The MN State Fair rejects Doris' traditional kosher pickles claiming they "look" spoiled. Something funky's going on and she's gonna raise hell. A darkly comedic look at pickle prejudice. Based on a true story.
The playwright here is Deborah Yarchun, and I’d basically go to see anything she writes - even something about pickles at the Minnesota State Fair. Why? I helped run a new play reading series for Workhouse Theatre for three years and in year one we had submissions from dozens of playwrights. The one that really stood out was Deborah Yarchun. She sent us excerpts from four different plays. We asked to see all four of the full scripts. Over the next two years, we ended up doing public readings of all four scripts. She had another script she was working on. We read that and did a public reading of that one, too. (That script was Great White, for which she just ranked an honorable mention for the $45,000 Relentless Award for Playwriting.) Each of her scripts is wildly different, yet they all seek (and find) the humanity in people we’d normally find it difficult to understand - outsiders and “losers” who nonetheless struggle and find meaning and purpose for their lives despite daunting circumstances. And of course, there’s much welcome humor all along the way. If you get a chance to see a Deborah Yarchun play, you should. And here one is in the Fringe. Lucky you. Bonus points - you also get the phenomenal local actress and comedienne Angela Timberman saying Deborah’s words.
(Random shout-outs: other notable scripts, Pulitzer Prize Finalist Gruesome Playground Injuries, and a play I saw workshopped down at the William Inge Theater Festival this spring in Kansas, Facility, both of which almost made the list here.)
And here's some handy links to the full list of pre-Fringe top 10, and 11-20, returning favorites, and all the random shout outs in these Top 10/Top 20 posts - links all gathered in a single list to take you to fuller posts and Fringe pages. Enjoy!
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