Fringe Review - Rip - Dovetail Theatre Co. - 5 stars

Tweet review - Rip - fresh retelling of old tale; music, script, performances - damn; 1 of 3 best things I've seen in Fringe so far, 5 stars #rip #mnfringe

"Come down over the meadow
I'll be waiting
Home and waiting
I'll be waiting for you."

The best shows I've seen the Fringe so far have left me amazed (Sin Eater) and enchanted (Ash Land), and now there's Rip, from Dovetail Theatre Company.  Rip is the most pure fun I've had at a Fringe show this year.  In fact, I'm already plotting how I can go to see it again.

"Still I burn like some Promethean fire,
Glowing ever stronger for the tears."

Rip is Dovetail's musical re-imagining of the Washington Irving folk tale of Rip Van Winkle, the man who got his wish to escape every day life by accidentally sleeping away twenty years of it and awakening to a strange new world, bereft of most of the people he used to know.  The elements of Irving's story have been reshuffled in writer/director Kara Davidson's clever comedic script, and reset to the 1950s, with a 60 year nap that lands Rip in our present day.  The story is told just as much through music as through dialogue.  In fact, it often feels like Rip is a concert with scenes included, rather than a play with songs included.  But the two are knit together so tightly and seamlessly, you can't imagine the one without the other.  The songs enrich the scenes, just as the scenes enrich the songs.  Davidson's partner in crime (aka co-artistic director) David Darrow has provided music and lyrics for a variety of catchy tunes spanning rock, folk, ballads and more.  The music gives the production a jolt of energy and a steady heartbeat that keeps Rip's story driving forward - even as it morphs from one reality to the next.  (It's some of the first music at the Fringe that I wished I could walk right out and buy after the show was over.  Cast album, please?)

"You're as plain and run of the mill as they come and I like that.  I trust that."

Rip Van Winkle (Billy Balmer) feels trapped in both his dead end job and his marriage.  He secretly pines for one of his co-workers, Donna (Davidson again) or perhaps he just pines for the youth and freedom she represents.  Rip's boss Mr. Moneyfarmer (Foster Johns) is very efficient at making other people feel small and insignificant.  Rip's wife (Anna Sutheim) is at her wit's end caring for their numerous children.  Rip's only uncomplicated relationship is with is dog Wolf (also Davidson).  When Rip falls asleep, Wolf's ballad of philosophy and a dog's love for his master is one of the unexpected emotional high points of the show, at the same time it's inducing giggles.

"If the door didn't open, and I were alone.
So wake up.  Please wake up."

Rip's transition into the world of sleep finds him hanging out with a sea explorer named Hudson (Darrow) and his crew, all of whom are not only played by the other actors in the ensemble but remind Rip of the people (and pet) he left in the world behind him.  He awakens to a young girl in the park (Davidson again) and two young dudes (Ben Yela and Jonas Yela) who quickly make Rip realize how much the world has changed since he fell asleep.

"The hard thing's already done."

The two Yelas and Darrow spend most of their time among the assortment of musical instruments the band puts to such good use through the production - by my count, three electric guitars, two acoustic, a mandolin, a trumpet, a drum set and a fiddle (or is it a violin?  When music is serious or sad, I think violin; when it's fun and lively, I think fiddle).  Most of the cast gets its turn at the microphone, and the voices are right up there in skill with the easygoing musicianship on the instruments.  (Struggling as I am just to learn the guitar right now myself, it gave me a deeper appreciation and admiration for the high level of work going on in both the composition and performance of the music.  I think it also made the whole show that much more fun for me as well.)

"Some coffee-stained opinion…"

Davidson's staging is simple and effective, no set to speak of, very few props - a couple of wooden cubes, some flashlights, a stuffed animal here, an orange there, a blanket.  Physical business and actor-provided sound effects give us everything from a typewriter to an evening meal to a sailing ship to the sound of a dog lifting its leg and taking care of business.  The actors are having a ball playing with these characters and this story and that enthusiasm carries over to the audience.

"Were our mothers ever young?"

With Rip, I now have a top three if anyone asks me for a Fringe suggestion.  If you want to be transported, see Ash Land.  If you want to be amazed, see Sin Eater.  And if you want to have a heck of a good time, see Rip.  I can think of no higher set of compliments, or a better trio of Fringe shows.

5 stars - Very Highly Recommended

Fringe Review - Sin Eater - Present State Movement - 5 stars

Tweet review - Sin Eater - OK, my mind is officially blown; the things Tamara Ober does with her body, shadow and light... Damn, 5 stars #mnfringe

"The way through the darkness is to become one of the animals.  Then they can't get you."

There are words in Sin Eater, but Sin Eater itself is almost beyond words.  Like a joke, you fear that in trying to explain it or describe it to someone else you take something away from it, make it less somehow than it truly is.  Words like amazing, mesmerizing, hypnotic, mind-blowing, overwhelming, well, they aren't really helpful, though any of them could easily be applied to Sin Eater.  Choreographer/performer Tamara Ober of Present State Movement has created a compelling dance work in Sin Eater, one that is very easy to submit to, and lose yourself in for an hour.  This is the dance show to see at the Fringe this year.

"My father named me [Grace].  He's a believer."

Ober takes on the role of Grace, a steely young woman called home to her dying father's bedside.  She is told to go into the mountains and bring back a Sin Eater.  The Sin Eater is a shaman who, for a fee, will eat another person's sins, take them upon himself, allowing the other person's soul to rise unfettered to the afterlife.  Of course, the Sin Eater continues to carry all those other sins with them the rest of their life.  What happens when they die?

"It's not my war, but I've carried it with me all my life."

