Money can't buy you love, or so the song says. But in the universe of

it can buy you a tribble, a fuzzy little creature that calms the soul with its affectionate purring.

There's just one thing: That tribble you bought procreates like crazy, and before you can say "set phasers to stun," you've got dozens of the voracious things.

"Trek in the Park"

What:

Atomic Arts stages the classic "Star Trek" episode "The Trouble With Tribbles"

When:

5 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays through Aug. 25

Where:

Cathedral Park, directly underneath the St. Johns Bridge in North Portland

Admission:

Free

If you go:

For the best spots on the lawn, plan on arriving several hours before the performance. Don't forget to bring a few essentials, like blankets or sand chairs, sunscreen, hats, drinking water and something to eat.

More information:

And that's the trouble at the heart of "The Trouble With Tribbles," a free

presentation by the group

, which kicked off a four-weekend run on Saturday in North Portland's Cathedral Park.

It's the sort of crowd-pleasing fun audiences have come to expect from "Trek in the Park" shows, which are directed by and star Adam Rosko as Capt. Kirk of the Starship Enterprise. In "Tribbles," he gets to trade barbs with an inept bureaucrat, a greedy interplanetary prospector, and a legion of Klingon warriors, and you can tell he's enjoying every second of it.

The show also features strong performances by Jesse Graff as Spock, Nate Ayling as Scotty, and Ryan Castro as Chekov. All three evoke the accents and line-deliveries that made the original TV show so iconic and, at times, inadvertently hilarious.

The opening performance featured a few sound-system glitches, though amplification helped project the dialogue the park. There also were a few slowly paced scene changes that hindered the show's momentum. But those are mere tribble-quibbles.

All those tribbles are a testament to the grass-roots nature of the "Trek" performances. Most of them were handmade by fans and dropped off at a comics shop over the last few months for use in the show. A few last-minute additions to the tribble flock were even tossed onstage from the audience during a scene where thousands of them cascade onto the stage.

After the run of "Tribbles,"

bringing its five-year mission of presenting free theater in Portland parks to a close. But in a post-show announcement, Rosko said that the group would be doing new things in the future. For now, he's keeping those plans under wraps. Here's hoping it's every bit as entertaining.

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