For the millennium, Oregon Cabaret Theatre offers a premiere of an original production, Full Circle. Like most Oregon Cabaret shows, this is a musical. But it isn't like other OCT musicals. It's a mix of fable, parable, myth, dream and hyper-reality in the metaphor of satire. Giancarlo draws principally from Native American myths, bringing them into circular transitions with modern life: civilization and its discontents. The show opens with a visually satiric prologue, a dance by "Modern Persons" who bridge time. In modern dress and masks, they pick up angular, artificially shaped "stones" from the stage. They then transform them into books, then laptops (or backtops), blocks with which to build walls, then briefcases as they pantomime the pressures of life in a modern city, underlined by the sound and tempo of the music.
When the Modern Persons exit, enter Shaman Brent Florendo, truly resplendent in the Native American dress of his own Wasco tribe, perform a dance to music that is mainly tom-tom. Florendo is a member of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs of Oregon. Through the dance we learn the myth of creation, from the void: "Where nothing exists, all is possible." In the myth, creation generates creation: "Each step creates the next step....Each breath creates the next breath." The mischievous Coyote (Suzanne Seiber) is created and given the task of more creation. Coyote is joined by Sea Otter (Suzee Grilley), Bear (Florendo), Eagle (Richard Jessup), and Deer (Ai Ozawa).
These creature-people are given (or take) responsibility for their respective realms: Eagle for the sky and its creatures; Otter for the water and all in it. Coyote claims fire, and its many associations, such as electricity. When Coyote is bored with creating for harmonious nature, she plans discord by creating many languages instead of one. As the first act ends, the creature-people discover the council fire, and learn that, around it, they are one. In the second act, the creature people become more "human" and self-seeking, with increasing conflict. The situation resembles a wild "Animal Farm," especially as they discover politics.
Costume designer Kerri Lea Robbins gives the creature-people character masks which they wear on their heads, like hats, along the lines of those in Broadway's The Lion King. We see both the human and animal faces. In the second act, when the creature-people separate from one another, they wear masks that hide their faces. The second narration, by Jessica Blaszak, assumes qualities of Greek tragedy. While there is some singing, most of the lyrics are melodically spoken, rhymed couplets. The style accommodates some cast voices that aren't as strong as others.
The strong points are dance and visual effects, with the emphasis on an extended second-act dance featuring Grilley and Jessup and a close encounter. Grilley is a dancer with a limber grace that challenges description. While choreography by Giancarlo and the cast is artful in concept, the limitations of the OCT stage present a few obstacles -- some leaps are necessarily constricted. Barton's varied music, as played by Rob Jones (keyboards) and Jim Malachi (percussion), is listenable on its own and could have a life outside the show. As the play says, "Where nothing exists, everything is possible." May that mean every good thing, and may it be so.