Sin Eater is Grace's journey into the wilderness, and into a darkness just as metaphorical and spiritual as it is literal.  When she comes out on the other end of her journey, and back to her father's bedside, she is a very different person.

"In all that darkness I had no idea what I was fighting, or what I killed."

Tamara Ober is in such complete control of her body that is almost doesn't seem human.  Or perhaps the rest of us humans are just way too careless with the way we swing our bodies around.  Time and again I look a my notes and instead of just jotting down a description of what she did, there are exclamations like, "She can be so still!"  The smallest movement or twitch can convey volumes of information about her state of mind or relation to her surroundings.  When she ripped a strip off a bed sheet, the violence of it in relation to the stillness that came before made an audience member next to me actually gasp.  On the opposite end of the movement spectrum, Ober is just as evocative when crossing the stage in big sweeping movements of her arms and legs and torso.  The way her body moves and contorts itself implies all we need to know about her surroundings - thick underbrush, low branches, tight spaces, treacherous crossings.  Though there is no set, only a bench she turns over in different configurations for different locales, the empty space around her isn't truly empty.  The open air takes on the specifics of the environment Ober indicates with her movement through the space.

"I didn't know my father before the war.  So maybe I didn't know him."

Another key element is the bold use of light, shadow and color in relation to Ober's body.  The lush green of the forest gives way to the soothing blue of the river, where Grace allows herself to rest and revel in the water.  The red of the campfire playing across the planes and chords of muscle in Ober's back seem to create a kind of monster.  An extended sequence using a strobe light, along with percussive music, is powerful and unsettling.  Grace's battle with and surrender to the darkness of the night takes things to still another level before the dawn returns.  Her hair unbound at last and swinging wildly, it eventually obscures her face entirely.  In fact, come morning, Grace's tentative hand movements imply she is perhaps relieved to still have a face under all that hair as it is slowly pulled back into a ponytail once more.

An eclectic selection of music, too, fills the space and envelops the audience as much as the performer.  Sin Eater is an immersive experience on several levels.

"It turns out all you need to do is go home, set down your load, and stop fighting."

The climax of the performance, conveying the vastness of the night sky, includes some of the most unreal shadow work in an evening full of precise and evocative shadow work.  As the conclusion draws near, Ober's contortions made her shadow seem like a completely separate person, perhaps a parent keeping watch over a child.  You almost can't believe your eyes.  How Tamara Ober does it, I don't know.  But what a gift!

And what a gift to audiences Sin Eater is.  I keep telling people, if you can only get to a couple of Fringe shows, Ash Land should be one, and Sin Eater should most definitely be the other.  Sin Eater is the kind of rich, risk-taking, logic-defying work that you rarely get to see the rest of the year.  Take advantage while the Fringe is making it so easy to find.

5 stars - Very Highly Recommended

Fringe Review - Ash Land - Transatlantic Love Affair - 5 stars

Tweet review - Ash Land - well deserved standing ovation. Friggin' brilliant. So detailed, human, simple and lovely. This is why I love theater #mnfringe

"If you need anything, I'll always be here."

It is hard for me to write about the work of the theater company Transatlantic Love Affair, and their new Fringe production Ash Land, without sounding like a lovesick teenager.  If you've seen either of their previous two Fringe shows - Ballad of the Pale Fisherman, and Red Resurrected - you know they put on a great show, and you should go and see Ash Land right away.  If you haven't seen them yet but have heard all sorts of wonderful things said about them, let me reassure you that the wonderful things are all true.  If you haven't seen them, or heard about them, let me simply say - Go.  See Ash Land.

"In these dry times, some men see nothing but dust and despair."

Ash Land reminds me why I love theater.  Ash Land reminds me why I do theater.  Any audience member or theater artist who needs to be reminded, go see Ash Land.  It will renew your faith in live performance.

"There isn't any work.  The rain has stopped."

How?  For starters Ash Land takes eight barefoot actors and one man playing a slide guitar (Harper Zwicky) and creates an entire world.  No set, no props, everyone gets a single simple costume (kudos to Anna Reichert), and that's it.  I touched on this in my commentary on their Fringe-For-All preview.  The work of Transatlantic Love Affair fully engages the audience's imagination.  It's ensemble created work of the highest order, guided here by co-artistic director Diogo Lopes.

"Every time you walk through that door, you bring a piece of your mother with you.  And it's killing me."

Just like Ballad and Red, Ash Land takes an old story as a foundation and opens it up making it new again.  Here, it's Cinderella.  No glass slippers (though there is a rich people's party which a young farm girl invades and later escapes, followed by the good-hearted son of the powerful owner of the local bank).  No talking animals, no pumpkin coach (though the cast does create an old model car onstage with their bodies, complete with windshield wipers).  No fairy godmother (though the spirit of the farm girl's dead mother reappears in various guises just when the girl needs her most).  If you know Cinderella (Disney or French fairy tale version), the resonances are there.  If you don't, the story is completely enchanting on its own terms.

"I buried my wife here.  My daughter was born here.  I don't care if I don't own it.  This is my land."

When Ellie (Adelin Phelps) and her father (Derek Lee Miller) are bereft with grief at the loss of their mother and wife (Isabel Nelson), the wife's sister Abigail (Heather Bunch) comes to help run the drought-plagued family farm to keep it from going under.  Times are bad, and though the banker's son James (Willie Gambucci) makes a case for the downtrodden farmers to keep their land till the rains come again and times get better, James' father the bank owner (Eric Nelson) sees another opportunity.  If the rich folk of the area buy up the farmers' land at rock bottom prices now, when the rains come again, the rich will reap the real harvest and massive profits.  Abigail plans to sell the family farm out from under Ellie and her father, but Ellie intercepts the invitation to the banker's party, and goes in her aunt's place.

