Sowelu Theater
Portland, OR
503.730.9066
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| Barry Hunt and Chris Harder |
News Article: The Further Adventures of Anse and Bhule in No-man's Land by Tania Myren, 1999
Willamette Week says: "A struggle in a post-apocalyptic landscape takes place in Tania Myren's new play, The Further Adventures of Anse and Bhule in No-Mans Land, which Sowelu Theater is premiering this month.
Upon first reading the play, one imagines that in a parallel universe, something went horribly wrong on Earth in the year 1400. Myren has created a hybrid-pidgin English for some of her characters that can only be described as Chaucerian.
Anse and Bhule, played by Barry Hunt and Chris Harder, are brethren in a catastrophe cult that moves across the seared landscape, cleaning away human remains. Their lives are permanently altered after they meet a woman named Persephone (Kelly Tallent) and her mother (the excellent Lorraine Bahr), who lead them toward finding redemption.
Myren wrote the play at UCLA in 1992 and has been working on it since then. "The play came to me in a strange way," Myren told WW. "I heard the word 'carking' [a Middle English word for 'troubling and distressing' still used in Scots dialect] and I thought that I would have to use the word in a play.
Later, as I was waiting in line to see a film, I saw a man in my mind say the word to another man." Anse and Bhule were born from that image.
Myren is an award-winning playwright who relocated to Portland 10 months ago. She found herself working with Gretchen Corbett, an old friend from Los Angeles. Corbett, long a supporter of Myren's work, had been waiting for a chance to direct Anse and Bhule.
With the recent founding of Sowelu, Corbett at last had a company prepared to meet the challenges posed in Myren's play. Along with invented language, there is ritual in Anse and Bhule, much of it inspired by Myren's readings of 12th-century church recitations.
Corbett's production incorporates masks and dance in the rites. "It's been a thrilling experience for me," said Myren. "I'm excited by Sowelu's process."
Anse and Bhule in No-mans Land won awards for:
- Outstanding Original Production, Sowelu Theater
- Outstanding Direction, Gretchen Corbett
- Set Design, Brad Scoggins
- Supporting Actor, Chris Harder