Skip to main contentThe calendar for the Stage is anti-Gregorian, as the year begins a bit before September. So here are our "bests" thus far this season.
1. Artists' Repertory Theatre's smart production of The Shape of Things benefited from some fine acting, and Clare O'Sheeran's performance remains one of the freshest yet seen this season.
2. Hoskins and Breen's Apocalypse Mambo was a rarity: a late-night show that was both hilarious and intelligent.
3. Late nights have also been redeemed by The House of Cunt, and HoC dynamo Amber Leigh Martin is currently burning up the boards in Hi!
4. How often do you get to see Brecht done well? If you missed Liminal's The Seven Deadly Sins, you may be waiting for a long time more.
5. Portland Center Stage's maestro, Chris Coleman, turned in another slick but soulless show, but his Much Ado About Nothing introduced Portlanders to an excellent Beatrice, Effie Johnson, an actress who actually knows how to speak English.
6. Dennis Bigelow did the impossible. His production for Triangle of Hedwig and the Angry Inch was almost good enough to stand up to the original.
7. damali ayo's set for defunkt's Bad Infinity was cleverer and more literate than most Portland directors and producers.
8. Though Call in Sick's production of Divinity Bash was a mess, actors Jared Roylance and Ben Plont put in some memorable work.
9. The voluptuous horror that is
Dina Martina.
10. The worst production this year was Brenda Hubbard's miserable production of The Night of the Iguana at ART. Not only did Hubbard have no idea what the play was about, but she served as enabler to the ham instincts of Luisa Sermol, among others. But then there's the inexplicable appearance of Susan Coromel in the midst of this midden. Someone get this fine actor a real director.
WWeek 2015