The Dinner, an original play by Carol Triffle.

Playing May 22 to June 14

Thursdays @ 7:30, $15;

Fridays and Saturdays @ 8:00,

$18 (youth/senior), $22 (general)

Dolores (Dodo is her nickname) has just met an unnamed "famous writer" whom she has invited for dinner. Her highly impetuous sister Lucy, her cynical mother, and an unexpected guest, Suzy, invade the house to meet the "famous writer." Her husband John supports and humiliates his wife while they read from Amy Vanderbilt's The Complete Book of Etiquette while setting the table. Dodo is both affectionate and hostile. She betrays her husband, wants to lock up her mentally challenged brother, and attempts to shuttle her mother away to a nursing home, all while preparing for the meal of her life.

Imago's Artistic Co-Director Pushes More than Boundaries

Carol Triffle is my partner and my wife. We have both explored that realm of theatre that exists beyond what we call realism and naturalism.

Carol has written, directed and designed a new play each year since 1993. In her first full-length work Buffo, Carol drew heavily on the influence of Jacques Lecoq, the legendary teacher of clown, movement and mask who died in 1999. With her Oh Lost Weekend (1999) Carol began to shift away from her Lecoq roots to an exploration of identity. I think this examination of identity continues to be the driving force for her most recent works Hit Me in the Stomach and Mix Up. When I say identity I don't strictly mean it as self-examination. Carol is searching or playing with the identity of theatre itself.

How does one go about examining the identity of theater? In Hit Me in the Stomach, the characters barely look at one another, speak in monotones - lost souls adrift in a place that is somewhere between the ether world and a twisted television sitcom. What they say and do is banal and ordinary - eat pocket pizzas, declare love to one another, dream small dreams. As I watch the characters I am not so surprised by how alienating they are to each other, or to the audience, but rather how in the course of the play I am drawn into their world.

Carol is a post-modernist. She plays with the canvas of theater. While most conventional dramas are afraid to break the "dream world" of a play, Carol intentionally takes the canvas and breaks it over your head. If you're not prepared for that kind of assault it can be disarming and confusing. If you are prepared and ready, it can be refreshing.

We sit in the theatre and hope the "dream" will invade us; that we will be swept away by the plot, the story and the characters; that the play will stimulate our intellect. We want the play to stir our hearts. We want a play that we can piece together to define and reflect on life experiences. Carol knows what we want but she denies us this kind of service.

Take the word "play" or the verb "to play." Carol's work "plays." Her plays "play" with character states rather than psychological states (a Lecoq technique). Picasso took the notion of a portrait and exploded it. Instead of seeing the portrait from one angle, Picasso showed us how to see from all angles at once. In Robert Wilson's Einstein on the Beach Wilson doesn't give us a biography of Einstein, he recreates the mind of Einstein. Carol's characters do not exist entirely in the real world, but they keep one foot in it. When Carol's characters speak you must look at the canvas, step back and watch it fall - "the play is the thing."

The Dinner will play from May 22 to June 14, Thursdays at 7:30, Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00. Tickets go on sale in April.

Imago Theatre
17 SE 8th Ave
Portland, OR
503.231.9581