Review - The Murder on the Links - TRP - Another Agatha Christie Puzzle Box - 3 stars

Everybody seems to love a good murder mystery.  And every theater who puts one on stage, be it Theatre in the Round or the Guthrie, doesn’t have much of a problem selling tickets. I myself regularly devoured the works of Agatha Christie when I was younger and have quite a collection of her novels on my bookshelves.  “The Murder on the Links” was an older story I was less familiar with, though it features one of her beloved, quirky detectives on the case, Hercule Poirot. So if “Agatha Christie murder mystery with Hercule Poirot” is all you need to know that it’s the ticket for you, then you should get over to Theatre In The Round Players (TRP) and take in their production of Kate Danley’s adaptation of “The Murder On The Links.”  Nothing I say in the rest of this review should dissuade you.  If you need a little more information, then read on.

“I just adore crime.”

The pre-show announcement to the audience informed us the production of “Agatha Christie’s The Murder on the Links” is the world premiere of Danley’s adaptation (TRP also staged her adaptation of “The Mysterious Affair at Styles” just a couple of years back).  “Styles” was Poirot’s first appearance in a Christie novel, and “Links” is the follow-up.  The previous case (and play) are name-checked in the opening scene of this production but it’s a self-contained tale, so you don’t need prior exposure to any of these characters to follow this story.

“The fact that he was stabbed in the back points to this being a woman’s crime.”

And the story in “Murder on the Links” is a doozy, with so many twists and turns I honestly lost count (and also got a little confused, but Christie, Danley and this production pulled me back in and set me straight by the time it was over). Our narrator is Captain Arthur Hastings (Jake Leif) who serves as the trusty sidekick to detective Hercule Poirot (Ben Tallen) as well as our guide for the evening through the thorny plot.  Hastings and Poirot are summoned by an ominous letter to a small French town to assist a rich potential client with an unspecified problem that he fears may put him and his loved ones in danger.  However, this is set in 1920, and transportation then isn’t what it is now, so they unfortunately arrive just a bit too late - by the time they reach their destination, the man who wrote the letter is already dead, stabbed in the back out on a golf course (hence the title).  So the job changes instead to the pursuit of the man’s murderer.  And, as with most Agatha Christie mysteries, so it’s not really a spoiler, the corpse count doesn’t remain at just one.

“When you are dead, I can do as I please!”

Though murder is discussed, we do not witness one taking place in front of us, nor do we see a corpse.  The bodies in question are merely described to us.  Because, in Christie style, the point here isn’t the dead people, but the network of living people around them left behind, and affected by the events suddenly ripping their loved ones away from them.  This is also the cast of characters, of course, who make up our list of suspects.

“Sadly, with bleeding feet, love has come.”

Director Linda Paulsen has assembled quite the ensemble for this one (nearly 20 people) and uses them cleverly to populate this small town and make the world seem larger than just the detectives on the case and the suspicious people they interrogate.  There are numerous bits of side character work going on around the edges of the circular playing space, and the story in its center, from pre-show moments and throughout the evening, that add color to the human tapestry on display.  These sorts of clever touches extend to the design of the production as well.  The TRP space is stuffed full of set to the very edges on all sides, not an inch of space wasted by set designer Madeline Achen.  A tower on one side of the house and a room perched atop another of the four entrances have walls made of fabric, so when the illumination from lighting designer Mark Webb hits them one way, the walls appear solid, but if the light shifts, you can see through the walls to the space inside, where more action can take place in view of the audience.  And the parade of humanity wouldn’t be nearly as convincing if the actors, particularly the ones playing multiple roles, weren’t outfitted so ably by the work of costume designers Colleen O’Dell and Hunter Goldsmith.

“Your penetration is amazing, Hastings.”

Now, because this is Agatha Christie (and Hercule Poirot in particular), “The Murder on the Links” was always going to be a more cerebral affair than an action-oriented one.  The one drawback to this kind of detective story is that it’s so intellectual that it keeps much of the real human emotion involved in the situation at arm’s length.  This can make it hard to get invested in the story, apart from the intrinsic pleasure one gets from solving a complicated puzzle (which is still always a plus in a Christie mystery because the woman, and the adapter here, don’t leave any plot holes, all the many loose threads get tied up).  [Your mileage may vary: since my parents died, I find I’m less likely to enjoy death being treated as just another plot point in whatever media I’m consuming.  I think I expect more mess and emotion, and that’s not what a Christie murder mystery is hunting after.]

“We were quite the bachelor pair.”

