For Immediate Release
Attn: Arts & Theatre
Portland, ORE
Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! There ain't no Santa Claus!" - e.e. cummings
Liminal wants to save Christmas. From itself. Launching off of e.e.cummings' texts Santa Claus (1946), The Christmas Tree (1920), and others, Liminal once again tackles the big issues: life, death, sex, and online shopping.
Equal parts modern mystery play (casting Santa as Joe Everyman), anti-commercial anti-capitalist allegory (Death as the archetypal one-percenter robber baron), and good clean modernist holiday shenanigans (colors! line and form! conceptual constructs!), SANTA paints an alternate universe in which Death and Santa are twins separated at birth and Santa's home life turns out to be far more complicated than we thought. Metaphysical hijinks ensue when Death tricks Santa into endorsing products that don't quite exist.
Will Santa ever discover his true secret identity? Is it still poetry if it doesn't rhyme? Do you really need to see A Christmas Carol a fourth time?
Recommended for ages 13 and up.
December 4-21; Thurs - Sun 7:30pm; Sun also 3pm; No show on December 13.
At the The Backdoor Theater, 4319 SE Hawthorne
$15-25 sliding scale
Reservations: 503 567 8309
liminalgroup.org | facebook.com/liminalpdx
This production, Liminal's most intimate, features ensemble members Jeff Marchant as SANTA; Leo Daedalus (host of The Late Now) as DEATH; alto Carla Grant in a singing role as WOMAN; Alex Reagan as the CROWD; and introducing Delilah Scanlon (age 9 1/2) as CHILD. Sumi Wu (Imago) designs costume; Ben Purdy (defunkt, NWCT) ceates a dimensional video landscape as the set; and Rory Breshears (Rocky Horror Show) designs lighting.
Liminal co-founder and artistic co-director John Berendzen directs and composes music.
Liminal has been awarded a Winter Residency at The Backdoor Theatre, the home of their friends at defunkt theatre.
About Liminal
Liminal is a nonprofit Portland-based network of theatre, performing, and media artists. Liminal is known both for its uniquely staged plays (as in 2013's OUR TOWN), and also for its large-scale live walk-through performance installations (as in 2012's Liminal presents Gertrude Stein).
Liminal was founded in Portland in 1997 and has produced eighteen original full-scale projects. Liminal has received numerous Portland Critics Circle (Drammy) awards, including Best Original Production (2000, 2003, and 2005); Best Sound Design and Best Music Direction (2000 and 2003).
“Listen; there's a hell of a good universe next door: let's go.” - e.e.cummings