saturday-Sunday, through March 27. $25-$28.

Davita's Harp

What do you get when you mix a Jewish woman and an Episcopalian man who've both become atheist communists? Chaim Potok's bildungsroman about a young woman in 1930s New York City who, understandably so, is confused about her religious identity. Presented in an interesting collaboration between Portland's Hispanic Milagro Theatre group and the Jewish Theatre Collaborative. Extra show 7:30 pm Wednesday, March 30. Milagro Theatre, 525 SE Stark St., 236-7253. 7:30 pm Thursday-Saturday and 2 pm Sunday, March 19-April 9. $30.

The Lady Aoi

Four years ago, when Imago Theatre put on the dark and post-Brechtian kabuki The Black Lizard, our review called it "a precise clockwork of profane surprise." Their Lady Aoi promises at least the same. In this erotic Japanese ghost story about a woman hospitalized for "sex complexes," the Lady Aoi is tormented nightly by the living ghost of her husband's ex-lover. Imago's stylized take on the ancient Noh drama includes sound experiments like looping and miked actors, and it marks the end of director Jerry Mouawad's 18-month hiatus from Portland stages. Imago Theatre, 17 SE 8th Ave., 231-9581. 7:30 pm Thursday-Saturday and 2 pm Sunday, March 18-27. $15-$25.

No Man's Land

Put Mean Girls into the not-so-hallowed halls of an all-girls Catholic school, and you get this semi-improvised play that won a full run at Action/Adventure Theatre by being the audience favorite during the 2015 Pilot Season. Over four "episodes" (this week is episode two), new girl Andy Sawyer has run-ins with nuns and fields anti-abortion teachings. Action/Adventure Theatre, 1050 SE Clinton St. 8 pm Thursday-Sunday, through April 3. $15.

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