#CoHoSummerfest Week 5

Deception Unit

by Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble

July 13 – 16, 2017

Unreliable Narrator. Suffocating Subtext. Lies, all lies.

Kitchen sink realism is slowly suffocated with a pillow of subtext, and the narrative goes into witness protection. A fake Polish punk band takes over as the protagonist, but whoever’s been translating their lyrics is deeply unreliable. A celebration of false narratives and radical fraudulence, Deception Unit revels in the ways we’ve been fooling ourselves all along.

“…unapologetically experimental, technically sophisticated, and engaged with questions about what role theater can play in contemporary culture.” – Portland Mercury

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Production Credits:

Created by Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble (PETE)

Directed by Jacob Coleman
Text by Robert Quillen Camp
Performer/Creators: Rebecca Lingafelter, Cristi Miles, Amber Whitehall and Jim Vadala

Sound design by Mark Valadez
Scenic/Video design by Peter Ksander
Lighting design by Miranda K Hardy
Costume design by Jenny Ampersand

Design Tech by Trevor Sargent
Stage Management by Kristina Mast
Asst. Stage Management by Rosie Lambert
Costume Assistance by Hannah Edelson

Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble

Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble is a company of theatre artists dedicated to creating new plays that reify the relationship between audience and artist. We develop original performances and produce innovative interpretations of classical text. We challenge established notions of theatrical form and content with innovative modes of practice, presentation, and organization to create work that is visceral, raw, and revealing.

PETE has been making performance since its inception in 2011, with work including the sea-shanty cabaret Drowned Horse Tavern (2015), All Well, a sound-play in darkness (2015), Juli Crockett’s [or, the whale] (2016), Procedures for Saying No, developed with Robert Quillen Camp (2016), Fornes’ Enter THE NIGHT, with director Alice Reagan (2015), the premiere of a new English translation of Chekhov’s The Three Sisters, with translator/director Stepan Simek (2014), R3, a new adaptation of Shakespeare’s Richard III (2013), and a performative lamentation, Song of the Dodo (2013). PETE’s work has been produced at Summerfest, Risk/Reward, On the Boards, Caldera, and PCS’s JAW Festival. Coming next: the world premiere of a new English translation of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya with translator/director Stepan Simek, to open in January 2018.

PETE is Jenny Ampersand, Robert Quillen Camp, Jacob Coleman, Miranda Hardy, Peter Ksander, Rebecca Lingafelter, Kristina Mast, Paige McKinney, Cristi Miles, Mark Valadez, and Amber Whitehall. More at www.petensemble.org