Shaking The Tree Theatre
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  • ARCHIVE
    • THE ANTIPODES
    • UBU AMERICA
    • THE BROTHER AND THE BIRD
    • WE WROTE THIS WITH YOU IN MIND
    • BLOOD WEDDING
    • IN A DIFFERENT REALITY SHE'S CLAWING AT THE WALLS
    • FORBIDDEN FRUIT
    • FUCKING A
    • MODELMINORITY
    • CHICK FIGHT
    • COMMUNITY IN CONVERSATION
    • FAMILY
    • 家 人 (JIA REN)
    • REFUGE
    • SHORT FLIX
    • BAKKHAI
    • ESCAPED ALONE
    • MADE TO DANCE IN BURNING BUILDINGS
    • _____ THE WOLF
    • SALT
    • MACBETH
    • THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE
    • COME TO THE TABLE
    • MISS JULIE
    • WE'RE ALL MAD HERE
    • HEAD . HANDS . FEET
    • ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE
    • A DOLL'S HOUSE
    • PASSION PLAY
    • SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER
    • MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH
    • ONE FLEA SPARE
    • WILDE TALES
    • FAR AWAY
    • THE TRIPPING POINT
  • WELCOME
  • SHOWS & EVENTS
    • NOTHING LEFT TO LOSE SUMMER FESTIVAL
    • DANCING ON THE SABBATH
    • TICKETS
  • WORKSHOPS
    • STT PLAYREADING CLUB
  • RESIDENCIES
    • VISUAL ARTS RESIDENCIES
    • PERFORMANCE RESIDENCIES
  • DONATE
  • RENTALS
  • CONTACT
    • FIND US HERE
    • ACCESSIBILITY
    • WORK WITH US
  • ABOUT
    • WHO WE ARE
    • ACCOUNTABILITY
    • LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
    • COVID POLICY
  • ARCHIVE
    • THE ANTIPODES
    • UBU AMERICA
    • THE BROTHER AND THE BIRD
    • WE WROTE THIS WITH YOU IN MIND
    • BLOOD WEDDING
    • IN A DIFFERENT REALITY SHE'S CLAWING AT THE WALLS
    • FORBIDDEN FRUIT
    • FUCKING A
    • MODELMINORITY
    • CHICK FIGHT
    • COMMUNITY IN CONVERSATION
    • FAMILY
    • 家 人 (JIA REN)
    • REFUGE
    • SHORT FLIX
    • BAKKHAI
    • ESCAPED ALONE
    • MADE TO DANCE IN BURNING BUILDINGS
    • _____ THE WOLF
    • SALT
    • MACBETH
    • THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE
    • COME TO THE TABLE
    • MISS JULIE
    • WE'RE ALL MAD HERE
    • HEAD . HANDS . FEET
    • ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE
    • A DOLL'S HOUSE
    • PASSION PLAY
    • SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER
    • MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH
    • ONE FLEA SPARE
    • WILDE TALES
    • FAR AWAY
    • THE TRIPPING POINT
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Thursdays-Saturdays at 7:30pm
​Sundays at 5:00pm
Shows begin promptly at 7:30pm & 5:00pm. No late seating.
*Recommended for ages 16 up
​Running time: 90 minutes (no intermission)

​Forbidden Fruit celebrates feminine curiosity and challenges the notion of original sin by inviting audiences to step inside a mystery container and choose how they will engage. Designed for small groups of participants, Forbidden Fruit mingles the myth of Pandora with the tale of Alice in Wonderland, and allows audiences into 8 installation rooms, each dedicated to a fruit/fungus/grain. Upon leaving, the price of learning the secrets of each room is paid as the chaos of the world is unleashed.

What audiences are saying

"Best show of the season in all of Portland." 

"Mind Blown!"

"An amazing and wild ride."

​"Wildly beautiful"
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"Shaking The Tree always doing the most interesting stuff in pdx!"

"What a brilliant piece of theater. Part installation/part immersive theater. So fun. So inventive. So bold. So brilliant."

"One of the best theatrical experiences I have had in Portland."

"I am absolutely astounded."

​"This show was astonishing. So glad I got a chance to see it."

"The audience is welcomed into a series of small rooms each featuring a performance based on a particular theme, and the result is exquisite." 

"Forbidden Fruit was thrilling; it was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. Like a feminist theatrical Disneyland. I felt so alive and seen in each piece. It was radical and bold and beautiful and just so damn well done."
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"I went with my Theatre Class. I saw Forbidden Fruit. This is the most amazing play I have ever seen in my entire life. I felt every emotion there was to feel. Folks were split up into groups of 6. They rotated clockwise for a different experience in each room. I don't even have words to speak. It was that good.​"

Reviews and Previews

"A longstanding Midgard of Portland theater, Shaking the Tree makes both boundary-pushing and wonderfully relatable projects. We expect grand things, and the company consistently delivers. With Forbidden Fruit, Shaking the Tree has raised the bar once again." -Suzette Smith, Portland mercury
Read the full review here
 
"I often leave the theatre speechless, and any words I can conjure up later are inadequate to describe the visceral experience. FORBIDDEN FRUIT is this type of theatre of the gut." 
-Krista Garver, Broadway World. Read the full review here