"Farming.  It's more than just work to us.  It's everything we are."

A simple plot synopsis can never convey the simple joys of watching this story unfold before your eyes.  You don't just get to know the characters, you get to know the land, their home, and so much more.  Even though there isn't a stick of furniture in sight, you always know exactly where you are.  The cast creates a field of wheat that flourishes, dies and is reborn.  The cast creates a dust storm, and later the first drops of a long awaited rain that turns into a storm of a different kind.  The cast creates the porch and creaking screen door of the farmhouse, and the wrought iron gate and tree-lined drive of the wealthy banker's estate.

"You think you're building something?!"

Sometimes you don't realize where you are at first, and then slowly have it revealed to you.  For instance, Ellie goes up into what turns out to be the attic, looking for one of her mother's old dresses to dress up for the banker's party.  Two actors turn out to be a big trunk, and a blanket resting on top of it.  The spirit of Ellie's mother is beside her the whole time, helping her into the dress.  Two other actors stand nearby, and when their locked arms turn, it becomes clear they are a mirror.  Ellie stands on one side, and sees her smiling mother wearing the same dress in the reflection.  It's a magical and very touching moment.

"Ellie, I ever tell you how much I hate potatoes?"

Ash Land is filled with many such moments.  The actors are in a constant state of transformation, building a story around the central characters.  Each of the characters is complex and rich, so that by the time the story draws to its close, it is enormously satisfying to see second chances and budding young love spring from the dry soil of a community's grief.  That standing ovation they got opening night is well-deserved, and the first of many.  (Blogger note - I'm crying as I write this.  Moments from the show just crept up into my consciousness again along with some of these lines of dialogue and the singing and it still wrecks me.  I didn't cry when I watched it, but I'm crying now.  Weird.  It's really beautiful work.  This one's going to follow me around for a while.  The best ones always do.)

"I'm not leaving if you're not leaving."

I've said it before and I'll say it again, if you see only two Fringe shows this year, one of them should be Ash Land.

"This world will lose its motion, love, should I prove false to thee."

Also, if you didn't catch the expanded version of Ballad of the Pale Fisherman at Illusion earlier this year, it's being remounted at the Jon Hassler Theater in late August.  An expanded version of Red Resurrected will be debuting at Illusion Theater again early next year.  See them if you need a good theater fix until next Fringe.

5 Stars - Very Highly Recommended

Fringe Invitation - Want To Tag Along With Mom For Free?

Hey there, theater people on a budget...  (You know who you are, but as of yet, I don't, hence the post)

Since Mom is the proud owner of an Ultra Pass, this year she has a free pass to bring a guest to each of the Fringe shows she's going to see on Monday and Tuesday this week.

We hate to let free theater tickets go to waste so...

If any of these shows are of interest to you and you want to join us, just let us know.  We even already have a spare Fringe button to hand around so your admission is fully covered.

Monday, August 6, 2012

5:30 - A Comedy of Edits - Callahan and Lingo - Rarig Arena (here's a preview)

7:00 - Class of 98 - Mainly Me Productions - Theatre In The Round (They're on my Top 10 list this year - here's a preview)

8:30 - Font of Knowledge - Shelby Company - Mixed Blood (here's a preview)

10:00 - Birds of Passage - The Winding Sheet Outfit - Rarig Xperimental (They're on my Top 10 list this year)

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

5:30 - Storms Beneath Her Skin - Rebecca Kling - Patrick's Cabaret (She's on my Top 20 list this year - here's a preview)

7:00 - Ms. Luisa Eats - Sunset Gun Productions - Patrick's Cabaret (here's a preview)

8:30 - A One Way Ticket To Crazy Town - Les Kurkendaal - Patrick's Cabaret (here's a preview)

10:00 - Dead Wrong - Katherine Glover - Patrick's Cabaret (She's on top of my Top 10 list this year - here's a preview)

If any of these interest you and you'd like to join us, either tweet me @MatthewAEverett, or email me at mail AT matthewaeverett DOT com (and bcc to browder268 AT yahoo DOT com just to be on the safe side, since my spam filter's a little wonky).  We'll arrange the logistics and meet you there.

Free Fringe for the taking, compliments of the Ultra Pass and my Ultra Mom.

Backdoor blog

Sometimes the internet is cranky.

With all the traffic the Twin Cities Daily Planet receives, particularly at Fringe time (and quite a lot around lunch time), sometimes the interface I use to post material is, shall we say, less than cooperative.

In order not to lose my work, and thus feel compelled to scream and throw things, I draft my work up first and save it on Blogger, at swfringegeek.blogspot.com

It will appear there, hopefully not all that long before I can get it posted to the Daily Planet.

So if it seems like forever since I've posted something (and it's not a time I would otherwise be running around actually seeing Fringe shows), and you're wondering what I might be up to, you can look over there and see if there's some content in the pipeline.  Sometimes the internet just isn't cooperating on the final step of publication, and I have to let something languish while I run off and see a show, and will come back and give the posting another try later in the day.

I doubt there are Fringe obsessive-compulsives out there with my same degree of "need to know" but in case there are, that's my posting secret for you.

Fringe Review - The Gay Banditos - Mechanical Division - 5 stars

Tweet review - Gay Banditos - a Laramie Project for homophobes, and I mean that as a compliment; deeply wrong, deeply hilarious - 5 stars #mnfringe

"This [rainbow] was some sort of signal.  Some sort of gay signal."

