Liminal Presents R.W.Fassbinder's MARILYN MONROE CONTRE LES VAMPIRES
By: A.A. Cristi
In December 2016, Liminal presents Marilyn Monroe contre les vampires, an operatic multimedia installation performance of a 1972 darkly comic play written by influential enfant terrible filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
A timely social satire, Phoebe Zeitgeist is a singing alien sent to Earth to give an eyewitness account of human democracy. However, Phoebe has a problem: she has learned our language, but she can't figure US out. Liminal combines theatre, film, and opera into a unique, immersive experience. A hybrid of theatre and gallery installation, there is no central stage and audiences are invited to walk through the performance as it takes place (seating is provided for those needing it). Merging live performance and video, the piece features both live and recorded performers: a ghostly ensemble of video actors projected onto screens moving throughout the space, interacting with each other, with Phoebe and with the audience to create a unique videoplay experience. Stagehands (or are they actors?) are busy creating a constantly shifting landscape of moving surfaces and layered dramatic possibilities within the environment. Also: Vampires. TRIGGER WARNINGS: substance abuse, sexual harassment, semiosis, societal complacency, firearms, structuralism, choking, absence of dialogue about race, biting, suicide, Hegel. About LiminalLiminal 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 twenty original full-scale projects. Liminal has received numerous Portland Critics Circle (Drammy) awards, including Best Original Production (2000, 2003, and 2005); Best Choreography (2003); Best Sound Design and Best Music Direction (2000 and 2003). About R. W. Fassbinder
In addition to making five films a year and co-creating the New German Cinema of the 60's and 70's, Fassbinder was a prolific playwright and theatre director. His plays and films blend darkly comic kitsch, kitchen sink social drama, and experimental formalism; and were prescient of the era of the low-brow and no-brow esthetic. He was an early advocate for LGBT issues, being himself openly bisexual in post-war Germany.
For more information, visit liminalgroup.org
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