Fringe 2026 - Returning Favorites - Snikt! Bamf! Thwip! - Casa Bde-Maka-Ska

I am either the perfect audience for this show, or the last person in the world who should see it.  I’m not sure which side of the fence it’s gonna fall on yet.

Casa Bde-Maka-Ska

Description: 
Everyone comes to Rick's. Even in the middle of a hostile occupation. Even in a world where lovers who have been torn apart by circumstance can bond over some well chosen Prince music.
Venue - Theatre in the Round (TRP)
Content Warnings - Adult language, Gun/Weapon Usage
Genre and Content - Comedy
Ages 12 to 15 and Up

The additional info in the press packet materials does give me encouragement:

“Minnesota is occupied but everyone is coming to Rick's.  Casa Bde-Maka-Ska is an adaptation of Casablanca through the lens of the last several months in Minnesota. The original story is very much about a hostile occupation of a foreign city, much as we have experienced here. It is a comedy but doesn't ignore the fact that real harm was done to real people on the streets of our home.”

The fact that (twice-mentioned already) Duck Washington is co-writing the script with Tim Wick is also a plus.

The cast including Samuel Poppen as Rick (the Bogart role) and Kelvin Hatle as Captain Louis Renault (the Claude Rains role) is also very promising.

Snikt! Bamf! Thwip! regularly lampoons popular culture by mashing up two things that don’t often go together, whether that be Bridgerton via action movie director Michael Bay, or a steampunk version of the sci-fi horror franchise Alien, a spoof of the John Wick assassin action movies, or The Complete Works of William Shatner (abridged).

And the parallels between the plot of Casablanca and the unfortunately real-life situation in Minnesota this year are uncanny.

But Casablanca is one of my very favorite films, so it’s easy to put me off.

Also, the title here almost seems like it’s making fun of the concept of renaming things in Minneapolis back to the way the Native Americans did, rather than naming them after problematic American historical figures who came along after.  I’m sure that’s not the intent, but that’s the way my brain processes it.  (Also, doesn’t Casa-Blanca literally translate to White House?  It’s kind of right there, isn’t it?)

All that said, on balance it looks like I’m going to enjoy myself, so I’m looking forward to this one.

And I will refrain from Casablanca jokes myself (until it’s time for the review)

Update: Their Fringe preview also helped put me at ease: 

 

 

Interested in hearing about other artists I recommend based on past outings in the Fringe? 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 as we ramp up toward the start of the Fringe on August 6th.  

 

  

Fringe 2026 - Returning Favorites - The Winding Sheet Outfit - A Confluence of Magical Arseholes

We have a title that includes both the words “confluence” and “arseholes” - do I really need to lay out further reasons why I’m on board to go see this show?

(By the way, I love that spellcheck knows that I was inverting a couple of letters and typing “arseholes” incorrectly at first.  It wants me to get that word right.)

Further reasons?  It’s Amber Bjork’s group The Winding Sheet Outfit, which regularly produces theater that reminds me I need to read more history because history is littered with the strangest stories and the oddest people, and the more you dig into them, the more fascinating they often become.  (They’ve been accidentally making me feel poorly educated and under-read since they landed on my pre-Fringe Top 10 List back in 2012, but that’s my problem :) The Winding Sheet Outfit each year fixates on some figure in the past, often an artist or group of artists, and put them in the context of the larger sprawl of the world’s story, while also making them fully human and relatable in their own smaller personal story.  This can also apply to legends (ancient or urban) as well. This year, it’s…

A Confluence of Magical Arseholes

Description: 
The feckin' story and singy-song of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. There be the famous supper club for some bored c*nts and dilettantes, and this be that time W. B. Yeats kicked Aleister Crowley's arse.
Venue - Rarig Thrust
Content Warnings - Adult language
Genre and Content - Comedy, Musical Theater, Original Music, Historical Content
Ages 16 and Up

The press packet adds this bit of amusing further context for the piece:

“A rowdy musical revue about that time W. B. Yeats kicked Aleister Crowley's ass.