How the cast of The Mechanical Division's Fringe production of The Gay Banditos all kept a straight face throughout the performance I will never know.  We in the audience were all howling with laughter.  The Gay Banditos is a razor sharp satire, so good one could be forgiven for worrying that someone would bootleg a video of it to Fox News who would not get the joke.  "See," they'd intone ominously, "the gay agenda really is destroying the social fabric of small town America."

"I don't think about fabric or go around telling people their shoes are nice or putting dresses on my dog."

Ben Thietje and Bobby Gardner's script follows the structure and presentational style of The Laramie Project so precisely you could line them up next to each other and swear they were written by the same people.  The direction and acting of all involved reinforce this in tightly controlled fashion that I found most impressive.  It's the reason the satire cuts as deep as it does.  It's also the reason the laughs are as plentiful and hearty as they are from beginning to end. 

"When did you guys start listening to Kelly Clarkson?"

The Narrator (Gardner again) introduces us to the story of the Miller family - Hank (Tom Karki), Deborah (Christine Karki) and their son Cody (Patrick Kozicky) - terrorized by an (unseen) marauding group of Gay Banditos.  In exposing them (literally) to acts of gay sex, the Gay Banditos undermine the Miller family's rock solid heterosexual lifestyle forever.  Deputy James Barnes (Thietje again) investigates the Millers' plight, though he has his own personal reason for pursuing the Gay Banditos.  The tale is reconstructed after the fact from hilariously deadpan interviews, transcripts and journal entries.

"You've gone too far this time, boner."

The discomfiting thing about the comedy, of course, is that most of the things the Millers say aren't all that exaggerated.  People actually think and talk this way.  As a gay audience member, I was laughing just as much as anyone (which is to say a hell of a lot), but I also realized the joke is partly on me.  The fact that 100% of the net profits from the production are being donated to Minnesotans United For All Families and their fight to defeat the marriage amendment on the November ballot this year goes a long way to reassuring my fractured viewing mind.  The fact that most of the cast is straight and was ticked off enough to do a piece of theater like this to raise money for this cause gives me enormous comfort (i.e., it's not just gay people who are fighting back; if you piss off our friends, they'll fight for us, too, with every weapon at their disposal).  And the comfort isn't just for me as an audience member watching satire that veers very close to reality.  It's comfort that, damn, maybe I'm not in this alone after all.

"I wouldn't be surprised if some of them are in this dark theater, watching us right now."

So thanks, Mechanical Division.  You guys are the best.  Thanks for weirding me out.  Thanks for making me laugh.  Thanks for having my back (in a completely hetero kinda way).

"They were hugging, but not in a Christian way."

If you need a lot of good laughs, which you can even feel a little guilty about, and then feel great about immediately afterward - The Gay Banditos is your ticket.  Laugh it up, and support a worthy cause. (And just like their program notes say, Vote No in November)

5 stars - Very Highly Recommended

Out of Towners - Rebecca Kling - Storms Beneath Her Skin

Are you a boy or a girl? Are you sure? I am transgender, which complicates things. This show is about my experience, as well as apologies, surgery, the equations of sex, the weather, boobs, and more. 

"The first time I had to lift something heavy [after acquiring breasts], a girl friend said to me, 'Yeah, suck it up.  It's much harder now.'"

Rebecca Kling knows how to work a room.

After seeing this preview at the Out of Towner showcase, I feel a little bad for slotting her into my Top 20 at 13.  While it's not a scientific ranking of merit or anything, after this preview, I'm thinking she surely should be up in the Top 10.  She's that good.  In fact, if I ever have the pleasure of meeting her, I'll probably make the mistake of saying something silly for which there is no polite response like, "You're fantastic."  (Update: before posting this, I did meet her out and about handing out her postcards and managed to tell her how much I liked her preview and was looking forward to the show without embarrassing myself.  Score one for improving social skills around talented people.)

The lady takes no prisoners and makes no apologies.  She's not confrontational.  She's just interested in spreading truth and having an honest conversation.  The topic of sexuality and gender identity is a slippery one, and it might make some folks uncomfortable.  But they probably aren't the Fringers who'd go to her show anyway.  And that's a minority of Fringe audience members.  We come to the Fringe to experience something different, and saying Kling has a different kind of show is probably an understatement.

But this isn't a dry infomercial or documentary presentation about the transgender experience.  Kling has the verbal dexterity of a storyteller, and the wit and adaptability to gauge and perform to her audience like the best stand-up comics.  She's entertaining, and she has something to say.  It's a great combination of messenger and message.  She also seems infinitely patient (a skill I'm sure she had to acquire over the years).  She wants to bring her audience with her on the journey and she's willing to meet them more than halfway.  At the same time, she's not going to dumb anything down, or sugarcoat any discomfiting bit of reality.  It makes for a bracing preview, and I'm sure an equally eye-opening show.  Both Mom and I are really looking forward to this one.

Plus it was fun to have Robin reading the introductory show blurb from the website and need to say, "I'm transgender."  Robin is thrown by nothing.

Storms Beneath Her Skin's first performance is Saturday 8/4 at 4pm at Patrick's Cabaret.

Out of Towners - Dance

We got three dance shows in the mix at the Out of Towners showcase last night.  Well, two full-on dance shows, and a third that just had dance as a big part of its preview snippet.

They were...

Nucleus... and other Cell Bodies - Kelly Rademacher - Southern Theater

Two hydrogen atoms bond with one oxygen atom to make-dance! Get silly and scientific inside our peculiar kinetic bio-textbook for the stage, a bizarre and compelling movement world as seen through a microscope!

The dance groups were pretty innovative in the way they dealt with the preview opportunity.  In the case of Nucleus, they took a show choreographed for the vast proscenium of the Southern and nimbly adapted it to the far less spacious stage (and multiple levels of risers, and odd shape) of the Brave New Workshop.  Points for ingenuity.  The four dancers in long colorful dresses, with brightly colored footstools at the ready, worked together and in opposition to one another's undulating movements accompanied by electronic music.

