Willamette Week, August 13, 1997

by Steffen Silvis

After an inauspicious start with the criminally dull feminist tract Women in Limbo, the fledgling Pan Theater is showing signs that it is a serious company. It’s current production of Sam Shepard’s seldom-seen meditation on the siege and distress of existential crisis and questions of identity is a revelation. Director Bryan Markovitz has taken Shepard’s text and fashioned it into a performance piece of great power, casting actors who handle the lines and riffs with vigor. Jeff Marchant and Rich Southwick play Pablo and Louis, two homicide detectives who wander into an unfathomable mystery wrapped around the murder of a musician named Niles (Victor Troxel). Christoph Saxe and the especially good Georgia Luce play the remaining members of Niles’ trio, who confound the detectives further. The play includes Jennifer Olson along with an onstage quartet led by Composer John Berendzen, admirably replacing the lone pianist Shepard calls for in the script. The company’s production values are alos greatly improved. Trent Moore’s set and lighting design, as well as Kate Bowie and Miro O. Chun’s projection design, are excellent, and Pan has crossed the limen from unfledged to winged.

Suicide in B-flat (1997)

Liminal’s first project was a performance of Sam Shepard’s play Suicide in B-flat. It was performed at the PAN Theatre during a very warm Portland summer. Liminal’s version of Suicide in B-flat, put two roguish detectives on the case to solve a violent and mysterious death. Suicide in B-flat led Liminal into a world of anomalous initiations and deviant experiments that became the ensemble’s rite-of-passage. The production incorporated live musicians, programmed slide projections and physical action, Suicide in B-flat inspired the dissolution of narrative structure and tension that now characterizes much of Liminal’s work.

Bryan Markovitz directed. John Berendzen and the Cat Jenkins Players produced live sound and music. The set was designed by Trent Moore. Slide projections were photographed and operated by Miro O. Chun and Kate Bowie. Chantel Saban designed the costumes. Julie Burtis designed the art. Cast members included Georgia Luce, Jeff Marchant, Jennifer Olson, Christoph Saxe, Rich Southwick, Victor Troxel and Jennifer Waldorf as The Intemperate Miss Macy.

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