Review: BECKETT WOMEN at Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble

Do you remember those 3D posters that were popular in the '80s? The ones that looked like a random cacophony of color, but if you relaxed your focus and stopped trying so hard, all of a sudden a dinosaur or a spaceship would pop out? And then once you saw the image, it was there all of the time -- you could never go back to seeing just the color pattern.

That's what it was like watching Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble's BECKETT WOMEN. If you try to pin it down, you'll miss it entirely. Instead, you need to let your brain unfocus and allow the picture to emerge. This is not easy to do. As a chronic overthinker, I struggled. But once I gave into the hypnotic nature of the piece, a picture of freedom and empowerment emerged.

BECKETT WOMEN runs only 65 minutes, but director Rebecca Lingafelter packs in a lot. The show consists of four short pieces by Samuel Beckett, known for his minimalist works and his absurdist philosophy, i.e., the idea that our existential search for meaning will always fail, because such meaning doesn't exist. However, instead of falling into despair, PETE's production suggests we all put on flashy outfits and dance.

BECKETT WOMEN starts with "Not I," a monologue in which the theatre is pitch black except for a single spotlight on a woman's mouth. The mouth (belonging to Cristi Miles, who does most of the heavy lifting in the show) speaks frantically, sometimes barely intelligibly, going over and over certain experiences she's had in her ~70 years, looking for clues as to why God is punishing her, or if that's indeed what's happening. As a standalone piece, this one was my favorite.

Next is "Footfalls," a multi-part play in which a woman in her 40s (also Cristi Miles) paces rhythmically across the stage while talking about and to her mother (Joann Johnson), who is either suffering at the end of her life or is perhaps already dead. This was the one that I found hardest to relate to individually, but it works in the overall concept, which follows woman's experience backward in time to a certain famous garden.

Third up is "Come and Go" -- three women (Cristi Miles, Joann Johnson, and Chantal DeGroat) meet after many years and tell one another secrets, watched over by a living statue (Rose Proctor) holding a pomegranate, which some believe is the real forbidden fruit. Finally, "Quad" is pure movement, a dance of sorts in which the four women start at the four corners of a square and walk in a prescribed route at an increasingly dizzying pace, doing everything they can to not run into one another in the center. And then, in a chilling and exhilarating finale, the women all break out of the confines that Beckett, and the world, have placed on them.

BECKETT WOMEN takes you on many journeys -- backward in time from old age to youth, from a world of punishment to one with no sin, and from a hyper-verbal world to one with no words at all. And thanks to Peter Ksander's incredible set, you've also gone from a cramped, almost completely dark world to a lush, verdant, open one.

This play is not for everyone -- there were definitely some fidgeters in the audience the night I saw it. But, my impression was that most people were as rapt as I was, once I was able to quiet my thoughts and feel the experience instead. If you're willing to do that, then I highly recommend making your way down to Reed College to see it.

BECKETT WOMEN runs through January 25th. Details and tickets here.

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