tweet review - #mnfringe show 10 - What If We Hugged?: Levi Weinhagen tells 2 tales of trying to understand what his body is telling him, the birth of his daughter, and his own heart surgery, knit together with improvised commercial breaks; more parts than 1 whole, but getting there - 4 stars
What If We Hugged? is Levi Weinhagen’s first solo show, and he admitted he was still trying to figure out the form of the whole thing. What Weinhagen has now is a couple of strong personal stories, and a structure for those stories to live in that probably doesn’t work as well as it used to, due to the changing context we all get with the passage of time and more uncomfortable information than we were counting on being revealed.
“A human will come out of you, but not yet. Stay home.”
That structure was the sitcom format. An opener, commercial break, first chunk of story, commercial break, second chunk of story, and credits. The reason Weinhagen chose this format is that his opener was about being raised by television. Since his own dad wasn’t around much, he learned about being a man from TV dads. Unfortunately, one of the TV dads was Bill Cosby, and the other was John Goodman (not problematic himself, but on the problematic show Roseanne). It seems like the storyteller here either needs to find a way to actually deal with the details of that changing frame of reference (rather than shrug it off like, ‘Oops’), or find another structure. The ad breaks were improvised, and funny, but were neither entirely necessary nor feeding the larger story of the show, so they could easily go as well.
“This has been a PSA for not doing cocaine.”
What that leaves is the two stories. The first story is about the birth of his daughter (now 17), and the related information that when his loved ones are dealing with a medically perilous situation, Levi Weinhagen’s body thinks this is the best time to pass out until the crisis is past. This doesn’t happen when he’s in trouble, just other people. So he was less helpful than he wanted to be to his wife during the delivery of their daughter. The second story is about his heart surgery necessary because of a blocked artery, the symptoms leading up to the diagnosis, and the recovery period after the procedure. Again, his body being less than helpful, but this time due to genetics and family health history, not through any fault of his own.
“Angiogram, like it’s a fun New York Times puzzle.”
Weinhagen is a good storyteller who can find the humor in nearly any situation, and he’s a genial presence on stage, someone fun to spend some time listening to. There’s two things going on here, and he may just have to pick one as he continues to shape this piece going forward. There’s the material about the idea of what it means to be a father. And there’s the material about the idea of what it means to be a man, or by extension, just a decent, non-toxic human. It appears that Levi has both those things figured out for himself in his offstage life, but he doesn’t really share what he’s learned or how he learned it in this show, which would seem to be a vessel for it. His absent father, the two faces of Bill Cosby, the discomfort of something that once gave you comfort now being supremely uncomfortable - none of these are really addressed except in passing. The key might be in there. It also might be in more deeply exploring what it is to be a husband, and then also a father at the same time, how those roles change over the years as you and your spouse and your child all get older. Also, how do you learn to live with a body that keeps turning on you?
“Their idea of me had changed. I was now something to be managed.”
What If We Hugged? is a great start at a solo show. I’ll be interested to how he addresses these issues in his storytelling work going forward, either in this specific show, or new material. For now, he’s got me thinking, and considering all sorts of questions after the show’s over. And that’s better than your average Fringe show.
4 Stars - Highly Recommended
Here's some handy links to a rundown of 5 and 4.5 Star shows I've seen this year, also the 4 and 3.5 Star shows, and the rest, plus this year's Top 10 list, and Top 11-20 List, and the full list of all returning favorites in the 2023 Fringe, plus a link to all the 2023 Minnesota Fringe Festival coverage.
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