Review: THE PORTAL Offers Brain-Cleansing Bombardment of Sounds and Images

As audience members enter the Minetta Lane Theatre's auditorium for producer/director Luke Comer's abstract multi-media theatre piece THE PORTAL, they're greeted by a projected slide summarizing the 90 minute long production's plot, followed by the advisory, "The show is less literal and more allegorical and dreamy."

So it wouldn't be fair to criticize the piece's lack of dramatic clarity, since we're given full warning in advance that this is not the creator's intention. In many ways THE PORTAL, subtitled as "A Modern Shamanic Journey," resembles a rock concert staged in front of the kind of indie film you might find playing continually in a partitioned section of a modern art gallery, where visitors tend to come in, get a taste of it for five or ten minutes, then carry on to another display.

As explained on the pre-show projection, the filmed portions of THE PORTAL depict Dante (Christopher Soren Kelly), who, lured into "an inward journey of self-discovery," travels through a desert (some lovely scenery, by the way) and encounters three characters who represent power, identity and death/transformation.

Kaleidoscopic images represent the "animated fractals" that transform him from one realm to another, with the on-stage performers serve as guides.

Of course, none of this would be apparent without advance explanation. Between filmed segments frontman Billy Lewis Jr. emotes anguished vocals from the repetitive New Age rock score, mostly composed by Tierro Lee. The overactive echoing and distortion that seems intent on making the lyrics indecipherable may be an artistic choice, not to be blamed on the accomplished Broadway Sound Designer who is credited.

Dancers Jessica Aronoff, Nicole Spencer and Marija Juliette Abney perform Jessica Chen's athletic, often African-based, choreography and onstage musicians Paul Casanova (guitar) and Gilly Gonzalez (percussion) accompany recorded music.

The live performers certainly give game efforts, but Comer's direction does little more than designate entrances and exits. Their purpose seems to be to accessorize the soggy film sequences.

Despite playing in a major commercial Off-Broadway house and inviting New York's drama critics to review, THE PORTAL doesn't seem intended for a theatre crowd. But if you're in the mood to just veg out and cleanse your brain by taking in a light bombardment of sounds and images for an hour and a half, it may provide a pleasing escape.

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