PORNOGRAPHIC PANORAMA

Ralph is joined in a bar by three construction workers who have been toiling at a nearby job site. Beau is the friendliest, willing to chat up a lonely fellow at the bar and smooth over any misunderstandings that might arise, though he has a mischievous side as well . Cicero is hungry for almost anything, restless, macho. Mulligan is older, darker, argumentative, the most brutal of the lot.

They are all family men, but together in the bar with Ralph, they are simply trouble, casually dangerous. They drink, scrap, calm down, become bored and start the cycle all over again. Maybe they would have been content simply to cuff Ralph around a bit, drink themselves home. But then Molly shows up.

Molly has had a relationship with Ralph. She is aggressive, sexual, tough – and full of mixed signals. “I’m nobody’s piece of meat,” she tells one of the boys at one point, but then turns to Ralph after a rather steamy tango with Cicero and says, “I’m friendly and I’m willing to do something about that part of myself.”

All of this byplay hints at disaster, and when Molly invites the gang to her place for a party, the disaster location is chosen. Immediately, psycho-sexual issues begin to boil. Mulligan disappears into Molly’s bedroom and emerges in a red dress which clings to his bulky body. He bullies Cicero into pulling on a dress, too, and then starts a seduction that will not take no for an answer. Meantime, Molly and Beau retire to her bedroom offstage. We are not exactly sure what has happened, but we know things have gone badly for Beau: At the very least he has been unmanned.

This does not concern the crew very much, consumed as they are by their own little dramas. Even when Beau’s wife shows up, Beau’s fate does not become paramount. In fact, she adds a certain wildness of her own to the party, encouraging some partner-switching. Ralph starts to feel depressed and very, very empty…
 

Reviews

PORNOGRAPHIC PANORAMA is a pitch-black comedy that dares to pry back the rock and shine light on our empty, artificial culture, which has been reduced to distraction and the simulacra of real experiences. This is surreal satire as potent as Albee’s The American Dream and just as much a picture of our time” Steffen Silvis, Performance, Portland, Oregon, May 1999.

“The audience stumbles off this roller coaster dizzy with horror over what it’s seen but also having had some dark chuckles along the way” PORNOGRAPHIC PANORAMA - Barry Johnson, The Oregonian, Portland, Oregon, May 12, 1999.

Productions

Date: June 1999
Theater:Theatre! Theatre!, Portland, Oregon.
Performed by: The Stark Raving Theatre Company
Directed by: David Demke
Cast: Jim Wilhite, Steve Boss, Jim Hartley, David Seitz, Rick Mullins, Adrienne Flagg, Nancy Wilson