Emotions themselves get swiftly pushed aside because we’ve got ground to cover plot-wise, and frankly the canvas is so crowded full of characters that it’s hard for anyone to get enough face time to make a real impression on the audience’s collective mind.  Part of the challenge of the production is just remembering who’s who.  We have the dead man’s widow Eloise (Megan Blakeley) and their adult son Jack (Bryce Bennyhoff) but they don’t get much time to grieve because they’ve either got to impart information or be moved around the plot’s chessboard by other characters who are talking about them in the context of the larger story.  There’s also the dead man’s potential mistress(?) Madame Daubreuil (Megan Rowe) and her mysterious and intense adult daughter Marthe (Paige Yanny). There are no less than four detectives on the case - in addition to Poirot and Hastings, there’s the local magistrate Hautet (Gerard Scheett) and a flamboyant, self-important French detective, tagged as Poirot’s nemesis, Giraud (James Ruth).  There’s also a plucky love interest for Hastings in the form of a young woman (Hannah Graff) who pops up in unexpected places to banter with him and then disappears, nicknamed Cinderella because he (and we) don’t find out her full identity until later in the action.  

“Without a doubt, it was the mafia!”

There’s more than one person with an assumed identity due to past misdeeds that required them to start a new life, and crimes in the past that resurface to mirror this case in the present.  There’s even a running joke about twins toward the very end of the proceedings that provides some much needed humor.  The parade of medical examiners, maids, mothers or nannies pushing baby carriages, waiters, vagrants, bakers, gardeners, general passersby, train porters, concierges, and waitresses is quite a feat of quick changes and multiple characters from the rest of the ensemble (Kiran Arquin, Chris Beason, Leo DeWolfe, Robin Gilmer, Brelee Harris, Cal Kathryn, Jeremy Lostetter, Stu Naber, Kristin Smith, and Carissa Wyant).  In addition, we have an assortment of accents from most members of the cast, some more successful than others.  There was also the unfortunate moment I got so confused that I thought a guy was trying to marry someone who was actually his half-sister (she wasn’t, but it took me a while to get myself out of that particular dead end path in the maze, because Christie can go to some dark, and darkly humorous, places sometimes, so it honestly didn’t seem like it was out of the question.)

“Crimes, though, are very much the same.”

The solution is a finely tuned series of events that make perfect sense when laid out by Poirot at the end of act two, but it will definitely keep you guessing.  It did me.  So if you’re looking for that kind of knotty plotting full of twists and turns and a satisfying resolution, “Agatha Christie’s The Murder on the Links” can give you your murder mystery fix for the holidays.  It’s also nice to see as one of several entries in this season’s lineup where TRP is giving audiences a chance to encounter new (and newish) plays and playwrights.

“I’m not your kind, and that brings trouble.”

Theatre in the Round Player (TRP)’s production of “Agatha Christie’s The Murder on the Links” runs through December 21, 2025 at their home in the Seven Corners neighborhood (245 Cedar Avenue, Minneapolis), Fridays & Saturdays at 7:30pm; Sundays at 2:00pm.

3 Stars - Recommended

 

 

Review - Souvenir - Gremlin Theatre - “When A High Brow Meets A Low Brow…” - 4 stars

It isn’t easy playing the role of a terrible singer.  It also isn’t easy playing the role of a gifted piano player.  But Gremlin Theatre has the best actors for each task in their production of the charming comedy “Souvenir, a Fantasia on the Life of Florence Foster Jenkins” by Stephen Temperley, directed with a delicate touch by Angela Timberman. A theater could go too hard on material like this, making the characters clowns or cartoons; a theater could also miss the comedy entirely if they lean too hard in the other direction.  Instead what we get, under director Timberman’s sure hand, is a story of two human beings who just want to make a little music, and to find an audience that appreciates their talents.  It is extremely funny, but also sweet in a way that tugs at your emotions now and again as well.  If you need a break from… well, everything these days, Gremlin Theatre has your ticket.

“I stepped from the wreckage a new woman!”

The terrible singer (a legendary one, really) is the Florence Foster Jenkins of the play’s subtitle, fearlessly portrayed by Cheryl Willis.  In order to be a convincing bad singer on stage, oddly enough you need to be a good singer to begin with - you need to know the right notes and the right rhythm in order to be able to reliably stay completely off key and out of step for an entire song in the most hilarious way possible.  Willis nails this in all of Jenkins’ rehearsals and performances throughout the play.

“What matters is what you hear in your head.”

Jenkins was a New York socialite in the 1930s and 1940s, known for her support of the classical music and opera scene, arranging concerts for others until friends urged her to put her own singing lessons to use and perform herself.  It was immediately apparent that the woman couldn’t sing, but what she lacked in accuracy, she made up for in commitment to being an entertainer.  Her audiences struggled mightily to contain their laughter and preserve Florence’s dignity.  But the train wreck nature of her performances quickly became the talk of the town and everyone wanted a ticket.  This lead to a record deal, and finally even a sold out concert to raise money for the troops in World War II at the famous Carnegie Hall.

