The night lights of downtown Portland sparkled on the water
as the paddles of the stern-wheeler Columbia Gorge lightly rippled
the calm of the Willamette River.
Inside the riverboat -- site of
Charles
Deemer's ``Bateau de Mort, or, Revenge on the River'' -- the
disturbance was more like pandemonium: as strenuous and volatile as
a bad day at the stock exchange.
Deemer, whose latest simultaneous-action drama had a dry --
or should we say, wet -- run Monday night before Tuesday's official
opening, has whipped up enough high-society sin and scandal to do
Sidney Sheldon proud.
But he's done Sheldon one better, sticking his audience smack
in the middle of the action and daring them to keep track of all the
mud as it flies from fore to aft and deck to deck. And he's done it
with a keen sense of the ridiculous.
The convoluted plot (or series of plots) involves a scam
religion called the Universal Church of Primitive Balance, a ritzy
wedding, a dead man's ashes, a Mafia revenge, a cocaine sale, some
surrogate mothers, a 25,000-year-old chanting priestess, and enough
greed, selfishness and double-dealing to satisfy several prophets of
doom.
``The crowd appears to be just a little bewildered right
now,'' a society reporter (one of the actors) intones into her tape
recorder. ``Not sure what to expect next.''
That's as Deemer wants it.
His multiple-action plays run backward from the normal course
of drama or literature. Rather than extracting clarity from the
unformed, he seeks to obscure (perhaps even deny) meaning by
deliberately dipping his audience back into the pool of immediate
experience.
While audience members mill about trying frantically to keep
up with the action, as many as five scenes are being played out at
once -- each in a different place.
A scream or caustic remark or gunshot in one location will
bring a flock of people scurrying to the scene, often just a moment
too late: The next flare-up might be coming from the spot they just
left.
Because no one can see all that's happening on the boat, no
one can ``understand'' what's happening in the ordinary sense of
achieving an overview.
``Bateau'' is a sequel to last year's popular Pittock Mansion
mystery, ``Chateau de Mort,'' and like ``Chateau'' is a benefit for
The Musical Company. Several of the same characters are involved,
though fewer live to tell about it.
Quarters are more cramped on the stern-wheeler than in the
Pittock Mansion, and that makes it more difficult to follow a single
performer. That also makes it more difficult to find ``sense'' in
the proceedings -- but then, sense is much less important than
sensation.
At different times we followed (and enjoyed) Sam A. Mowry as
the bridegroom and cult leader, Patricia Armsted as the high
priestess, Run Vzel as a suave Mafioso, Alyson Osborn as the bride
with much more than a honeymoon on her mind, and Gaynor Sterchi as
the bride's mom, a convicted murderer.
THEATER REVIEW Bateau de Mort Author:
Charles
Deemer Director: Ghita Hager Where: aboard the Columbia Gorge
sternwheeler, departing from Waterfront Park at S.W. Front and Stark
When: departure 7:30 p.m. Tues.-Sun.; boarding 6:30 p.m. Tues., 7
p.m. Wed.-Sun. Tickets: $90 Tues.; $37.50 or $70/couple Wed.-Sun.
(280-6592 or 235-4551)