Fringe 2023 - Top 10 - #6 - Dock Work

Dock Work
Jackdonkey Productions

An experimental, and devised show. Performed through moments of music, movement, and text. Follows the interpretive efforts of workers organizing a union.

Venue: Rarig Center Thrust
Tagged for: Dance - Modern, Drama, Physical Theater, Historical Content, Non-Verbal, Political Content
Content Warnings: Adult Language, Crude Humor, Loud Noises, Flashing Lights, Mental Illness, Violence, Abuse/Physical Violence, Other Divisive Content

I didn’t catch “A Drug Play” from Jackdonkey Productions in last year’s Fringe.  But they have been mighty busy ever since, and are one of the most recent examples to me that my brain is starting to adjust back to pre-pandemic ways of thinking about how I prioritize theater in my life.

After “A Drug Play” (which hit more than one Fringe on the circuit), they cranked out productions of Caryl Churchill’s “Far Away” and a comedy about Olympian Shaun White.  Not that long ago, they also produced Joey Hamburger’s play “The Assassination of the Archduke of Austria-Hungary Franz Ferdinand” (originally mounted far too briefly by Sheep Theater back in 2017 at the Southern).  That was one of the funniest, smartest plays I saw all year and I felt bad that more people didn’t get a chance to see it.  And so when I saw Jackdonkey was mounting another production, I genuinely wanted to go and see it, but I couldn’t get my schedule to work out.

The production of that play reminded me that I used to prioritize theater when I was planning the rest of my life, like availability for my second day job on nights and weekends.  That production reminded me that I used to do homework and scour theater listings for future things I might be interested in seeing so I could plan ahead.  That production reminded me that I still haven’t reached out to all the contacts I used to have at various theaters to give them my new contact information (since my web host suddenly went out of business last year and took my website and primary email address with it). Who knows, they might have been trying to reach me and just not known how?  And that production reminded me I need to be more responsive to people who do reach out to me about shows, even if I can’t see them.  I used to be better about all of that.  The muscles have atrophied from lack of use during the time right after my mom’s death, followed immediately by two years of pandemic scarcity of live performance (for completely understandable, life and death reasons).

So since I didn’t get to see “Franz Ferdinand,” I’m going to see this very different Jackdonkey production in the Fringe instead.  Their output has been nothing if not wildly eclectic so far.  I have no doubt that whatever comes next will be equally surprising and, quite probably, good.  The choice of that Joey Hamburger play makes me think these are my kind of theater people.

Update, their Fringe preview:

 

Here's some handy links to this year's Top 10, and Top 11-20 Lists, plus the full list of all returning favorites at this year's Fringe, plus a link to all the 2023 Minnesota Fringe Festival coverage.