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Terminus

Terminus, the new Dan Shanahan piece currently being performed at the Central Terminal picks up on his earlier work, Muriel Vanderbilt Goes Walking, as the central character, Muriel, played by Melissa Meola, “confronts four stages of herself.” The event takes full advantage of its spectacular Central Terminal setting with a poetic and ambitious venture into audio- and video-enhanced performance.

Shanahan’s vision for his Torn Space company blazes a wide path across the theatrical landscape, and with Terminus he pushes his efforts beyond the limits of pure theater into performance art. Terminus is not built on narrative or characters in conflict. Instead, like poetry, the piece is constructed of compelling images which evoke great power while they resist definitive understanding. These visual moments are often quite arresting, as when Sharon Strait, as Mother, stands in a large, lighted dress structure at the far end of the terminal, beneath the gigantic arch of window and sings; or when Ryan O’Bryne, as Harold, enters the space from the far end of the room, dragging a large, rolling cart into the space, stops to untie the Human Sacrifice, played by Tim McPeek, and continues on his way. Shanahan often uses Bonita Z to excellent effect (she appeared in Muriel Vanderbilt Goes Walking) and here perches her high atop of a staircase in a sort of expressionistic high chair.

These moments are potent with possible interpretation but defy perfect comprehension. A great part of the pleasure of the performance is audience efforts to penetrate profoundly personal and cryptic material that makes use of images common to all of us. Aaron Miller’s excellent audio, video and set designs deserve particular mention. At a number of points, I momentarily mistook his digital images for living people. His work greatly enriches Terminus, an environmental experience that begins when the audience first enters Central Terminal through a corridor of fluorescent lamps and does not lag until the final unsettling moment. In addition to those mentioned above, the able cast includes Candace Lukasik as Muriel’s Younger Self; GregGreg and Dan Toner as Bonita Z’s fellow Custodians; Becky Globus as Protective Figure; and Kara McKenny as Mother Goddess.