The Oregonian, October 10, 2003
by Richard Wattenberg
Liminal’s always earnest ensemble takes on the Faust story in an intriguing theatrical production that is certainly not for everybody. Paradoxically combining spare minimalism with Gothic extravagance, this performance—part installation art, part movement piece and part oratorio—is sometimes mesmerizing, sometimes unfathomable and often lacking humanity. “Faust” is structured around a series of movement vignettes, each representing one episode in Faust ‘s life. Played by three performers using a muscular physical idiom, each vignette is associated with one of the cardinal points of the large central performance space. East is “Thirst for Knowledge,” and here we see an impatient Faust being tempted by two demons. South, “Faust Signs an Agreement,” represents the doctor’s acceptance of the devil’s compact as an eerie black mass. On the west side of the space, “Gretchen’s Seduction,” a tragic and erotic episode, is rendered. To the north, “Mephistopheles Takes What Finally Belongs to Him” focuses on Faust’s death. The vignettes, played and replayed, follow one another in a seemingly random sequence. Nevertheless, the repeated movements within each vignette as well as their iteration of the vignettes suggest a predetermined, freedomless world and, consequently, the horrible inevitability of Faust’s fate.
Current News
Features
Resurrectory preview
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Ad for the Artbeat segment on Liminal
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Letters to the Editor
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Reviews
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The Oregonian April 13, 2000
Articles by Liminal members
Past news releases
Liminal stages Caryl Churchill’s play Far Away
December 16, 2005
Liminal’s Resurrectory Re-Commits, Investigates 100-Year-Old Murders
March 28, 2005
High-resolution photos of The Resurrectory
Bikes, Bands and Bacchanalia Oct. 21, 2003
Faust(Faust) August 13, 2003
Krapp’s Last Tape June 28, 2003
Three Plays, Five Lives April 1, 2003
FluXconcert PDX March 17, 2003
Minimal at Liminal February 4, 2003
The Seven Deadly Sins August 7, 2002
Objects for the Emancipated Consumer (in Vancouver, B.C.) Oct. 4, 2001
Objects for the Emancipated Consumer (in Portland) April 4, 2001
Objects for the Emancipated Consumer (in Seattle) Jan. 22, 2001
Thomas Leabhart workshop Dec. 3, 1999
Jowl Movements I-IX (3) Oct. 28, 1998
Jowl Movements I-IX (1) Oct. 8, 1998
Handke Salmagundi March 16, 1998
Symposium on the Avant-Garde in Portland March 16, 1998
Suicide in B-flat July 1997
