[UPDATE: We are sorry to report that this production has been canceled.] It was a refrain that wafted about in the wake of the 2012 production of Keri Healey’s sibling-murder psychodrama Torso: “Stephen Hando is amazing.” To quote the many who’ve watched Hando light up Seattle stages since the mid ’90s: duh. A diminutive man with a towering stage presence, Hando is one of Seattle’s great character actors. InKeefee’s House of Cards, he goes solo, channeling a charming, wily, loose-tongued, and increasingly intoxicated blackjack dealer, in a semi-improvised show that involves Keefee dealing cards and dishing dirt to four self-selected audience-member card players. (Calamus Auditorium at Gay City, 517 E Pike St, strangertickets.com, 8 pm, $15, through April 26)

David Schmader—former weed columnist and Stranger associate editor—is the author of the solo plays Straight and Letter to Axl, which he’s performed in Seattle and across the US. His latest...