Fringe 2025 - Day 2 in Brief - This, Insufferable Puppets, Clown Funeral, and Jabberwocky

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 #5: This - I kinda figured Tim Uren had more theater/life stories than could comfortably fit in a 1 hr. time slot and I was accidentally right; the epilogue section of the opening performance got cut off because the show ran a titch too long; lot of good material, though :) 4 stars

MN Fringe show #6: Simone Weil and the (Insufferable) Existentialist Breakfast Club - well, the title did warn me that the characters played by puppets would be insufferable (check); like the existentialists, I was left wondering: why am I here? what am I watching? what is the point? - 2.5 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 #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 

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