For Immediate Release—December 16, 2005
Media Contact—Anthony Alvarez , 503 804 6727, anthony@liminalgroup.org

Liminal presents Caryl Churchill’s play Far Away

Portland, Ore.—From January 19 to February 18, Liminal Performance Group will present the Portland premiere of Far Away, a play by British playwright Caryl Churchill. First produced in 2001, Far Away is a play set in a war-torn age, where absurd alliances, mass killings and fear are everyday occurences.

“I have always admired the way Churchill challenges conventional notions of character, identity and narrative structure,” says director Georgia Luce. “In Far Away, Churchill constructs an world that is strange, yet very personal. Churchill’s plays provoke more questions than nswers, and Far Away offers images and sounds of a world that is completely absurd, but strangely familiar.”

As in many Liminal productions, video media will take a prominent role in the performance. The entire set is composed of video projected onto multiple surfaces in the 70-foot deep performance space designed by longtime Liminal collaborator Moses Gunesch. Music for Far Away is composed by Liminal sound designer, John Berendzen. Several hundred hats are exclusively designed and created for the production by designer and Liminal collaborator kollodi.

Far Away features Liminal actors Jennifer Olson, Jeff Marchant, and Madeleine Sanford. The show will also introduce ten year-old Hallie Blashfield, daughter of noted video artist and Liminal collaborator Jim Blashfield.

The work will be staged in the recently vacated Goldsmith Building in Portland’s Old Town, which promises to become the nexus of contemporary art and performance in 2006. The Goldsmith will soon be converted into artist workspaces and is already home to the new Portland Art Center Annex.

Liminal Performance Group presents:
Far Away
By Caryl Churchill

January 19-February 18, 2005
Goldsmith Building
20 NW Fifth Avenue, Portland

Thursday-Saturday, 8 pm-10 pm
Admission is $6-$10, sliding scale.

For more information:
Liminal Performance Group: www.liminalgroup.org, 503 890 2993 or 503 313 8200

Far Away is funded with support from the Regional Arts and Culture Council, Typhoon! Restaurants and the Portland Mercury. Liminal is a nonprofit Portland-based ensemble of artists producing performance and media works. Liminal was founded in 1997 and has produced more than a dozen original projects. Since 2000, Liminal has received ten Portland Drammy awards for its productions of Objects for the Emancipated Consumer, The Seven Deadly Sins, Three Plays, Five Lives, FaustFaust and The Resurrectory.

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“If it’s a party, why was there so much blood?”

Perhaps this is a strange question for a little girl to ask her aunt, but in Caryl Churchill’s play, Far Away, outrageous questions seems almost mundane. First produced in 2001, Far Away is Churchill’s story of three people living in a war-torn world. The characters are caught up in situations beyond their control, but, as journalist Michael Herr once suggested in his Vietnam novel, Dispatches, perhaps we are responsible for everything we see, as much as we are for everything we do.

As the characters of Far Away grow from childish onlookers to mature participants, the question of responsibility becomes difficult to answer. And what about our responsibilities as witnesses to a drama that, when we compare it to our own day and age, doesn’t seem very absurd at all? Are we just an audience attending a play, or, like these characters, might we also responsible for the violence we see around us?

In early 2006, Liminal presented Far Away in a 70-foot-long space filled with video projected surfaces. Liminal co-founder Georgia Luce directed and sound director John Berendzen composed original music. Video was designed by longtime collaborator Moses Gunesch and the hats were designed by atelier kollodi. Cast members include Liminal actors Jeff Marchant, Jennifer Olson and Madeleine Sanford, as well as special guest actor Hallie Blashfield.

January 19-February 18, 2006
Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays at 8 pm
Tickets $6-$10, sliding scale
Goldsmith Building - 20 NW Fifth Avenue, Portland

Far Away was funded with support from the Regional Arts and Cultural Council and was sponsored by Typhoon! Restaurants, Portland Mercury and Two States Design.

©2008 Liminal Performance Group / P.O. Box 40353, Portland, Oregon 97240-0353 / Founded in 1997 / info [at] liminalgroup [dot] org / Join our mailing list.