“Am I crazy to keep writing songs no one wants to sing?”

Her young accompanist on the piano was Cosme McMoon, who had dreams of becoming a composer himself, portrayed by Jake Endres.  The conceit of the play is it’s November 1964, 20 years to the day since Florence died, and McMoon, now a pianist at a local jazz bar, is regaling the audience with tales of his 12 years working with Jenkins, on stage and off.  Though Jenkins’ singing offended his ears, Cosme was charmed by her determination and love of music, and he also needed to pay the rent.  What starts as a job quickly turns into an awkward but endearing friendship between the two.  

“I wondered what life had planned to temper his enthusiasm.”

Endres makes playing the piano and performing popular songs from the first half of the 20th century look effortless, which it is most definitely not.  And he does this while also playing the role of Cosme, both the young man working with Florence, and the older man looking back on those years with bewildered fondness.  This isn’t a romantic comedy.  The two characters are decades apart in age in the past, and it’s clearly implied a number of times that Cosme is gay, though that side of his life doesn’t appear on stage in this story.  The degree of difficulty, both musically and emotionally, for both performers is high but Endres and Willis pull it off in style.

“It seems to me that some notes are not quite… secure.”

Speaking of style, the production also looks fantastic.  Scenic and lighting designer (and Gremlin’s Technical Director) Carl Schoenborn, creates a world on Gremlin’s thrust stage that segues easily from jazz bar of the present to rehearsal room and concert halls of the past with a shift in the colorful and evocative lighting, and Florence’s comings and goings in and out of the dark as Cosme conjures her memory then returns to his present life without her.  The black and white checkered floor is complemented by the drape over the grand piano, and with little else but a chair, small table and phonograph cabinet, along with some bright red curtains draping the archway behind the stage, and stone vases on columns for flowers, this production and these two actors create entire worlds, and an unlikely partnership.

“After all, one is not a trombone.”

Florence was big on her costumes, flamboyant visual flourishes to go with each of her big musical numbers, and the production of “Souvenir” doesn’t disappoint in this department either. Rawl Blackett’s original costume design, and Sarah Bauer’s additional work on costumes as well as prop design, give Willis everything she needs for Florence’s unique style on stage and in real life.  Kudos to everyone (stage manager Maren Findlay, assistant stage manager AJ Jerome, with Blackett also pitching in on wardrobe duties) pulling off all the transitions and the multiple rapid costume changes they required.  C. Andrew Mayer’s sound design gives us a taste of what those audiences must have been like back then, both their applause and their laughter (with occasional heckling thrown in).

“All the mess and smells and joys of life.”

One might well wonder, how does a playwright get a full-length play out of something that seems a bit ridiculous. But “Souvenir” isn’t a one joke premise.  It’s an exploration of how two people can find and support one another, creating an artistic bond, as well as a study of someone who genuinely doesn’t hear the bad notes.  In her head, Florence sings like the angels she occasionally costumes herself as.  And since most of her concert appearances were for charities she believed in and supported personally from her own wealth (she didn’t need the money from a music career) and she supported Cosme’s work as a composer as well (though she couldn’t sing his work any better than the classics), she’s ultimately a benign figure with a good heart.

“Why can’t we live in the music forever?  Why can’t we go on and on?”

Florence and Cosme are both characters you can easily find yourself rooting for, despite the fact that Florence has no business singing in concert halls or having her voice preserved on vinyl records.  Given her music career happened nearly a hundred years ago now, and over seventy years after Florence’s death Meryl Streep was playing her in a movie version of her life, and here she is still fascinating audiences today, you gotta hand it to an unusual artist that has more staying power that a lot of other people of her time, or since.  As Florence herself once said, “People may say that I can’t sing, but no one can ever say that I didn’t sing.”

“Souvenir, a Fantasia on the Life of Florence Foster Jenkins” runs at the Gremlin Theatre (550 Vandalia Street in Saint Paul, MN) through Sunday, November 30, 2025 (Wednesday through Saturdays at 7:30pm, Sundays at 3pm; no performance on Thursday, November 27th, Thanksgiving).

4 Stars - Highly Recommended

[Photo (l to r) Jake Endres (Cosme McMoon) and Cheryl Willis (Florence Foster Jenkins) in Gremlin Theatre’s production of “Souvenir” - photo by Alyssa Kristine Photography]

 

 

Review - Pride and Prejudice - Theater in the Round Players - Jane Austen Dance Party - 4 stars

Theatre in the Round Players is kicking off their 74th season with a party for the whole audience.  TRP’s production of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice,” adapted by Kate Hamill and directed by Penelope Parsons-Lord, is full of music, dance and laughter, so if you’re looking for a fun time, this show is your ticket.  Hamill has been an adapting whirlwind of a playwright over the last decade or so and is one of the most produced playwrights in the country.  (The Guthrie has produced a couple of her other Austen adaptations in recent years: “Sense and Sensibility” [which I liked] and “Emma” [which I… didn’t]).  Going in, it was a coin flip whether I was going to enjoy myself at this re-telling of Austen’s best known (and oft-adapted) novel.  I should have had more faith in the basic plot of “Pride and Prejudice” to deliver, regardless of the trappings.  The production is well-executed and the cast is fully throwing themselves into romantic comedy vibes of it all.

