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Contemporary Performance 2017-18 Company Presents VERY POORLY INDEED at CoHo Theater
By: A.A. Cristi May. 10, 2018
What would you do to survive?
Very Poorly Indeed, the fiercely inventive new work developed at the Institute for Contemporary Performance (ICP), casts a darkly humorous light on human survival paired with a painter's eye to composition.
A flickering fire. A vast forest. An empty stomach. A dying companion.
"If one should die, all might live," echoes through the campsite.
A swath of crimson breaks the monotony of white.
Very Poorly Indeed is a world of desperation where bodies push their limits. Souls confront the edges of humanity. Humanity tests the edges of compassion. Minds blur the lines of sanity.
Humans take actions only justified by the continuation of their own life. As the winter gets colder and sparser they contemplate what can be consumed. They realize their true animal nature when they consider their own edibility. And the funniest things happen.
The 2018 ICP ensemble uses the ill-fated Donner Party, doppelganger lore, and fairy tale to tell a story that blurs the lines between human and animal, beauty and terror, comedy and the grotesque, reality and fantasy. All to ask the question: What would you do to survive?
Comprised of five interdisciplinary theatrical artists who have worked together since September 2017, the 2018 ICP cohort strive to push boundaries in performance, revitalize traditional forms, and test the relationship between the audience and the performers.
Devised and Performed by the ICP 2017-18 Cohort:
Clifton Holznagel
Jonathan Lee
Myriel Meissner
Rose Proctor
Directed by Myia Johnson
Shows: June 21-24
Thursday Preview at 7:30pm
Friday and Saturday at 7:30pm
Sunday at 5:00pm
Venue: CoHo Theater
Tickets: http://www.cohoproductions.org/onstage/very-poorly-indeed/
$5-25 Pay What You Will
The Institute for Contemporary Performance (ICP) creates artists who reinvent theatrical storytelling, artists capable of communicating radical thought in space, time and body, provoking and stimulating the expectations of theatre goers, exposing the Portland and regional arts and cultural communities to the next wave of theatre artists and theatrical expression.
ICP is an interdisciplinary training program for contemporary theatre artists and incubator for new performance. ICP students and faculty are practical and visionary, pragmatic and experimental. Through rigorous daily training, ICP creates a laboratory in which the artist discovers, defines and articulates their individual aesthetic. ICP creates artists and invigorates theatre goers, changing the way theatre is defined.
ICP was founded by the members of PETE (Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble) in partnership with CoHo Productions and Philip Cuomo. Labs include Viewpoints, Suzuki, Alexander, Linklater and extended voice, clown, composition, devising and more.
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