"Crafted as part-installation, part-performance, Shaking the Tree’s show Forbidden Fruit, which opens on March 4, invites audiences to embrace their curiosity as they step inside eight different installation rooms over a 90-minute period. Each room houses its own story and struggle—but all bear crucial (though perhaps uncomfortable) truths." -Isabel Lemus Kristensen, Portland Monthly. Read the preview here



The Hall

Devised
Performers: Kai Hynes & Rebby Yuer Foster

The Rooms

The Apple
Playwright: Michelle Ruiz Keil
​Actor: Sofía Marks
The Wild Banana
Playwright: Heath Hyun Houghton
Actor: Madeleine Tran
The Pomegranate
Devised
Actor: Olivia Mathews
The Fig
Playwright: E.M. Lewis
Actor: Val Landrum
The Mushroom
Playwright: Andrea Stolowitz
Actor: Vana O'Brien
The Grape
Choreographer: Amy Leona Havin
​Performer: Claire Aldridge
The Wheat Berry
Playwright: Sara Jean Accuardi
Actor: Kailey Rhodes
The Quince
Playwright: Josie Seid
Music Director & Composer: Joellen Sweeney
​Performers: Madeline Ross, Joellen Sweeney & Max Tapogna

Cast 

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Claire Aldridge
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Olivia Mathews
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Joellen Sweeney
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Kai Hynes
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Vana O'Brien
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Maximilian Tapogna
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Val Landrum
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Kailey Rhodes
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Madeleine Tran
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Sofía Marks
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Madeline Ross
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Rebby Yuer Foster

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Creative Team

Director & Set Designer: Samantha Van Der Merwe
Assistant Director: Annabel Cantor
Stage Manager: Emily Hogan
Assistant Stage Manager: Hayley Lamsma
Backstage Crew: Bela Mast
​
Music Director: Joellen Sweeney
Lighting Designers: Griffin Kiyoshi DeWitt
Sound Designer: Matt Wiens 
Costume Designer: Paige A. Hanna
Technical Director and Design Collaborator: Ree Seminole 
Scenic Charge Artist & Design Collaborator: Alex Meyer
Scenic Painter: Beiyi Teo
Master Electrician: 
Spencer Fork
​
Box Office Manager: Kai Hynes
Box Office Associates: Orlando Reyes Cabrera & Leiana Petlewski

Forbidden Fruit is generously supported by our major donors; Ronni Lacroute, Jessie Jonas, Anonymous, and Ellyn Bye. 
We'd also like to thank the foundations listed below, members of Shaking the Tree's Board, as well as many other individual supporters. To support this show, or any others in our season, please visit our SUPPORT page.

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Shaking the Tree Theatre is located at 823 SE Grant St.
Portland, OR 97214

Oue main office is located at 2136 SE 8th Ave
Portland, OR 97214

For our theatre: Look for the Big Blue Warehouse on the corner od SE 9th and Grant and enter through the gate.
​For our main office: look for the beautiful mural on the corner of SE 8th and Grant. Entrance is on SE 8th.


Shaking the Tree receives major funding from:

 The James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation,  The Marie Lamfrom Charitable Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, The Rose and David Dortort Foundation, supporting organization of the California Community Foundation, The Benjamin Buckley Young Actors Fund of Oregon Community Foundation, The Jackson Foundation, The Ronald W. Naito Foundation,
Ronni Lacroute, Jessie Jonas, Ellyn Bye & Anonymous x2.

Shaking the Tree Theatre receives support from the Oregon Arts Commission, a state agency funded by the State of Oregon and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Shaking the Tree is supported by the Oregon Cultural Trust through the Multnomah County Cultural Coalition.

  • WELCOME
  • SHOWS & EVENTS
    • NOTHING LEFT TO LOSE SUMMER FESTIVAL
    • DANCING ON THE SABBATH
    • TICKETS
  • WORKSHOPS
    • STT PLAYREADING CLUB
  • RESIDENCIES
    • VISUAL ARTS RESIDENCIES
    • PERFORMANCE RESIDENCIES
  • DONATE
  • RENTALS
  • CONTACT
    • FIND US HERE
    • ACCESSIBILITY
    • WORK WITH US
  • ABOUT
    • WHO WE ARE
    • ACCOUNTABILITY
    • LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
    • COVID POLICY
  • ARCHIVE
    • THE ANTIPODES
    • UBU AMERICA
    • THE BROTHER AND THE BIRD
    • WE WROTE THIS WITH YOU IN MIND
    • BLOOD WEDDING
    • IN A DIFFERENT REALITY SHE'S CLAWING AT THE WALLS
    • FORBIDDEN FRUIT
    • FUCKING A
    • MODELMINORITY
    • CHICK FIGHT
    • COMMUNITY IN CONVERSATION
    • FAMILY
    • 家 人 (JIA REN)
    • REFUGE
    • SHORT FLIX
    • BAKKHAI
    • ESCAPED ALONE
    • MADE TO DANCE IN BURNING BUILDINGS
    • _____ THE WOLF
    • SALT
    • MACBETH
    • THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE
    • COME TO THE TABLE
    • MISS JULIE
    • WE'RE ALL MAD HERE
    • HEAD . HANDS . FEET
    • ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE
    • A DOLL'S HOUSE
    • PASSION PLAY
    • SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER
    • MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH
    • ONE FLEA SPARE
    • WILDE TALES
    • FAR AWAY
    • THE TRIPPING POINT