They have the 7pm slot tonight, Thursday, 8/2, at the Southern, then more shows this Friday and Saturday 8/3 and 8/4, closing up in the middle of the week on Tuesday and Wednesday 8/7 and 8/8.

The Dust - Core Project Chicago - Patrick's Cabaret

Explore contemporary myth and belief through the archetypes of Death, Fate, Memory and Man. Using dance, poetry, experimental music and visual art, we'll confront the heaviest of thoughts: our own mortality.

Whoever thought to tap the dry comedic talents of Core Project Chicago's company manager is a great judge of how to do a preview.  Unable to fit your dance on the small stage?  No problem, put your company manager in one of the costumes, have her simulate some of the moves all the while talking to the audience with a tone of voice that has "eyeroll" built-in.  While she ran through the moves of her non-dance routine, the company manager entertainingly fed us all the information we would need to come and see the show.  She also sardonically assessed the content of the show when she shared that she had been instructed to come out, roll around on the stage, "and rub fake dust on myself."  "We... and by we I don't mean me, because this is ridiculous."  The thing was perfectly constructed.  She warned us her limited repertoire included a cartwheel, a pelvic thrust and a couple of jokes.  We got the laughs, the pelvic thrust generated more, and then she cartwheeled off stage.  Preview complete.  Their company manager was a great ambassador.  I now know the company as a whole has a great sense of humor, and that's a good thing to know about a Fringe show.

Their first performance is Friday 8/3 at 5:30 at Patrick's Cabaret

The Habit - Wilson Loria - HUGE Improv Theater

In a daring look at a religious woman facing the crossroads of her life, The Habit guides its audience from the familiar images of docile convent life to a path sprinkled with hints of a more profane one.

"Vapor poured from the nostrils of the gigantic machines"

This is more solo show than dance piece but movement is a big part of what Loria does here.  Transformation is another big part of what he's up to, as he starts the preview in full nun regalia and then ditches that outfit for a white linen suit and hat combo, culminating in an energetic soft shoe routine.  While it didn't necessarily share a lot in terms of plot, the preview definitely gives you the sense of the kind of performer Loria is, and that identity is going to be among the major concerns of his Fringe offering.  Those two very different character looks make for intriguing possibilities.

His first performance is Friday 8/3 at 10pm at HUGE.

Out of Towners - Shelby Company - Font of Knowledge

A washed-up word jockey and a sexy librarian team up to stop the world's deadliest font from falling into the clutches of the Commies in this mash-up of 1950s genres, from noir to sci-fi.

"The time for mustaches is over."

Anybody reading this blog the last three years knows I love me some Shelby Company.  They blew my mind on their first visit with Winnemucca: Three Days In The Belly, and followed up with a goofy assortment of shorts in Uncle Shelby's Traveling Treasure Trunk, then won over a whole new group of fans with their baseball drama Sousepaw last year.  This year, they're back to goofy, with another completely different script from Sousepaw scribe Jonathan A. Goldberg.  And judging by the preview they did last night, it's gonna be a hoot.

The jokes were flying fast and furious in this send-up of old film noir hard-boiled detective stories.  The cast is having a ball doing this script, you can tell.  Nice thing is, we get to share the fun, too.  The costume design is largely stark shades of black and white, with some red accents thrown in for good measure.  The characters are not just cynical (and funny) but oversexed as well (sample line - "I think better on my back with my mouth full." - and it was a guy saying it to a woman for a change), so proceed with a little caution.  But if you like your humor smart and ballsy, this one looks like a lot of fun.

I'm glad Shelby Company picked up some of Les Kurkendaal's good Fringe Lottery karma and they just keep coming back.  Not only do I like their shows, but I like them.  They're a fun bunch to hang out with, so be sure to look for them at Fringe Central.  If I'm lucky, they'll adopt me as one of their Fringe mascots again this year.

If you want to kick off your Fringe with a little Shelby Company, they have the closing slot at 10 at Mixed Blood tonight, Thursday 8/2.  They also have the 10pm slot on Saturday, 8/4, then they have shows on Monday, 8/6 and next Friday and Saturday, 8/10 and 8/11.

Out of Towners - Hazy Shade Productions - Scarborough Fair

This musical comedy features the sassy melodies (and harmonies) of Simon and Garfunkel. With little more than a guitar and an egg shaker, these spiritually-driven travelers warm hearts and melt faces.

"You might see us bathing in your fountains, dancing with your homeless people, riding on the backs of your Vikings."

It's a one-joke premise, but it's a funny joke, and there's music.

The two men, Scarborough (Matthew Frazier-Smith) and Fair (Brendan Johnson), are your typical hippie acoustic guitar folk music types.  They clearly have issues with each other, which keep bubbling to the surface.  And they're extremely earnest in their song delivery, complete with "meaningful" gestures and facial expressions for emphasis. Plus they're actually quite good at the whole Simon & Garfunkel cover band thing.  Nice harmonies.  And you can only clown around with something like this if you've got your act down to begin with.

If you need a break from the rock musicals and the show tunes and you wouldn't mind a laugh at the expense of characters who take themselves way too seriously, Scarborough Fair would be a nice pause in the mad rush and spectacle of the Fringe.

They've got the closing slot at 10 at Theatre In The Round tonight, Thursday 8/2 (right after the raucous - and highly recommended - Class of 98 - so you could make it a twofer).  They've also got shows this Saturday, 8/4, then Tuesday 8/7, and next Friday and Saturday, 8/10 and 8/11.