The award-winning company behind memorial-based theater pieces like "Blood Nocturne," "You Are Cordially Invited to the Life and Death of Edward Lear," and "The Spirit Moves You to Color the Unseen" takes on the challenge of a full-scale musical about people you've heard of but may not know very much about--W. B. Yeats, Aleister Crowley, and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Their goal is to make it rowdy and irreverent  and real stupid fun.”

The More Information tab on their show page offers this sheepish content warning:

“More info coming soon.
Promise.
Also, a warning, be prepared: Aleister Crowley used the C word in his poetry.
A lot.
It's been a problem during rehearsals.
I can't get these arseholes to focus on anything but stupid giggles.
Did I mention this show is gonna be really stupid?
And pretty? And fun?
But mostly stupid.
With a lot of "c---."
*polite curtsey*
Also, I'll ask the Crowley fans and devotees not to curse us please.
Thank you.
*politer curtsey*”

So it’s a foul-mouthed Fringe musical.  Extra points for all that, obviously.

The cast list as usual is an embarrassment of riches.  It’s almost not fair to have all these people in one show :)

The previously name-checked Sam Landman is the playwright George Bernard Shaw

The previously name-checked Derek Lee Miller is the horror novelist Bram Stoker

The previously name-checked Mark Benzel is the poet W. B. (Willie) Yeats

Michael Rogers is playing the guy about to get his ass kicked, Alister Crowley

Amber Bjork in addition to directing the project is also playing a character named Lady Gregory.

And a quartet of great actresses I’ve seen in so very many Fringe and non-Fringe theatrical productions that I can’t enumerate them all right  now - Heather Bunch, Megan Campbell Lagas, Kristina Fjellman, and Boo Segersin.  They are, of course, playing women whose names I should probably know, but I was educated far too long ago in a public school with a patriarchal lens on history so I will be encountering them here properly for the first time (Florence Farr, Annie Horniman, Moina Mathers, and Maud Gonne, respectively) - though, two of them have names that if you put them together create the phrase Far Gone and another's last name looks like Horny Man so… maybe I’m being punked?  We’ll see.

And that’s just the collaborators whose names I recognize off the top of my head without doing any digging.  There are more.

In general, this group has a wicked sense of humor, with a bit of whimsy and melancholy mixed in as necessary, which I always appreciate.  They take their subjects seriously, but not too seriously.

The Winding Sheet Outfit's Fringe shows (and Twin Cities Horror Festival shows) regularly pack in the audiences, so they certainly don’t need a boost from me, but I’m mentioning them anyway.  I’m looking forward to seeing what flavor of weird they’re offering up this year. 

 

Interested in hearing about other artists I recommend based on past outings in the Fringe? 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 as we ramp up toward the start of the Fringe on August 6th.  

 

 

Fringe 2025 - Returning Favorites - The Winding Sheet Outfit (Amber Bjork) - The Spirit Moves You To Color the Unseen

Director Amber Bjork’s theater company The Winding Sheet Outfit is at it again, taking a seemingly obscure artist and elevating their story in theatrical form, showing us why we should care about the fact that they and their art existed.

Art about artists frequently leaves me cold, but never the the way The Winding Sheet Outfit tackles the subject (there’s a reason they first appeared on my pre-Fringe Top 10 list back in 2012; whatever strange or wonderful topic they fixate on, they get their audiences to care about it, too):

The Spirit Moves You To Color the Unseen
The Winding Sheet Outfit
Venue: Rarig Thrust
 
Show Description:
Channeled from Spirit, Hilma af Klint's paintings are ineffable, groundbreaking, and absolutely breathtaking. It's our honor to introduce you to the artist and her work through movement, music, color and light.

The award-winning devised theater group returns with a story of Swedish painter and mystic, Hilma af Klint. Years before Kandinski and Mondrian, af Klint was commissioned by spirits to paint roadmaps to the universe, grand works that were meant be housed in a great temple. But the message was sent too early and Hilma's art was fated to have a far-future audience that she knew she would never live to see. With live abstract music, movement, and color, The Winding Sheet brings Hilma af Klint's two worlds--that of early 1900 Sweden and the realm of spirits--to the Fringe, placing them in the temple that is Rarig Thrust, for the audiences of now.

