Things to Do in Portland This Week

Gary Norman (left) and James Sharinghousen in The Inheritance: Part 1, staged earlier this spring by Triangle Productions. Part 2 opens June 1.
From poetry to The Parent Trap, A Midsummer Night's Dream to The Rite of Spring, there's plenty to keep you busy in and around the Rose City right now. Here's what we've got our eyes on. (Planning ahead? Here are a few highlights of the summer concert and event calendar.)
Jump to Your Genre:
Books & Talks | Comedy | Dance | Film | Music
Special Events | Theater | Visual Art
Books & Talks
The Most, the All of It: New Music, New Spoken Word
7:30 p.m. Fri, June 2 | The Old Church, $5–35
Ocean Vuong
6 p.m. Mon, June 5 | Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, Free
The novelist, poet, and onetime MacArthur "genius" grant winner has just released his second collection of poems, Time Is a Mother, taking on intimate themes of grief, memory, and survival after his own mother's death. He appears in conversation with the very busy Anis Mojgani, the state's poet laureate.
Sindya Bhanoo
6 p.m. Wed, June 7 | Broadway Books, Free
The winner of this year's Oregon Book Award for Fiction marks the release of the paperback edition of Seeking Fortune Elsewhere, a collection of stories about South Asian immigrants and their families. Bhanoo will be in conversation with De-Canon coeditor Jyothi Natarajan.
Comedy
Pauly Shore
8 p.m. Thu, 7:30 & 10 P.m. Fri & Sat, June 1–3 | Helium Comedy Club, $27–37 advance
Dance
Stravinsky
7:30 p.m. Fri & Sat, June 2 & 3 | Newmark Theatre, $29–68 advance
The NW Dance Project presents two world premieres set to the music of Igor Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring from London-born resident choreographer Ihsan Rustem, and Petrushka from recently named associate choreographer Joseph Hernandez. Hold onto your seats: The original 1913 debut of Rite of Spring provoked audience riots.
Elsewhere/Otherwise
7 p.m. Sat, June 3 | Performance Works NW, $0–30
Kristen Yeung and Sadie Leigh's sound-and-choreography collaboration is billed as "a vehicle and a vessel for processing the deeply personal and universally shared experience of moving from one place to another."
Film
Wild at Heart
Fri–Thu, June 2–8 | Hollywood Theatre, $8–10
Unlike in much of the rest of his filmography, Nicolas Cage might be the least weird part of this 1990 David Lynch road movie, also starring Laura Dern, Diane Ladd (Dern's mother in both the film and real life), and Harry Dean Stanton.
The Parent Trap & Pollyanna*
Various times Fri–Sun, June 2–4 | Kiggins Theatre, $10 for one film, $12 for double feature
The Kiggins screens the first two films London-born actor Hayley Mills made with Disney, the studio that would define her career but also limit it. She was 13 when she filmed Pollyanna and 14 when she played identical twins in The Parent Trap.
The Best Years of Our Lives
2 p.m. Sat & Sun, June 3 & 4 | Hollywood Theatre, $8–10
Director William Wyler mastered the home front of World War II in 1942's England-set Mrs. Miniver, and he does the same with the war's aftermath for American servicemen trying to return to their old lives in this 1946 Oscar magnet.
Music
Duran Duran
7 p.m. Thu, June 1 | Moda Center, $25–215
When these ’80s legends showed up on Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve on the last night of 2022, more than four decades after their first big hit (“Girls on Film”) and MTV-fueled megasuccess, we knew a tour must be in the works. And we were right.
Bob Log III
9 p.m. Tue, June 6 | Mississippi Studios, $15 advance
This helmet-and-jumpsuit-wearing one-man band with a guitar, a kick drum, and a rather off-color garage rock songbook is really better experienced than explained. Portland-based Mattress (a.k.a. Rex Marshall) opens.
Bebe Rexha
8 p.m. Wed, June 7 | Crystal Ballroom, $39.50–55
This Staten Island–raised Albanian American pop star’s discography is packed with crossover collaborations with everyone from Dolly Parton and Florida Georgia Line to Snoop Dogg and part of One Direction. Will any of them join her at the Crystal, or will she have to sing “Me, Myself & I” on her own?
Special Events
The First Annual Most Pageant
8 p.m. Fri, June 2 | Clinton Street Theater, $12
Jocelyn Knobs kicks off the preliminary rounds for "a queer pageant without boundaries" that will eventually (in September) crown "Miss, Mr, or Mx Most." Six contestants will be chosen to move on in the competition, with four of them decided by audience vote.
2023 Portland Modern Home (+ Outdoor Living) Tour
10 a.m.–4 p.m. Sat, June 3 | Portland and Lake Oswego, $15–80
Be nosy and poke around in other people's houses with this tour of new builds, modern renovations, an ADU, and outdoor living spaces.
Starlight Parade
8–10 p.m. Sat, June 3 | Downtown Portland
The traditional kickoff to Portland's annual Rose Festival, this illuminated nighttime parade winds its way from the waterfront to Lincoln High. The 2023 grand marshal is community activist and renowned drag performer Poison Waters, who marched in Rose Fest parades as a kid with school bands.
Theater
The Inheritance, Part 2
June 1–17 | Triangle Productions, $15–35
Taking inspiration from E. M. Forster’s Howards End, playwright Matthew Lopez transports the 1910 British novel to contemporary New York City, after the height of the AIDS epidemic. The original London production won an Olivier in 2019 for Best New Play, with the Broadway version netting a Tony for the same the following year. (Triangle staged Part 1 in April.)
The Full Monty
June 2–25 | Winningstad Theatre, $27.25–52.25
Stumptown Stages presents Terrence McNally and David Yazbek’s musical based on the 1997 movie about unemployed steelworkers looking to make some needed cash with a Chippendales-inspired dance troupe.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
June 3–July 2 | Portland Center Stage at the Armory, $24–93 advance
The Sounds of Afrolitical Movement
Thru June 18 | Portland Playhouse, $5–55.50
Created by Ramona Lisa Alexander, Oluyinka Akinjiola, Darrell Grant, and Charles Grant, and billed as "a journey through the past, present, and future of resistance," this interactive show takes a different form with each performance, involving dance, song, and even a Second Line parade.
True Story
Thru June 4 | Artists Repertory Theatre, $15–60 advance
Luan Schooler directs E. M. Lewis's noir thriller about a ghostwriter working on a biography of a wealthy man accused of murdering his wife.
Mary Jane
Thru June 4 | Coho Theatre, $25–45
Third Rail Repertory Theatre bring Pulitzer finalist Amy Herzog's play about a woman finding community as she cares for her young son. JoAnn Johnson directs a cast that includes Rebecca Lingafelter and Janelle Rae.
Visual Art
First Thursday
Thu, June 1 | Various galleries around town
At This Time
Thru June 10 | Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at Portland state University
This PSU gallery showcases work from this year's MFA and BFA graduates in contemporary art for both studio practice and art and social practice.