Out of Towners - Left Right TIM - Summerpocalypse: Colorado Improv

Fast-paced, high-energy improv comedy using audience suggestions. LRT brings its patented brand of improv to Minnesota for the first time. Relationships are explored, worlds discovered, and fun had by all. 

 If you want to kick off your Fringing with some improv in the very first slot, I think these are your guys. Left Right TIM are here from Boulder, Colorado, at the Minneapolis Theatre Garage. They've got the Thursday, 8/2 kickoff slot at 5:30 and based on what I saw the Out of Towner showcase last night, their show Summerpocalypse: Colorado Improv promises to be a lot of fun.

Of course, since it's improv, it'll be a completely different show every time, but these guys all know what they're doing. They came out and took one word called out by an audience member - "monkey" - and they were off to the races. There were cops and mad scientists and monkeys, of course. And then, most delightfully, there was a giraffe onstage driving a car getting pulled over because, well, he was a giraffe driving a car.

How to make a giraffe - One guy pushed the guy in front of him to bend over and he hopped on his back and then another guy walked up behind them both with arm extended in the air to provide the rest of the long neck and pivoting head. And even though it was clearly still just three guys piled on top of one another, their movement set off this memory in my head of all those documentaries with a giraffe running across the open plains of Africa.  Uncanny.

And they just did this. Instinctively. They all just work as a seamless team and then we're left with a monkey and a giraffe sharing a jail cell together and the monkey asking, "So, what are you in for?" Along the way there was all kinds of cheeky references to gene splicing and genetic mutations and animal/human racism and... these guys think so fast on their feet it's kind of scary. But damn funny.  (Frankly I'm envious.  How fun must it be to be able to create art with your friends like that, to be that in sync with other human beings you like hanging out with?)

Now I'm going to have to find a way to work them into my schedule. I enjoyed the goofiness of their publicity picture. Having spent a couple of summers in Boulder working for the Colorado Shakespeare Festival back in my grad school days, I have fond memories (and also family) in Colorado. And I love me some improv. So I was already leaning their way. Their quick-witted showcase presentation sealed the deal.

They have shows this Friday and Saturday, 8/3 and 8/4, as well. Then Tuesday 8/7 and Friday 8/10, too. Definitely worth checking out if you need a good laugh, and some good improv comedy.

Out of Towners - Les Kurkendaal - A One-Way Ticket To Crazy Town

Les' mother is suffering from dementia and doesn't remember who he is. She remembers the rest of the family, just not him. So Les is going to tell his mother stories and hope they will jog her memory

Mom doesn't really consider Les an out-of-towner, since every time she's in town to visit me for the Fringe, Les is always here, too.

Les is blessed with some major Fringe Lottery good karma.  The ping pong balls always seem to go his way.  And I can't complain.  Both Mom and I love seeing Les perform, and just hanging out with him in general.  In fact, when Les saw me after the show last night, his first thought was not of me but upon spying me he immediately asked, "Where's Mom?!"  Right behind me, of course, so they had a fun little reunion.

Oh, his show.  You want to know about his show?  It's more vintage Les, which is to say the man has an enviable skill for taking his life and finding that key story around which to create a show.  In this case, it's Les dealing with the fact that his mother no longer knows who he is.  My own mom is caretaker to my 99-year-old grandma (her mom) and so the family knows where Les is coming from.  Grandma still knows who the key people in the family are, but the memory bank is shot for the day to day stuff.  When people ask about grandma, Mom will joke, "She'll be 100 in March, if I let her."  Given the daily challenges, I was wondering if this Les show would hit a little too close to home.

But it's Les, which means the key ingredient in any survival recipe is humor.  The guy just knows how to tell a story.  With Les, you're in good hands.  We're catching him in performance on Tuesday to help close out Mom's last day of Fringing, but he has a performance today, Thursday 8/2 in the 5:30 kickoff slot.  Les, now as ever, comes very highly recommended.

The 5 Returning Fringe Acts I'm Most Looking Forward To Seeing

I've referenced 4 out of the 5 shows on this list in other posts related to their Fringe-For-All previews, but just for a handy reference, here are the five returning Fringe acts that spent time in Top Ten lists of mine in previous years that I'm most excited about seeing again this year (as is Mom, they're all on her schedule this week before she heads back to Pennsylvania).

They are:

1 - Ash Land - Transatlantic Love Affair - Rarig Thrust (pre-Fringe Top 10 2010 edition) 

Their Fringe-For-All preview reminded me all the reasons why.







2 - Sin Eater - Present State Movement - Intermedia Arts (pre-Fringe Top 10 2010 edition)

Her Fringe-For-All preview, ditto.

And I've been saying to friends who try and pin me down, if you see only two Fringe shows this year, they should be Ash Land and Sin Eater.  (I, of course, recommend and will see many more.  But if pressed, that's my short answer.)


3 - Nightmare Without Pants - Joking Envelope - Rarig Thrust (pre-Fringe Top 10 2005 edition)

For all the reasons listed about Joseph Scrimshaw's extremely funny Fringe-For-All preview, and because he gave the most amazing performance I saw by a human being last year, under the worst of all possible circumstances.




4 - Fear And Trembling - Maximum Verbosity - HUGE Improv Theater (pre-Fringe Top 10 2007 edition)

For all the reasons I mentioned in his Fringe-For-All preview.







5 - An Agony of Fools - Ben San Del - Southern Theater (pre-Fringe Top 10 2006 edition)

No journey of self-discovery. No deep reveal. Only a slight chance of dancing. Cleanse your palate with a new comedy hour from the creator of Minnesota Middle Finger and A Nice Guy's Guide to Awkward Sex.