“I just hate to think of her up there… in bed… alone.”

For the uninitiated (or if, like me, you sometimes can’t keep the plotlines of the different Austen novels straight): “Pride and Prejudice” is the tale of headstrong, intelligent Elizabeth (Lizzy) Bennet (Eva Gemlo) and her three sisters - her beautiful but shy elder sister Jane (Erika Sasseville), her severe and intense younger sister Mary (Stephanie Kahle), and her naive and flighty youngest sister Lydia (Maya Vagle).  Since there’s no brother to take over the estate from their good-natured father Mr. Bennet (Nick Menzhuber), their loud and slightly frantic mother Mrs. Bennet (Alison Anderson) is desperately trying to get her girls all married off to well-to-do bachelors to secure their futures in 19th century society, where a woman’s options were limited.

“The soundest nets will sometimes catch the smallest fish.”

Fortune seems to smile on them when Jane catches the eye of the new man of means about town Charles Bingley (Michael Hundevad) - though his sister Caroline (Sydney Payne) does her best to undermine the budding relationship.  Caroline seems to have an ally in Bingley’s awkward (but very rich) friend Mr. Darcy (Luke Langfeldt).  Darcy seems to continually cross paths (and butt heads) with Lizzy, and yet despite the friction, the two of them can’t seem to stay away from one another.  Further complicating matters are other potential suitors for Lizzy - the clergyman Mr. Collins (Davin Grindstaff ) (also a cousin to the Bennets, who is set to inherit the home they all live in when Mr. Bennet dies); and Mr. Wickham (Adam Rider), a soldier with a past tied to Mr. Darcy.  Also in the mix are Lizzy’s friend Charlotte (Reese Noelle Marcus) who is also in need of a husband, and Mr. Collins’ very self-important patroness Lady Catherine (Anna Olson) and her ghoulish constantly veiled daughter Ann (Mary Lofreddo), with actors Lizzie Esposito, Scott Hoffman, and Krista Weiss rounding out the large ensemble of players.

“I apologize for the chaos.  I wish I could say it was unusual.”

The first thing that catches your eye before the show even starts is how set designer Madison Bunnell has transformed the TRP space - climbing vines cover the two support columns in the house, hedges and bookshelves front several of the audience sections, and there are picture frames as well as chandeliers hanging in the air.  But this is one of those rare set designs that reveals more detail the more time you spend looking at it. For instance, the bookshelves - half of each bookshelf has straight, normal shelves, the other side has shelves that are titled up or down, sort of quirky and precarious-looking (half Darcy, half Bennet, if you will). These shelves are populated by some of prop designer Dominic Detwiler’s many props helping to give each room that appears a touch of period feel.  There are also some large frames fronting one audience section that are off-kilter - but moveable - and throughout the play some characters feel compelled to adjust them and straighten them up. The painting of the floor around the edges evokes flowing water, and the small circles which are part of the geometric pattern in the center of the floor have fields of stars in them.

“Reputation is no less brittle than it is beautiful.”

There’s also a lot of furniture moving around and multiple high-speed scene changes happening as the story rapidly moves from one location to the next.  This is the place where Alita Robertson’s bright, colorful lighting design, and the music-stuffed sound design from Robert Hoffman and director Parsons-Lord keep the audience alert and engaged between scenes.  It can also be where a lot of the dance is thrown in as well (choreographed by Claire Achen).  Scene shifts can be where a lot of the air and momentum go out of a production, so keeping these transitions lively and engaging is smart.

“He did come in search of a wife, and I was there.”

Most of the acting ensemble is leaning hard into the comedy part of “romantic comedy” and that’s something that this stage adaptation encourages.  Part of Hamill’s appeal as an adapter is her ability to inject humor into almost any situation - whether it’s a good idea or not.  It can help make an old story more accessible to a modern audience, however there’s a difference between laughing with a character and laughing at them.  The play is sometimes winking so hard at the audience that I was afraid its metaphorical eyeball would fall out of its socket.  A tone like that can sometimes make it hard for me to fully engage with a story because the actors are being encouraged to draw attention to the fact that they’re telling a story rather than just living in the moment without commenting on it.  Also some running bits can undercut a character, like equating Bingley’s enthusiasm to that of a dog which eventually becomes a bunch of canine commands with a ball, like Sit, Stay or Speak.  It’s a joke, and it gets a laugh, but at the character’s expense - so it’s a bit harder to root for him and Jane to end up together, because he doesn’t seem like a real person with a brain in his head.  Again, not the actors’ fault, or even the director’s - the script is telling them to go there.

