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Late-Night Performance (One Night Only) 6/20/25 – Portland Stage Studio (Lobby)

Based on a short story by Sarah Pinsker, ‘And Then There Were (N-One)’ is an interactive piece of multi-dimensional murder mystery theatre. Under the guise of a convention, the audience is ushered into a theatre lobby, and given name tags. The name tags all have the same name on them – Sarah Pinsker.

We find we’ve all been invited to this convention from fragmented dimensions, branching off the same reality that is Sarah Pinsker’s life. There are Sarahs that stayed with her wife Mabel, and there are Sarahs that didn’t. There are Sarahs that live in a world where Seattle still exists, and Sarahs that do not. The show unfolds as the ‘performing Sarahs’ begin the conference, complete with a keynote speech from one of the most important versions of Sarah, and a panel discussion of Sarah’s favorite pets. The audience is intermittently invited to interact as if they were Sarahs as well, all of us different versions of the same character. The ‘Real’ Sarah Pinsker, it should be noted, is an accomplished SF and weird fiction writer, the winner of a couple Nebula awards, and was actually present in the audience, only adding to the meta-ness of the whole affair.

While challenging to follow at times, largely due to the nature of the venue (a lobby made up to feel like a meeting place for a convention), the whole affair had a pleasing surreal vibe. The story plays out into a murder mystery as one of the Sarahs ends up dead and one Sarah decides she needs to find out whodunit, and why. Roving between a comedy of errors and an existential crisis played out as dinner theatre, the show is as bizarre and new as it sounds. It’s funny and dark and innovative. As a theatre goer generally disinterested in the awkwardness of interactivity at shows, I still found myself addressing other audience members as ‘Sarah’ on the way out. Assuming we ever got out…? Now that I think about it, they said they had closed the interdimensional portals!  Which means maybe I’m still Sarah, and maybe I’m still looking for the version of me that has died?

Review Submitted on 6/22/25 by Allen Baldwin, PF25 Independent Review Team