There's a lot of interesting theater going on in town right now—a lot a lot.

Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble's Song of the Dodo is a weird, challenging show that, while grating at times, also has some incredible moments. It's a fun one to think about afterward, too; it's definitely high-concept weird, rather than weird-for-the-sake-of-weird. Structured in three discrete acts, each section of the show represents a different approach to death, essentially: There's a trio of friendly dodos, cheerfully ignorant about their imminent extinction; a couple of humans trying to wrap their minds around their own mortality, with dialogue drawn from amazing old interviews with actors Nicol Williamson and Katharine Hepburn (seriously, watch those interviews); and a Trojan Women-inspired death scene, which goes into full on chest-beating grief mode. The show is a tad too enamored of the sound of the human voice for my taste (there's a lot of moaning and chanting) but overall, it's an interesting, ambitious show, definitely worth seeking out if you're into weirdo theater that wants to make you contemplate your own mortality. Which I am! Because I'm fun. Details here.

Speaking of contemplating mortality, there are three productions of Our Town running in Portland right now, which is kind of hilarious—Reed, PSU, and Portland's long-running experimental troupe Liminal are all taking it on. Since we don't cover student productions, the one we're interested is Liminal's, which was conceived as a joke and undertaken as a challenge to present one of the familiar plays in the English language in a new light. The show, which opens this weekend, promises a "multimedia, multi-levle makeoever of the American classic" and is recommended for ages 13 and up. Details here.

In the paper this week, we profile Sam De Roest and Kyle Acheson, whose musical The Watermen opens this weekend at Action/Adventure. Details here. ( Ready for the dumbest conflict-of-interest notification in journalistic history? My boyfriend is in the show; he plays a sea monster.)

Homomentum the Musical is this weekend at the CoHo, which, well, let's let the show speak for itself:

For more, checkout our performance listings!