Review on the fly:
#mnfringe show 19: Don’t Be Scared: deeply strange/funny in all the best ways; 2 German clowns as zombie business professionals with singing, dancing, acrobatic presentation for the audience on confronting fears and beating back the darkness; best use of Rarig X space (and crowd work) - 5 stars
As an audience member, I am perhaps too easily creeped out by things like horror, violence, blood and zombies (just to name a few), and so stay away from things that might otherwise delight me. (For instance, I love the community of the Twin Cities Horror Festival, but I am often too squeamish to sit through it myself.) The zombie clown antics of Band Practice (performers Lisa Ullrich and Ash Willison, and dramaturg Lena Katzer) in their show "Don't Be Scared" were borderline for me, but Fringe is a time when I try to push myself a bit more, and these folks were coming all the way from Germany, so I wanted to throw some support their way. After all, it was only an hour, so if I was going to be uncomfortable, it wouldn’t be for long.
“Where do you come from?”
“Minneapolis.”
“I come from the dark.”
Turns out, I had nothing to scared of, just like the title says. Were the clowns (named Stacy and Gunter) creepy-looking in their black and white face makeup and oversized suits? Yup. Is the Rarig Xperimental Theatre darker than usual for this show? Yup. But are these zombie clowns also constantly smiling, speaking in reassuring tones, and engaging the audience in inventive and amusing ways? Also yup.
“There are four ways to deal with the darkness.”
Ullrich and Willison make great use of almost literally every corner and level of the Rarig X space. Thanks to a headlamp and the sound of the actors’ voices, even in the dark you’re not subjected to any serious jump scares. Plus, Stacy and Gunter are here to help us face our fears (including the darkness). After establishing a rapport with the audience, starting with their elaborate acrobatic entrance dealing with a set of stairs as a team, the clowns gather an assortment of random fears from the audience and sketch or write them on their big presentation pads of paper, and proceed to act them out, improv style.
“It’s getting colder.”
There’s also a thread of music running through the show, popping up at the most unexpected times, thanks in part to an empty blue plastic jug and stick they use for percussion. The show has everything from Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” to Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” to “If You’re Happy and You Know It, Clap Your Hands” to Bowie and Queen’s “Under Pressure” to Tears For Fears’ “Shout” to Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence” to a full-on dance party with Taylor Swift’s “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.” Some of these are caught up in the improv of it all so your song list may vary slightly, but there are a number of tunes that seemed baked into the structure of the show. (Will you get riffs from Katy Perry or Disney’s Aladdin or the musical Grease or Judy Garland’s “Over The Rainbow”? Who can say?)
“Now, imagine the light.”
Ultimately, “Don’t Be Scared” is an amusing and uplifting bit of crafty community-building. The audience comes together as a group to deal with these two weirdos and their strange requests, and in return we all get the affirmation that though life may be scary in any number of ways, things work out better if we all face the scary things together. And nothing’s better as a bonding experience than an oddball piece of interactive live theater.
5 Stars, Very Highly Recommended
You can find reviews of other shows in these links to my listings of 5 and 4.5 Star Shows (VERY Highly Recommended) and 4 and 3.5 Star Shows (Highly Recommended). Here's a link to a list of all the coverage of returning favorite artists from past pre-Fringe Top 20 lists of mine that are part of this year's Minnesota Fringe Festival. And here's links to the 2026 versions of my pre-Fringe Top 10 list and Top 11 through 20 for the 2026 festival.
No comments:
Post a Comment