Threads review, mnfringe show 28, Teen Wolf Killed My Grandma; first, as expected, I’m definitely the target audience for this; 2nd, there’s a LOT going on in this show, and all the production elements are there to make it happen; needs a bit more polish but as is, it works most of the time - 4 stars
Side note thread: Prize for worst mnfringe audience members goes to the elderly couple clearly visible in 2nd row at Teen Wolf Killed My Grandma; not enjoying themselves, they snarked like they were home watching TV; then decided to get up and leave 5 min. before the end, while actor giving speech about death of grandma; stay classy, folks
“They all choose to die for 16 hours to go to limbo, for plot reasons.”
One of the many fascinating things about “Teen Wolf Killed My Grandma” is, the more I think about it, there’s about a half dozen different shows crammed into less than an hour of Fringe show run time.
“I would steal that dog.”
There’s writer/director/actor Hannah Twitchell’s hilarious slide show/PowerPoint presentations on the MTV series “Teen Wolf” which I could frankly watch a whole hour of, no problem.
“That’s why we call her ‘3 Day Grandma.’”
There’s an enormous purple puppet, in the Muppet style of Grover or Elmo, representing Hannah’s Grandma on her death bed, and the vigil at the bedside where everyone holds their breath because Grandma might have stopped breathing, but then she snores and everyone relaxes. Occasionally the puppet regains full consciousness, calls for her husband, who is never there, mistakes her granddaughter for her daughter initially, then mid-conversation corrects herself, etc. And the playwright/performer freely acknowledges that she’s putting words in the mouth of the puppet that her real grandma never said, but she really wanted her to say. There’s probably more than one play there.
“To her, it was just a reminder that she wasn’t special.”
There’s sequences where two sisters (Hannah, along with Maren Borer) are on a long road trip together, taking turns driving, on their way to what they expect will be their last visit to grandma. They talk about their own relationship, but also the fact that their grandma can only function as their grandma for a couple of days, and then reverts to thinking more of herself than others, including her grandchildren - going from Grandma back to Norma in the way they refer to her. There’s a whole play in that road trip, especially considering the two sisters keep stepping out of the car into a different pool of light to talk about each other, providing the audience with additional context, then sitting back in the car. Whole play there, no problem.
“Boom. Dead cat.”
There’s a best friend (again, Maren Borer) who pops up unexpectedly to talk to the audience about all the things that the playwright isn’t telling them about herself, putting the whole show in a very different light. Just a monologue but I want to see that relationship on stage.
“When I think of Michigan, I think of that big red lighthouse.”
There’s the mother of the playwright (again, Maren Borer), daughter to the grandma puppet, knitting, and knitting, and knitting, while talking about her mother and her daughter, sitting vigil. An adult child watching their parent slowly die, whether they’re close to that parent or have a more complicated and distant relationship (it’s the latter here), is its own play, particularly when you add in the layer of that adult child’s own children being present - Hannah, also knitting.
“I was a gay teen on the internet when ‘Teen Wolf’ was on TV, and I really wanted Derek and Stiles to kiss.”
Oh, and I forgot to mention that Hannah’s father is onstage operating the puppet that is the stand-in for his late mother-in-law, acting opposite his daughter and fully visible. And Hannah’s stepfather built the grandma puppet and helped to orchestrate the Teen Wolf TV series projections. A show on the making of this show is also something I would watch.
“I grieved the Grandma that I had, and the one I never would.”
The challenge of “Teen Wolf Killed My Grandma - a memoir” is that all these plays are jockeying for position and a little more stage time and there’s only so much room. Also, there are things that might have been streamlined. “Teen Wolf” is clearly the spine of this show, and where the payoff comes from in the end, but there’s a lot of digressions into “Twilight” and “Lord of the Rings” and “Supernatural” and even “Star Trek” and kind of muddy the waters without contributing to some later result. It’s the place where factually correct gets in the way of fictionally useful. The writer was already rewriting Grandma, they could have also re-focused so we had only one cultural obsession to follow. Because it was really werewolf Derek Hale that killed Grandma and was part of Hannah’s grieving process, not Gandalf or Dean Winchester or Janeway or Edward Cullen.
“There’s really no reason to act anymore. My acting partner has left the stage.”
Side note: I’m very happy to see that everyone’s STARTING to get the unacknowledged and untreated trauma of all the death from the recent pandemic, and the near death of theater as an art form, out of their systems, but WOW there is so much grief in the vast majority of shows I’ve been seeing in the festival this year. I’m not even surprised when it turns up in a comedy or dance show anymore, I just think, “Ah, there it is again, I was wondering if grief was going to make an appearance.” I feel you, thank you for sharing. This mess had a long tail but at least it’s finally surfacing. It’s actually very helpful to know I’m not alone, so again, thank you.
“If he’s not on screen being shirtless and sad, what is the point of him being on the show?”
For all my quibbling, there are also a lot of moments all along the way in “Teen Wolf Killed My Grandma” that really land. (The detail about the soothing tones of a Vrbo ad playing at Grandma’s funeral because they didn’t think to cue up the YouTube music video to get past the ad before starting the service? Comedy gold.) And the space and conventions of the theater are fully exploited to keep the audience on their toes. I’d be interested in seeing more from this writer, and more from this play. There’s a lot to unpack here. If pop culture threaded into family dynamics is your jam, give “Teen Wolf Killed My Grandma - a memoir” a try. I’m glad I did.
4 Stars - Highly Recommended
Here's some handy links to coverage of shows I've seen in the Fringe this year getting 5 and 4.5 Stars (Very Highly Recommended), 4 and 3.5 Stars (Highly Recommended) as well as the shows ranking 3 stars or less; also links to this year's Top 10 list and Top 11-20 list, also a full list of all returning favorites to this year's Fringe, plus a link to ALL the 2024 Minnesota Fringe Festival coverage.
While I have your attention, please VOTE :)
Minnesota is currently in the early voting period
for our Congressional and local primaries (I had the U.S. Senate,
Congress, and the Minneapolis school board on my ballot) - final day to
vote in the primary is Tuesday, August 13th, but you don't have to wait
until Fringe is over, go vote right now :)
Early voting for the Presidential Election itself in Minnesota starts on Friday, September 20th.
We're lucky to have a lot of time to get our voices heard, so cast your
vote, and then make sure everyone you know and love is registered and
gets to the polls to vote. Election Day, your final date to vote, is Tuesday, November 5th.
As a queer playwright and theater maker, I want a government that's compassionate and competent enough to keep us all safe and healthy, keep theaters open and running, and personally, I'd just like to be legal myself and keep the weirdos out of government and out of my personal business (and the things I post on this blog, for instance). We all have our reasons, so let's make sure we get the leaders we need and deserve, and get our friends, family and co-workers to raise their voices, too.
Find where to vote and what's on your ballot (with links to candidate websites) and other resources at the Minnesota Secretary of State's website.
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Vote. Raise your voice. We're not going back.
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