No preview from Ben.  But with things like Middle Finger, Awkward Sex, and Animal Cracker Genocide  on his Fringe resume, I don't need much convincing, and neither should you.  It's smart, genial comedy whether he's serving it up in scripted form or as part of his stand-up act.  Mom and I were happy to see him last night hanging around the Out of Towners' showcase, and looking forward to seeing more of him in performance.

Fringe Shows I'm Seeing With Mom - Thursday 8/2 Edition

Mom arrived yesterday afternoon, in time for some dinner and her annual tradition of catching the Fringe Out of Towners' showcase on Fringe Eve (more on that in a bit). She realized that she'd been so preoccupied packing and traveling that she'd pretty much forgotten to eat most of the day, and the day before. Quick! Pizza at Green Mill! Ah, that's better.

I also had done literally no scheduling for her week here yet, so over dinner we sat down and mapped it out.  I'd done my homework, of course.  I could talk knowledgeably about all our options.  And Mom has a number of favorites she's gathered in her years of Fringing.  So between the two of us, we made short order of our scheduling challenge.  "Oh, I don't want to miss that person."  "When else are they playing, I want to be sure we see that one." "Can we do that commute in just a half hour?" As every year, there are still some things Mom's not going to get to see that bum her out, but everything we are seeing she's very excited about.  And after she heads home to Pennsylvania, I'll still have five days left of Fringe to catch more of the things we were talking about.

We'll make sure she's well-fed and fully energized today. A good night's sleep also helped. And we're starting our Fringing slow. No running back and forth all over town on the first day (we'll save that for the weekend :)

 Opening day, we're sticking to the Rarig Center.

5:30 - The Gay Banditos - The Mechanical Division - Rarig Thrust

I described this to mom and she started laughing almost immediately so that's a good sign.  Their Fringe-For-All preview was more foul-mouthed incentive, of course.





7:00 - Christopher Street: A New Musical (like the Fringe does old musicals) - Silver Slipper Productions - Rarig Proscenium

I know a few people in the cast of this one, as well as the director.  And of course "gay musical" is kind of redundant but after all the random bits of backstage information I've gotten on this one, I have to admit, I'm intrigued.  Plus, it's a gay historical musical, so see?  Totally highbrow.  Oh, if the phrase "orgy scene" is an enticement, you're welcome.  And yes, I'm going to see this with my mother.

8:30 - The Music Box - Graber & Napolitano Productions - Rarig Thrust

This partly a "Hey, we're here anyway" reason.  But also, after a super gay start to the evening, we'd like to bring it back to heteronormative reality with a slightly less edgy musical offering.  But also, I just got an email from these folks the other day and have you seen their trailer?  (Click on the Video tab of their show page) It's only 33 seconds long but what the hell was their budget?  It makes me feel sorry for everyone who just turned on their cell phone camera and shot their video trailer in their bathroom.  The two people in this thing are so pretty, it's practically a perfume commercial (except they have clothes on).  That's a damn good trailer.  I was already curious about this one, but now I'm really glad it happened to slot right in on the schedule.

10:00 - Ash Land - Transatlantic Love Affair - Rarig Thrust

Friends keep asking me for recommendations, and I could rattle off a list but if you ask me to keep it simple, I'll say "If you only see two Fringe shows this year, see Ash Land and Sin Eater."  (Need convincing?  Here's two preview writeups with handy extra links.)

Fringe Top 20 2012 Edition - If You Removed The Gun From My Head...

So, if you removed that hypothetical gun from my head and I could see ten more Fringe shows, what would they be and why?

11 - Studio Alethea Productions - Kafkaesque: A Musical Metamorphosis - Mixed Blood

A musical version of Kafka's Metamorphosis by a writer friend of mine.  It was in development during the year in our writing group and I'm really curious to see how it turned out.  Writer Nathan Schilz has some of the sharpest dramaturgical instincts I've run across in a while.  If anyone can make this freaky hybrid work, he's your guy.

12 - Snikt! Bamf! Thwip! - The Complete Works of William Shatner (abridged) - Rarig Thrust

I could pretend I'm too high brow to admit to wanting to see this, but I'd be telling a huge lie.  Enjoyed their Fringe-For-All preview too much not to see the whole thing.





13 - Rebecca Kling - Storms Beneath Her Skin - Patrick's Cabaret

Her story fascinates me.  That's my reason.   (Update, just saw her at the Out of Towner's showcase.  She's great.  Looks like this show's going to be even better than I originally suspected.)




14 - Michael Venske Presents - Thumbs Up! - Patrick's Cabaret

When this popped up as a last minute addition, I said to myself, "Hey!  I know that guy.  And that script.  I helped dramaturg that script right before he headed off to the DC Fringe with it."  Looks like it did well, and now he's bringing it home.  I never saw how it turned out, so I'm very curious.  The idea behind the odyssey, a man honoring his father's wish to hitchhike cross-country and plant a little tree at the site where his parents first met, is lovely, and the journey itself kind of quirky.

15 - Billy Willy - The Billy Willy Show - HUGE Improv Theater

Here's an example of persistence paying off.  Billy Willy has sent me a couple of emails following up his original email to me and while I've been too swamped to answer all my Fringe emails this year, his resurfacing in my mailbox kept him in my mind.  Plus, gay stand-up comedian/country music fellow?  That combo's just enough to lure me into the theater to see what that looks like in performance.

16 - The Peanut Butter Factory - Joe Dowling’s William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet on the Moon, etc. - Theatre In The Round

For all the reasons I unexpectedly loved their wacky Fringe-For-All preview







17 - Freshwater Theatre - Going Down on the Queen of Minneapolis - Rarig Thrust

For all the reasons I like Freshwater and Ruth Virkus and company and what they do which I mentioned writing up their Fringe-For-All preview.