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”

At the end of the day, it’s still “Pride and Prejudice” and the story endures for a reason, because it works.  Lizzy and Darcy, Jane and Bingley, and the colorful cast of characters around them are fun to spend time with. There’s also real energy and joy in this production which make it an amusing watch, and the evening just sails right along.  TRP’s production of “Pride and Prejudice” is a solid piece of theater, with a large team of artists fiercely “committed to the bit,” as they say.  No snoozy period drama here, we get a Jane Austen dance party instead.

“Pride and Prejudice” plays at Theatre in the Round Players (245 Cedar Avenue, Minneapolis, MN) through October 5, 2025.

4 stars - Highly Recommended

 

 

Fringe 2025 - Day 11 in Brief - Sun. Aug. 10th - Death, Jewelry, Neon, Cancer, Diner, Hamluke and Closing Night

Still trying to figure out the best way to navigate social media platforms that are increasingly full of garbage.  No longer using the site formerly known as Twitter, giving BlueSky a try (a lot fewer Nazis).  So that’s where the posts on the fly during the festival will be posted (https://bsky.app/profile/matthewaeverett.bsky.social), and then I’ll gather them here at the end of each day for the snapshot of my daily festival travels from show to show, with longer reviews to follow. 

MN Fringe show #50: Death! a Musical - remarkable effort for young artists, unusual theology/mythology for the afterlife but a lot of humor and catchy tunes to move things along as a teenage girl needs to face the reality (necessity?) of death; solid production from promising new talent - 4.5 stars

MN Fringe show #51: Jewelry Power Elite - Lauren Anderson had audience eating out of her hand at minute 1 as she unpacked her personal history and philosophy of a fabulously accessorized life; enough humor and heart to light up the whole Fringe Festival; already can’t wait for what’s next - 5 stars

 

 

MN Fringe show #52: Dice of Destiny: Neon City - Bearded Company’s improv comedy based on the random roll of a 20-sided die for success or failure in a spoof of 1980s action flicks, where 2024 is the distant future; so much fluorescent clothing; so much silliness - 4.5 stars

 

 

MN Fringe show #53: A Good Cancer To Have - yes, I’ve seen it 3 times; each time it gets better, I hear different details; like all good art, it’s worth revisiting; a treat at the end of Fringe I know is great, plus an hour I don’t need to take notes, I can just be; thanks, Sam and Leah - 5 stars 

 

MN Fringe show #54: Someone Always Pays - well, it was brief; so many questions; is the waitress in some kind of doom loop, since the other character doesn’t seem to know what’s going on but she does? Why is she stuck here? Why are we? At least they let her sing a song? Baffling - 2.5 stars

 

MN Fringe show #55: Hamluke - a suitably cheesy end to my Fringe for the year; brows both high and low; Shakespeare and Lucas; John Williams’ music and puppets; Hamlet mashed up with Star Wars; oddly moving, these sights and sounds of my childhood; Mom would’ve loved it - 5 stars

 

MN Fringe update: Closing Night Party at the Cedar was fun to drop in on; mostly there to see which shows ended up getting Golden Lanyard Awards for biggest attendance, as well as from Fringe staff, audience and fellow artists; as ever, a lot of shows I saw, and a bunch more I didn't. Great year! 

 

Here’s some handy links to coverage of 5 Star and 4.5 Star Shows I've Seen (VERY Highly Recommend), 4 Star and 3.5 Star Shows I've Seen (Highly Recommended), Other Shows I've Seen (3 Stars or Less), as well as my Fringe Top 10, Top 11 to 20 and Returning Favorites lists for this year, and all the coverage of this year’s Minnesota Fringe Festival.  

 

As I’m sure many artists are, I find myself struggling with the idea of just “taking time off” (what a luxury) and submerging myself in a whole lot of theater for 11 days while the world is on fire so… I’m going to put some phrases and links down here (and at the end of each post going forward) and if you find yourself compelled to explore one or more of them, so much the better.  There’s a lot going on, and it can be easy to get overwhelmed and tune out, but as Congresswoman Sarah McBride recently said, “If everybody shows a little courage, nobody needs to be a hero.”  I freely admit this list and these links are hardly exhaustive.  It's just something to get started.  Do what you can, where you can, however you can.  Let’s help one another get through this.

