20,000 Leagues Under the Telltale Heart
Wet Splat Productions
Verne! Poe! Dickens! Twain! Christian Andersen! Kafka! Join us for a series of improvised tableaus based on their real-life correspondence. Everything in this show definitely, definitely really happened!
Venue: Rarig Center Arena
Tagged for: Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi, Improv, Puppetry, Historical Content, Literary Adaptation, LGBTQIA+ Content
Content Warnings: Adult Language, Violence
Honestly? The thing that sold me was the fake actor biographies. The idea of this improv comedy show was intriguing but the thing that convinced me that they know exactly what they’re doing and they’re going to have fun with it was the fake biographies of their characters in the show (and the fact that they aren’t going to try and pretend Hans Christian Andersen wasn’t gay).
A sampling:
Franz Kafka: “…is a father-fearing, beetle-morphing bureaucrat about town. You can find him in his apartment starting but never finishing his novels, and fighting off a cough. This is his first Fringe festival!”
Charles Dickens: “When he isn't writing best selling novels about class and Christmas, he's often fulfilling his washed up dreams of being an actor by performing said stories to crowds, or haunting the upper crust into being better people.”
Edgar Allan Poe: “A gambler, writer, and occult detective, he seeks justice for the mortal and supernatural realm, carrying on despite his tortured mind. He reluctantly stars in this Fringe production.”
Jules Verne: “literally a self-made man, as over the years his inventions have become part of his own flesh-and-clockwork body.”
Hans Christian Andersen: “So very shy and mysterious, the townspeople say, but also pretty and alluring!... For this Fringe Festival 2023 Hans hopes to find a boyfriend.”
Even their theater tech is part of the presentation:
“Ryan Klima was born on Christmas Day, 1845, and raised in Austria-Hungary. A draftsman and machinist by trade, he befriended Thomas Alva Edison at the International Exposition of Electricity in Paris and was granted unlimited use of his most prized invention: the phonograph.”
There’s more, of course, and while it’s probably not for everybody (it’s very much an exploration of the old white guy canon of literature), it’s definitely for me, so I plan to attend and enjoy myself. The idea of it amuses me, and the presentation thus far bodes well for them delivering on the promise of the idea.
Update, their Fringe preview with their hilarious theme song/dance number:
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.
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