Patricia Eakins :: Collision Theory's Portrait (With Horse and Others)

Dreams are often characterized by fragmentation, discontinuity, and distortion. It has been argued that somewhere deep within the recesses of the human mind there is a lexicon of imagery and associations that, in ways beyond our waking comprehension, help us to process the world around us and our own experiences. Some thinkers have postulated that dreams speak to us through this language, a kind of primal world of symbols and irreducible abstractions.

"Portrait (With Horse and Others)" delves into such a realm and comes up with an inspired and provocative theater experience. Mixing music, movement and text, this play engages its audience without the intentionally opaque pretenses so common in experimental theater. Reminiscent of Antonin Artaud, "Portrait" has the peculiar quality of an improvised ritual or ceremony in which the central players are bound together without understanding the significance of his or her own or each other's roles.

Set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, "Portrait" depicts a world in which civilization is only a memory and all that persists is a handful of people and an uncanny, but almost tender, chaos. In a structure-less environment, books once beloved for the stories and information are eaten instead of read.