Genre & Content:
Drama, Original Music, Historical Content, Physical Theater, LGBTQIA+ Content
Warnings: None
 
Not a story of horror, which they also sometimes revel in, but definitely a story with a supernatural bent to it.

Bjork has assembled another eye-popping cast of devised theater heavy-hitters, led by Boo Segersin as the artist Hilma af Klint and Kristina Fjellman as the Spirit that guides her, along with Megan Campbell Lagas, Kayla Dvorak Feld, Peyton McCandless, Heather Meyer, and composer/musician Derek Lee Miller

I have no idea what I'm in for, of course.  With these folks, I never really do.  But I'm game for the ride.  I always end up somewhere I'm glad I went.  Let's see what theatrical magic tricks they've got up their sleeve this time, shall we?

Their Fringe show page name checks a documentary about the artist, Beyond The Visible - here’s a trailer for a taste:

Here’s some handy links to my Fringe Top 10, Top 11 to 20 and Returning Favorites lists for this year, as well as all the coverage of this year’s Minnesota Fringe Festival.

Fringe 2025 - Returning Favorites - Snikt!Bamf!Thwip! - Invasive Species, or: In Space No-One Can Hear Your Steam

This one comes with a Fringe pedigree from three or more different angles if you keep staring at it long enough.

Invasive Species, or: In Space No-One Can Hear Your Steam
Snikt!Bamf!Thwip!
Venue: Rarig Thrust
Show Description:
On a quiet night in the Harbor of London, the sailing vessel Nostromo crashes into the dock with only one surviving crew member. What happened? And why is everyone wearing tiny top hats?
Genre & Content: 
Comedy, Horror, Mystery, Puppetry, Sci-Fi
Warnings:
Blood, Gun/Weapon Usage, Loud Noises, Violence

First of all, this is the other Fringe show that I mentioned was using one of my favorite old horror movie tag lines, this time in the title.

Second, it’s the latest from Snikt!Bamf!Thwip! (aka Tim Wick) who has been lampooning iconic pop culture stories (from Star Trek to Bridgerton to Agatha Christie to John Wick from long before they landed on my pre-Fringe Top 20 list back in 2012, continuing on to this present incarnation, a steampunk satirical version of the Alien sci-fi/horror movie franchise (just as they’re gearing up for a TV series version where a bunch of greedy morons bring the titular alien invasive species to Earth, with predictably gory results - say goodbye to the human race, I guess.)

"Invasive Species: or In space No-One Can Hear your Steam" is an original comedy taking a look at "Alien" and "Aliens" through the lens of Steampunk. The sailing vessel Nostromo crashes into the London harbor with only one surviving crew member. What happened to the rest of the crew and why does it require so many gears and tiny top hats to figure it out?

Third, it’s being directed by Brian Watson-Jones, part of my pre-Fringe Top 10 list from way back in 2009 in his Tedious Brief Productions days, and who just had a truly great 5-star solo show in last year’s Fringe, "Close Call: A How-Not-To Guide to Being a POS"

Fourth, a key member of the cast is Kjer Whiting, who played an extra-sexy Van Helsing in the hilarious 2023 Fringe hit “4 Bisexuals and 2 Guys Named John Kill Dracula" (#1 on my pre-Fringe Top 10 list that year for a reason, and it more than delivered on the premise.)

So with all these folks working on it, chances are we’ve got another solid comedy on our hands.

Update 7/24/2025, their Fringe preview:

 

 

Here’s some handy links to my Fringe Top 10, Top 11 to 20 and Returning Favorites lists for this year, as well as all the coverage of this year’s Minnesota Fringe Festival.

 

 

Fringe 2023 - Returning Favorites - Snikt! Bamf! Thwip!

John Wick by Tim Wick (no relation)
Snikt! Bamf! Thwip! - Tim Wick and Jami Newstrom

Four John Wick movies in 45 minutes. Written by someone who, coincidentally, has the same last name as a fictional character. No dogs were harmed during the creation of this production.