Contacting your elected officials about the issues that matter to you (and protesting as necessary)
Starvation in the Gaza Strip
Immigration raids around the United States
Ukraine fighting off invasion by Russia
Trans rights
Climate change action
Housing shortage and the unhoused
Reproductive Rights
Voting rights, and running for office
The courts, from the Supreme Court on down to the local level
Don’t forget to laugh - even gallows humor is still humor 

 

 

Fringe 2025 - VERY Highly Recommended Shows I've Seen - 5 Stars, 4.5 Stars

Here's a handy list of coverage of the shows I've seen so far at the Fringe that are VERY HIGHLY Recommended, getting either 5 stars or 4.5 stars, with links to full-length reviews as they're posted, in alphabetical order by title:

5 Stars - Very Highly Recommended (aka, Life-Altering Experience)

MN Fringe show #2: A Good Cancer to Have - easily the funniest thing I've ever seen about cancer; Sam Sweere has a great sense of the absurd, as well as the human, in a story like this; twisting theatrical conventions in ways I need more than a post to unpack; stellar work, start to finish; 5 stars (full review here)

MN Fringe show #38: A Good Cancer To Have (2nd viewing) - Sam Sweere's show has only gotten more confident (and funnier) since I saw its first performance a week ago (and I thought it was pretty great back then); the way his "theater brain" constructs a show fascinates (and entertains) me - 5 stars

MN Fringe show #53: A Good Cancer To Have - yes, I’ve seen it 3 times; each time it gets better, I hear different details; like all good art, it’s worth revisiting; a treat at the end of Fringe I know is great, plus an hour I don’t need to take notes, I can just be; thanks, Sam and Leah - 5 stars  

 

MN Fringe show #17: A Sad Carousel 2 - just the kind of insulting, Fringe-bashing, self-referential meta nonsense we look for in a sequel such as this; we’ve missed you while you were in that coma, Herschel Douscheburg (explaining jokes in a review will of course be self-defeating) - 5 stars (full review here)

 

 

 

MN Fringe show #19: All Your Shimmering Gold; nuclear arms manufacturers stage a few scenes from Das Rheingold for us, the American public, their very generous customer base; based on details of a real contract we’re really paying for; dazzling and unsettling - 5 stars (full review here)

 

 

 

MN Fringe show #20: Breach - fantastic use of TRP space, all its levels and corners, light, shadow and sound, to create a fishing vessel on a high pressure job, with weather and tempers threatening to undo the crew; great script, cast, direction; plus a giant hallucinatory monster crab - 5 stars

 

 

MN Fringe show #21: Breakneck 12th Night - it’s a marvel the way Tim Mooney can shave a 5 act play down to just under an hour, play all the characters, include the basics of every scene, and throw in the songs for good measure; 12th Night’s always a pleasure, even in miniature - 5 stars 

MN Fringe show #25: Cabin Fever - so many lesbians, so little time; this cast of improvisers/drag queen nails all the conventions of the reality TV dating genre and will say and do pretty much anything they can’t broadcast for the public :) just as funny as it is bawdy and unexpected - 5 stars

 

  

 

MN Fringe show #7: Clown Funeral - red noses for all! 4 distinctive clowns, a lecturing banana, a dolly cart that is also Dolly Parton, a corpse with a surprise, a reading of a will as insult comedy, audience singalongs, the most amusing funeral I've had the pleasure to attend (HONK!); 5 stars 

 

 

 

MN Fringe show #31: Curly Hair Boy - delightful surprise, tale of boy with ability to heal and communicate with nature on quest to rescue his 2 older sisters; 3 perform entirely in Nepalese, a 4th gives English introduction then joins others; sweet, whimsical - 5 stars (full review here)

 

 

 

 

 

MN Fringe show #49: Delete Later - surprisingly stirring way to end long day of Fringe; YPC's Young Artist's Council assembled a killer group of vocalists performing inspiring/funny/thoughtful songs and monologues about...well, life these days; opens and ends w/a bang, strong throughout - 5 stars 

 

 

 

MN Fringe show #27: Director’s Cut, Where Play Becomes Magic - audience chooses the scene based just on some descriptive words; then the director and actors collaborate on building the scene, with director giving insights into their particular process; fascinating peek behind the curtain - 5 stars 

 

 

MN Fringe show #44: Dolly Who’s Holiday Horror Show - Destiny Davison’s cartoons are adorably goofy, and creating a new holiday improv-style as a crowd amidst her established bits was a great communal experience; joy is in short supply so this was a real tonic :) - 5 stars 

 

MN Fringe show #14: Philip Simondet’s Fall of the High School Valedictorian - definitely the rawest thing I’ve seen; still a bit stunned; music great, though intense; warning about graphic depictions of self-harm is no joke, though there is also actual humor; great show but steel yourself - 5 stars

 

 

 

