January 23, 2019
Page 9
Mississippi
Alberta
North Portland
Vancouver
East County
Beaverton
photo by J erry f oster
Quigley Provost-Landrum (left) and Trish Egan perform as two women, one black and one white, who meet in a memoir writing class where they critique each other’s
work and come to understand and learn from each other .
Hazardous Beauty
Making friends with people who are different
“Hazardous Beauty,” a play about two
women, one black and one white, who
meet in a memoir writing class and come
to understand and learn from one another,
makes its world premiere this month at
the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center in
north Portland.
Written by Bonnie Ratner, a Portland
writer, producer, director, actor and edu-
cator, and performed by Portland’s Afri-
can-American theater producing company,
PassinArts, the new production debuts as
part of Portland’s annual Fertile Ground
Festival of new works.
Hazardous Beauty is a provocative,
often very funny guide to making friends
with people who are different from us.
The characters Chloe, played by Quig-
ley Provost-Landrum, and Leah, played by
Trish Egan share stories and experiences
about their sometimes painful, at times joy-
ful and often humorous lives. The women,
although from different backgrounds, try
to make sense of love, work, art and aging
while exploring what all this means at the
intersection of gender, race and class.
During the 2016 Fertile Ground Festi-
val reading of Hazardous Beauty, audienc-
es called this play “wonderfully provoc-
ative, witty, complex and brilliant.” The
story has been revised and updated with
new surprises for this fully produced
world premiere.
“Hazardous Beauty” opens Friday, Jan.
25 and plays through Feb. 17 at the Inter-
state Firehouse, located at 5340 N. Inter-
state Ave. Showtimes are Friday and Sat-
urdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m.
Audience talkbacks will follow the Sunday
matinees on Feb. 3 and Feb.10.
Individual tickets are $20 and $15 for
seniors and students and available online
at passinart.org or visiting JP’s Framing &
Gallery, 418 N.E. Killingsworth.
PassinArt: A Theatre Company was
founded in 1982 and is the longest-pro-
ducing African-American theatre compa-
ny in Oregon. The group’s mission is to
entertain, educate, and inspire artists and
diverse audiences while addressing critical
issues facing our community; and to cele-
brate our history and culture.