Venue: Theatre In The Round
Tagged for: Comedy, Audience Participation
Content Warnings: Adult Language, Gun/Weapon Usage, Violence

This particular show isn’t for me (see previous posts this year about generally being squeamish).

Haven’t seen any of the John Wick films (see previous note) but I’m certainly aware of them and for those that enjoy those movies, this will probably be a fun time.

Just the notion of somehow cramming all four movies into one Fringe show is amusing.  And I suppose when you’ve seen one shot to the head, you’ve seen ‘em all, so condensing is entirely possible.

The other Wick (Tim) always has a clever Fringe conceit up his sleeve, paying tongue in cheek homage to any number of pop culture icons - his tribute to William Shatner (with a nod to “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)”) was what landed him on my pre-Fringe Top 20 back in 2012.  Last year’s mashup of “Michael Bay’s Bridgerton VII: Revenge of the Forlorn” was a similar wacky premise.

UPDATE 8/3: Tim did a Fringe preview (complete with unlucky dog) on Fringe Eve, the night before the festival began:

 

 

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.   

 

 

Fringe 2023 - Returning Favorites - Special When Lit and The Winding Sheet Outfit

Stabby Stab Stab

“You are a strange child.
It will be of my use.”

Two pre-teens are compelled to serve a modern monster; an eyeless watcher whose price for loyalty is blood. In the age of electronic loneliness, how far would you go for friendship? Based on true events in WI.

Venue: Crane Theater
Tagged for: Drama, Horror, Original Music, Historical Content
Content Warnings: Adult Language, Blood, Mental Illness, Violence, Suicidal Ideation/Self-Harm, Gun/Weapon Usage

Horror’s really not my thing, but Special When Lit (from last year’s pre-Fringe Top 10) and The Winding Sheet Outfit (from the pre-Fringe Top 10 list a decade earlier in 2012), teaming up for this Fringe show, do horror really well.  

(Personally, as a queer person in America in 2023, I can turn on the news or read a Supreme Court decision if I want to be freaked out.  I’ve never been able to get much catharsis out of fictional terrible things happening to characters, and as I get older it seems more true than before for me.  The few times I’ve watched horror movies, I’ve regretted it.  Your mileage may vary.  And judging by how much horror content there is out there, many people’s mileage does.)

The folks at Special When Lit and The Winding Sheet Outfit have already given Stabby Stab Stab an initial run at last fall’s Twin Cities Horror Festival, so it’s up on its feet and ready to creep out an audience.  And knowing them, I’m sure they fine-tuned it a bit based on what they learned at the Horror Fest.

This will, of course, be very different than last year’s hit shows from these two - Special When Lit’s unsettling Colonel Sanders faux biographical comedy Finger Lickin’ Good, and The Winding Sheet Outfit’s haunting Arsgang: What You Follow, Follows You.

Stabby Stab Stab is the only show playing out at the Crane Theater during the Fringe, so you’ll have plenty of chances to see it.  It plays every single night of the festival either in the 8:30pm or 10pm slot so check the schedule and get ready for some late night chills.

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. 

 

 

Fringe 2022 - Returning Favorites - Snikt! Bamf! Thwip!

Michael Bay’s Bridgerton VII: Revenge of the Forlorn - Snikt! Bamf! Thwip!

(There is no synopsis.  The title is the concept.  In the fine tradition of many a Fringe show, they only finished writing the script last weekend)

Creator Tim Wick thrives on these kind of cultural mash-ups.  Snikt! Bamf! Thwip! landed in my pre-Fringe Top 20 in 2012 for a show entitled The Complete Works of William Shatner (abridged) - so this is what they do.  Channeling the period soap opera of Bridgerton through the lens of director Michael Bay’s action orgies is an amusing idea.  I don’t know how you stage it, but if anyone can, it’s these folks.  They offered a preview in this clash of styles to make their case:
 

 

 

(You can click on the following links to see a set of links to the full Top 10 list, the Top 11-20 list, a list of returning favorites, and the full coverage of the 2022 Fringe on this blog.) 