MN Fringe show #37: Fangs and Bangs (and Sangs) - Nissa Nordland is a fearless mistress of ceremonies, embracing the absurdity of her teenage musings in journals, song and sexy vampire fanfiction, enlisting fellow actors and musicians to help bring it to awkward life with hilarious results - 5 stars 

 

 

MN Fringe show #55: Hamluke - a suitably cheesy end to my Fringe for the year; brows both high and low; Shakespeare and Lucas; John Williams’ music and puppets; Hamlet mashed up with Star Wars; oddly moving, these sights and sounds of my childhood; Mom would’ve loved it - 5 stars 

 

MN Fringe show #29: husk/vessel from Kairos Dance; five dancers in a continuous evolving piece of movement set to a modern electronic instrumental soundscape; hard to summarize but you kind of feel it in your gut (in a good way); really impressive what some human bodies and fabric can do - 5 stars 

 

MN Fringe show #23: I Have Griefances - solid recommendation from friends on this one; Wells Farnham delivers a very funny solo show that is oddly sweet despite all the profanity, in tribute to the multiple members of his family that keep coming down with various strains of cancer - 5 stars (full review here)

 

 

MN Fringe show #51: Jewelry Power Elite - Lauren Anderson had audience eating out of her hand at minute 1 as she unpacked her personal history and philosophy of a fabulously accessorized life; enough humor and heart to light up the whole Fringe Festival; already can’t wait for what’s next - 5 stars 

 

MN Fringe show #26: Joan of Arc for Miss Teen Queen USA - it would've been so easy for this to be a surface-level, flashy, one joke premise kind of comedy, so kudos to Melancholics Anonymous for serving up something not just funny but having depth, great characters; fascinating all-around - 5 stars 

 

 

MN Fringe show #9: Jon Bennett: American’t - everything I want to talk about would also kind of be a spoiler so I’ll just say this solo show is perfectly crafted, full of surprises, and extremely funny, even better than his last one (more later, when I’ve figured out how not to spoil it) 5 stars (full review here)

 

 

 

MN Fringe show # 10: Mind Reader - somehow I managed to not get selected as a volunteer; wild feats of memory and stuff that shouldn’t be able to happen; had Steven Nicholas read my mind, all he probably would have gotten was “wow, he has really nice arms” 5 stars (for the show as well as the arms) (full review here)

  

 

MN Fringe show #41: Ping Prov - great mix of improvisers in this performance; their 3 sets were fun, and then they all went in hard on the Ping Prov of it all as a group with bizarre and entertaining results; they were sharp and on it the whole time, which is all you could ask - 5 stars 

 

 

 

MN Fringe show #18: Ranger Jim - may we all be able to still hold a stage and still spin a tale with the skill and precision and humor and humanity that Jim Stowell still does now in his 80s, remarkable stories of the collision of nature and people in the US national parks - 5 stars

 

 

MN Fringe show #47: Rec League - a whole team of first-class improvisers hilariously pretending to play softball all over the theater; while also working out their personal issues in the dugout and the outfield; crazy funny rolling bits cascading over one another; plus wild sound cues - 5 stars 

 

 

MN Fringe show #11: Songs Without Words - Holy sh*t, that was amazing! Brilliant script,effortless performance, and music friends said she nailed all those details and it made them want to run home and listen to more music by *both* the Mendelssohns; 5 stars (full review here)

 

 

 

MN Fringe show #32: That Which Is Green - Michael Rogers does it again, and this time he’s not alone on stage for his character’s existential crisis; Alex Van Loh is there, too, which makes all the difference; a lovely, funny, moving exploration of growing up and moving on - 5 stars 

 

 

MN Fringe show #28: The Abortion Chronicles - new stories, new urgency; the variety of different specific deeply personal tales is just the right mix; makes you stop and consider your own connections to the current situation we’re all living in - 5 stars 

 

 

MN Fringe show #16: The Big Secret - Brad Lawrence’s storytelling is mesmerizing; this is the 4th Fringe I’ve seen him in and he never disappoints; this time, it’s excavating the world around a secret shared by 17 yr old Jessica with 14 yr old Brad, just 2 years before her death - 5 stars

 

 

 

MN Fringe show #24: The Gentlemen’s Pratfall Club from Comedy Suitcase - so many great one liners, so many ridiculous characters, so many painful looking stage “accidents” Joshua English Scrimshaw and Levi Weinhagen serve up comedy from so many directions; brilliant - 5 stars

 

 

MN Fringe show #43: The Show Must Go On - this “backstage” puzzle game in the Phoenix Theater lobby was a lot of fun (made good time, 41 min.); tip: shows are sell out risk because it’s just 8 people each, but unless it says sold out, there’s still tix, go for it! - 5 stars 

 

 

