Blink and You Miss It - 3 days only - April 6 to 8 - The Assassination of the Archduke of Austria-Hungary Franz Ferdinand

Bummed that the Minnesota Fringe Festival is still four months away?  Looking to get in that Fringe spirit? Well, there’s a few things going on over the coming weeks that might be able to help with that.

In the “Blink And You Miss It” category, there’s a super-short three day run of a new play from Sheep Theater - The Assassination of the Archduke of Austria-Hungary Franz Ferdinand (no, not that Franz Ferdinand, the original historical one).  Writer Joey Hamburger has a weird sense of humor that completely draws me in.  He’s made tales of assassination and double-crossing amusing as hell before with his adaptation of Tamburlaine.  Now he’s at it again with actual historical events.  Here it’s the assassination which was the tipping point leading Europe into World War One.  Not your standard comedic fare, more of a comedic tragedy, but that’s Sheep Theater for you.  I enjoyed their 2015 Fringe show Deus Ex Machina enormously, and their 2016 Fringe satirical reshuffling of horror movie The Most Dangerous Game was also giggle-inducing.

Here’s the basics:

Sarajevo, June 28th, 1914. Gavrilo Princip and five accomplices assassinated the Austrian-Hungarian heir apparent Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie. Sheep Theater, creators of Tamburlaine, George, and The Most Dangerous Game, premiere their original comedic tragedy about the sequence of events that led to their deaths.

The Assassination of the Archduke of Austria-Hungary Franz Ferdinand is written by Joey Hamburger, directed by Michael Hugh Torsch, produced by Sheep Theater and features Robb Goetzke, Iris Rose Page, Jacob Mobley, Michael Rogers, Madeleine Rowe, Emily Wrolson, Nick Saxton, Tara Lucchino, Mike Merino, and Josiah Thompson. Music by John Hilsen.

If you need a change of pace, you should check out Sheep Theater at the Southern Theater tonight (April 6) and tomorrow (April 7) at 7:30pm, or one of their two Saturday shows (April 8), 2:30pm and 7:30pm.

Like I said, blink and you miss it.  Not much of a chance to catch this one, so if you can, you should.  The other theater will still be around next week.

Enjoy!