(Side note: Also during Fringe season, Minnesota has a primary election coming up on August 9th.  Early voting options are currently available.  You can also check out what's on your ballot ahead of time on the Minnesota Secretary of State website, as well as other voting services and information.  In Minneapolis, not only do we have the Governor and Lt. Governor on the ballot, but there's our U.S. Congressional Rep., our MN State Senator, the MN Secretary of State and MN Attorney General, as well as our County Sheriff and County Attorney, and two members of the Minneapolis School Board.  These are the people who decide what laws we live under and how they get enforced.  These are the people who decide whether or not we have voting rights.  These are the people who decide how our kids learn.  This is how we change things.  Personally, I'm alternately furious and despairing that my goddaughter and her little sister now have fewer rights over their own bodies than they did a month ago - there are things we can do, voting in the primary (and the general election) is one of them - here's a place you can go to do more.)

 

 

 

Fringe 2022 - Returning Favorites - The Winding Sheet Outfit (Amber Bjork)

Arsgang: What You Follow Follows You - The Winding Sheet Outfit

On the dark night of the solstice, a brave soul seeking visions of the coming year must undertake a dangerous, quiet, supernatural pilgrimage through the still and snowy forest...although not truly alone....

This is another one of those “I really don’t have to sell you on these artists, do I?” posts.  Everyone enjoys a show from The Winding Sheet Outfit.

They were on my pre-Fringe Top 10 back in 2012 with their show Birds of Passage.  Since then they’ve been on a roll with great shows that were big hits with Fringe audiences like The Memory Box of the Sisters Fox (2017),  Blood Nocturne (2018), and one of my personal favorites, the whimsical and melancholy You Are Cordially Invited To the Life and Death of Edward Lear (2019). They didn’t even let the pandemic stop them.  Their virtual Fringe offerings included a video short in which Napoleon went to war with a pack of vicious bunnies (2020), and last year’s The Darger Project aka The Darger Project - a behind the scenes video that turns into an actual show about artists in isolation discovering the work of an artist in isolation.  Their work in the Fringe and the Twin Cities Horror Festival proves that they love the creepy - and this year’s Fringe will again be in that vein.  

The More Information tab on their show page says: “This year we will not be focusing on a historical person, but rather a historical practice.  Arsgang (ohrs-gohng) is a journey. A challenge. A ritual undertaken at great personal risk for the privledge to see what the future holds. There are dangers in the woods and rules to be followed. You must go alone. At midnight. On the longest day of the year.  And you must not speak, for death follows you.  Among other things.”

There’s a prequel audio play they did back in December 2020 with all the same characters called Midnight Mass of the Dead: An Arsgang Story, if you can’t wait till opening night and want to start Fringing right now.

 

(You can click on the following links to see a set of links to the full Top 10 list, the Top 11-20 list, a list of returning favorites, and the full coverage of the 2022 Fringe on this blog.) 

(Side note: Also during Fringe season, Minnesota has a primary election coming up on August 9th.  Early voting options are currently available.  You can also check out what's on your ballot ahead of time on the Minnesota Secretary of State website, as well as other voting services and information.  In Minneapolis, not only do we have the Governor and Lt. Governor on the ballot, but there's our U.S. Congressional Rep., our MN State Senator, the MN Secretary of State and MN Attorney General, as well as our County Sheriff and County Attorney, and two members of the Minneapolis School Board.  These are the people who decide what laws we live under and how they get enforced.  These are the people who decide whether or not we have voting rights.  These are the people who decide how our kids learn.  This is how we change things.  Personally, I'm alternately furious and despairing that my goddaughter and her little sister now have fewer rights over their own bodies than they did a month ago - there are things we can do, voting in the primary (and the general election) is one of them - here's a place you can go to do more.)

 

 

 

Returning Favorite - The Winding Sheet Outfit - Blood Nocturne - Southern Theater

You may have heard of that Hungarian Countess. Killed 650 virginal girls. Tortured and maimed them. Bathed in their blood. That is the story we know. Because that is the story the world has chosen to hear.

Fringe staffer Amber Bjork can’t help wearing multiple hats this time of year.  Last year, she and her company The Winding Sheet Outfit had a hit show producing and directing The Memory Box of the Sisters Fox.