MN Fringe show #36: The Temporary Tattoo Trio - this time, I get it; while I don't always "get" the oddball sensibility of an alleged Theatre Co.'s work, this awkward tale of fraying bonds of friendship and reluctant growing up, combined with amusing audience interaction, connects with me - 5 stars  

 

MN Fringe show #12: The Wickie - just delightfully goofy, well-executed clowning from beginning to end as a beleaguered lighthouse keeper battles the ocean that stole his left shoe; great crowd engagement and world building, so inventive and funny; 5 stars (full review here)

 

 

MN Fringe show #42: Trust Exercises/Exorcises: Phil Gonzales spins the wonder wheel of story options to expel toxic memories associated with the truly bonkers real life theater cult centered on his high school teacher (yikes); just as full of manic energy, humor and honesty as ever (wow) - 5 stars 

 

 

4.5 Stars - Very Highly Recommeded (aka, Damn Near Perfect) 

MN Fringe show #1: (long title) aka The Fart Show - Malcolm Dekker and his Fringe vet dad Kyle have crafted a clever, inventive, goofy little show, with lots of fun audience fart sound participation, providing structure to something that might have just been a string of fart jokes; 4.5 stars (full review here)

 

  

 

MN Fringe show #50: Death! a Musical - remarkable effort for young artists, unusual theology/mythology for the afterlife but a lot of humor and catchy tunes to move things along as a teenage girl needs to face the reality (necessity?) of death; solid production from promising new talent - 4.5 stars 

 

 

MN Fringe show #52: Dice of Destiny: Neon City - Bearded Company’s improv comedy based on the random roll of a 20-sided die for success or failure in a spoof of 1980s action flicks, where 2024 is the distant future; so much fluorescent clothing; so much silliness - 4.5 stars

 

MN Fringe show #33: In The Garden of American Heroes - Andrew Erskine Wheeler has a thornier subject this time, General Custer as a representative of many of the founding (and continuing) sins of this country; pacing, staging just a bit off, but guy still commands a stage like few others - 4.5 stars 

 

 

MN Fringe show #48: Insomnia Dogs - not at all what I thought it’d be, in the best way; personal dynamics of a group of 5 female college friends experimenting with sleep deprivation to enhance their creativity; inventive new play, clever staging; happily embraces fluidity of sexuality - 4.5 stars 

 

 

MN Fringe show #46: Shrieking Harpies: Period Piece - online poll chose American frontier for this improvised musical so we got twins, prostitutes, girl raised by wolves who wrote an opera, and a pivotal tin of crackers; mind-boggling that the keyboard and singing all come outa nowhere - 4.5 stars 

 

 

MN Fringe show #8: The Jaws That Bite, The Claws That Catch: a show that knows what it's doing, but what is it doing? your interpretation of a presentation from a man clinging to his memories and the poem "Jabberwocky" in a degenerating spiral may vary; few answers, many questions; 4.5 stars   

 

MN Fringe show #3: The Kendra Plant Variety Hour - Plant is a charming host; all 3 guests crackle with how good they are at what they do; stunning Japanese dragon dance, drumming and pipe; heartfelt songs of trans liberation; eye-popping ballet contortions plus burlesque; variety indeed; 4.5 stars (full review here)

 

 

 

MN Fringe show #22: Winding Sheet Outfit's admitted work in progress The Spirit Moves You To Color The Unseen already firing on all cylinders in acting, music, design and execution; the art of subject Hilma af Klint is still half understood so the script can only go so far; gorgeous; 4.5 stars

 

Here’s some handy links to coverage of 4 Star and 3.5 Star Shows I've Seen (Highly Recommended), Other Shows I've Seen (3 Stars or Less), as well as my Fringe Top 10, Top 11 to 20 and Returning Favorites lists for this year, and all the coverage of this year’s Minnesota Fringe Festival.  

 

As I’m sure many artists are, I find myself struggling with the idea of just “taking time off” (what a luxury) and submerging myself in a whole lot of theater for 11 days while the world is on fire so… I’m going to put some phrases and links down here (and at the end of each post going forward) and if you find yourself compelled to explore one or more of them, so much the better.  There’s a lot going on, and it can be easy to get overwhelmed and tune out, but as Congresswoman Sarah McBride recently said, “If everybody shows a little courage, nobody needs to be a hero.”  I freely admit this list and these links are hardly exhaustive.  It's just something to get started.  Do what you can, where you can, however you can.  Let’s help one another get through this.

Contacting your elected officials about the issues that matter to you (and protesting as necessary)
Starvation in the Gaza Strip
Immigration raids around the United States
Ukraine fighting off invasion by Russia
Trans rights
Climate change action
Housing shortage and the unhoused
Reproductive Rights
Voting rights, and running for office
The courts, from the Supreme Court on down to the local level
Don’t forget to laugh - even gallows humor is still humor