By Aly Ferris
Portlanders' favorite thing about Portland is its quirkiness. Portlanders love to talk about concerts they've seen in renovated ballrooms with floors that bounce, suggestively named donuts they've eaten with cereal on top, and Gore-Tex they've bought from a Bargain Basement that is literally located in a basement.
However, many of these acclaimed quirky places have become mainstream - at least for Portland - and have lost their hole-in-the-wall status. The Shoe Box Theatre, in Southwest Portland, is one local locale that has not.
It would not be an exaggeration to call the Shoe Box Theatre ,located at 2110 SE 10th Avenue, a hole in a wall. The way the entrance is set up, with the door about three steps up and back from the sidewalk, make it look literally like a hole in the wall.
It's extraordinarily easy to miss, scattered amongst the warehouses, bars and cyclone fencing that make up this part of Southwest Portland. However, when you do find it - look for red bricks and a green arch with the street number spelled out over the door - you won't be disappointed.
Upon stepping inside the theater, it's instantly obvious where the name comes from. Long and narrow, the theater literally resembles a shoebox, and you feel almost like you're in a fourth-grader's diorama.
The lobby, which doubles as the backstage area during the performance, is small and narrow, with quotations, actors' portraits and squishy couches lining the walls. Coffee, tea and candy are free, and there are homemade cookies and brownies for less than you could get a 32 oz. Slurpee for - a pretty good deal when compared with $5 popcorn at the movies.
Currently, the Shoebox Theatre is playing William Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice," put on by the Northwest Classical Theatre Company. The company generally does about five plays a year there. Other plays this season include "Troilus & Cressida," "Hedda Gabler" and "Sherlock Holmes: The Speckled Band," with a production of "Richard III" coming up in April. The company mainly performs Shakespeare, but also some Chekhov, Shaw, Ibsen and others.
Michael Mendelson was the highlight of the performance of "Merchant," giving an intensely passionate portrayal of Shylock, the play's Jewish antagonist. Though Shylock's character is typically painted as the evil arch-nemesis of all the other characters, Mendelson's depiction of the Jew makes it hard not to feel compassion toward him.
By far though, the most surprising performance of the night came from Paige Jones, who played the Venetian merchant, Antonio. The relationship between Antonio and his close friend Bassanio has long been discussed as an ambiguously amorous one by Shakespearean critics; by casting a woman as Antonio, director Grant Turner only added to the ambiguity surrounding the play.
Turner actually started the company in 1998, and has been involved in both the directing of and the acting in of many of the company's productions.
In addition to directing "The Merchant of Venice," he also played Lancelot, one of the minor roles in the play. Rather than taking a stance on the many vagaries found in a typical Shakespeare play, Turner instructed the actors to play their roles around the ambiguities.
The "Merchant of Venice" runs through March 8. Tickets are $18 and can be purchased online at http://www.nwctc.com. All shows play Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. as well as Sunday at 2 p.m.