This year, it’s another deep dive into the story of a misunderstood female historical figure.  This time it’s a brand new musical, and it’s based on “the life and/or myth of 16th century Hungarian Countess Elizabeth Bathory.  She must defend the story of her true life in the midst of a chorus trying to thrill the audience with the legend that was built after her death--in which she tortured and killed 600 virginal girls and bathed in their blood. After all, we are apt to listen to salacious stories over bland truth.”

Another great local actress, Emily Dussault, is taking on the role of the Countess (and she also regularly sings at the Troubadour Wine Bar, so she’s up for the musical part of the story as well).

Sounds like we’re gearing up for another creepy, compelling story (this time with a song in its spooky little heart).

Here's some handy links to the full Top 10, Top 11-20 and Returning Favorites lists.

Returning Favorite - Mainly Me Productions - A Justice League of Their Own - TRP

When the male superheroes are called away to fight an intergalactic war, the female superheroes rise up to protect their city by forming: A Justice League of Their Own. Who save the world?

I don’t really have to sell Josh Carson and his band of merry co-conspirators, do I?  They’re so good at selling their own shows.  And they’re better than nearly every other Fringe show on delivering quality comedy year after year.

Mom always insists on seeing Mainly Me’s production each year, and I’m in full agreement.  Once again, last year’s The Wright Stuff was up there in the top 10 of my favorite Fringe shows I saw in 2017.  Whatever they’re offering, I’m looking forward to seeing it.  God knows we could use the laughs these days.

This year, a team of female superheroes - who had an (unsurprisingly) fun Fringe preview, a promise of good things to come.

Here's some handy links to full Top 10, Top 11-20 and Returning Favorites lists.

Fringe 2017 - Returning Favorites - Josh Carson and Andy Kraft

Josh Carson and Andy Kraft (2012 Top 10) of
Outlandish Productions - The Wright Stuff, or You’ll Believe They Can Fly!

The story of two brothers who got knocked down -- but they got up again. Nothing's ever going to keep them down.

Hetero life partners and comedic partners-in-crime Josh Carson and Andy Kraft are particular favorites of my mom, so we have to fit them into the schedule.  And it’s no hardship, they’re always hilarious (and strangely heartwarming, too, between the pratfalls).  They’re assaulting history with comedy again, a la Our American Assassin - this time it’s the Wright Brothers trying to get that first plane off the ground.  In their Fringe preview, the inclusion of historically accurate medicinal doses of “cocaine” made them so enthusiastic, they ended up sacrificing a chair as well as bruising themselves.  They’ll entertain you even if it kills ‘em. (Perhaps we shouldn’t encourage them, but they’re so good at it.)

And if you need a second dose of Mr. Carson, he’s also hosting the celebrity impersonation show Repertoire Dogs.  They also had an amusing (though less physically imperiled) preview.

And here's some handy links to the full list of pre-Fringe top 10, and 11-20, the rest of the returning favorites, and all the random shout outs in these Top 10/Top 20 posts - links all gathered in a single list to take you to fuller posts and Fringe pages.  Enjoy!

Fringe 2017 - Returning Favorite - Katherine Glover

"A group of time travelers wants Reagan to help save the Republican Party. A rival group wants to teach him a Scrooge-style moral lesson. But Reagan's reaction to 2016 may not be what any of them expect..."

Katherine was at the top of my 2012 Top 10 list for one of her solo shows on a much more serious subject. In the 2016 Fringe, her unusual romantic comedy Celebrity Exception was one of the funniest and best things I saw in the festival.  She’s back again with more comedy, a little snippet of which I got to enjoy in my writing group.  If anyone can get me to sit through a comedy that involved Ronald Reagan, it’s probably Katherine.  Plus, it’s directed by my friend Denzel Belin, so he’s also sure to keep things interesting.  So here comes Ronald Reagan: Time Traveler.

And here's some handy links to the full list of pre-Fringe top 10, and 11-20, returning favorites, and all the random shout outs in these Top 10/Top 20 posts - links all gathered in a single list to take you to fuller posts and Fringe pages.  Enjoy!