18 - Jay Gabler - Ivory Tower Burning - Bryant Lake Bowl

His Fringe-For-All preview wasn't necessarily the best advertising, but I'm still really looking forward to seeing how Jay dramatizes his subject. (Oh, and don't confuse this with the Fringe show Ivory Tower - I know, what are the odds, right?)



19 - ITO Productions - Love Labour Loss - Bryant Lake Bowl

Because I read another script recently by the writer Kyle Orf and it was really great - for the first 75 percent of the play.  It fell apart, spectacularly, in the home stretch but man, when it was good, It was really good.  This is a more personal tale, with a beginning middle and end based in reality, so I'm banking on him shaping it very differently from the other script I read, while still having his really distinctive style.

20 - Eat Street Players - Broken Memories - Gremlin Theatre

A young playwright, a scrappy community theater company supporting new writers instead of just rehashing some musty old script by a dead playwright.  I am frequently an easy mark for a pitch like this.  I got fed some background info on this and I wish they'd posted it on the Fringe site so everyone could see it.  Oh heck, I'll post it...

"LaDarrion Williams, a young writer from Arizona, finally had his play selected to be performed.  This is his story about himself and people he knew.  It is difficult to tell your darkest secrets to the whole world, but Ladarrion beautifully described in this Choreopoem all of the details of his Broken Memories.  He seems stronger and more mature after facing his past and writing it for us to perform.  He has so much support and love at home and they will be having a showing of Broken Memories as performed by Eat Street in his home town for everyone to watch.

More generally, about the true struggles teenagers have.  They are not small issues and can lead to death if not talked about and helped.  Broken Memories tells three different sides of a teenage life based on real stories and where no one stepped in to help these teens, but if they would have maybe there would have been a different ending to their stories.  People need to listen to their stories, stand up to make change and "start a riot" so everyone knows about it.

High school is difficult, but these three kids are dealing with their darkest Broken Memories of life at home, with boys, or the treatment they receive daily.  Kevin, Porcia  and Claudine's lives are falling down around them and they starting to spiral out of control.  Their inner furies have physically manifested themselves to push each student to the limits and in the end someone may be pushed over the edge.

A dramatic play with music, Broken Memories weaves instrumental and vocal music underneath movement and words to express the stories of its three protagonists.  An evocative journey.  Originally produced in the Eat Street Players Fresh Bites One Act Festival."

Fringe Top 10 2012 Edition - If You Put A Gun To My Head...

Every year at Fringe time, I clear out last year's pre-Fringe Top 10 list and make way for ten new names.  If you put a gun to my head and I could only see ten Fringe shows, what would they be and why...

1 - Katherine Glover - Dead Wrong - Patrick's Cabaret

I enjoyed her one of her previous Fringe shows, A Cynic Tells Love Stories, so much I've been waiting expectantly for whatever she did next.  While this show is the polar opposite of that other one in terms of content and style, it's still Katherine Glover, so she still tops my list.  As noted in the Fringe-For-All coverage, she's also part of the group of storytellers putting on Chorus: Voices After The Silence

2 - Dovetail Theatre Productions - Rip - Minneapolis Theatre Garage

For all the reasons I raved about Dovetail when I wrote up their Fringe-For-All preview







3 - Mainly Me Productions - Class of 98 - Theatre In The Round

For all the reasons I raved about Mainly Me when I wrote up their Fringe-For-All preview






4 - Segue Productions - Steel Kiss - Rarig Thrust

There were two things I worried about before I saw their Fringe-For-All preview, and they both had to do with a failure of nerve.  If there was violence would it be realistic (and if it was realistic, would I be able to bring myself to watch it)?  If there was intimacy, would they shy away from it?  The answers were yes (yes) and no.  Not only was the violence disturbing (and compelling viewing), the physical intimacy that contrasted it had real heat and not a hint of hesitation.  And while nudity's not always a plus, in this case it's certainly not a minus.

5 - Cities Classical Dance Ensemble - Isabella and The Lost Heart Adventure - Southern Theater

Because I enjoyed their dancing so much last year they ended up on my post-Fringe Top 10.  This time it's more a full narrative story than a collection of short pieces, but I'm just as intrigued with how they'll attack it.




6 - 20% Theatre Company Twin Cities - The Naked I: Wide Open (abridged) - Playwrights Center

Because I saw the unabridged version earlier this year in a sold-out run and it really enchanted me.







7 - The Winding Sheet Outfit - Birds of Passage - Rarig Xperimental

Because Amber Bjork, who heads up the Winding Sheet Outfit, has been a key part of why Carin Bratlie's company Theatre Pro Rata is as consistently great as it is (apart from Carin, of course.  Can't beat Carin).  If Amber's heading up a project, I'm anxiously looking forward to seeing it.


8 - ORL Productions - The Love Show! - Brave New Workshop

For all the reasons I enjoyed their Fringe-For-All preview so much.







9 - Yellow Bird Productions - Silence - Rarig Proscenium

Because it's a deaf musical.  A deaf.  musical.








10 - The Theater of Public Policy - Big Thinkers, Serious Issues, Improv Comedy - Brave New Workshop

Because I've been super curious how their mix of actual discussion of serious issues then turns into fodder for improv comedy.

Candide - Four Humors Theater

"Go where glory awaits you!"

A comedy concerning floggings, rape, justifiable homicide, ship travel, Jews, Christians, mass murder, death, desire, and the general joy and suffering one finds within this, the best of all possible worlds.

Playwrighting wunderkind Nick Ryan adapts the Voltaire classic, slimming it down to 45 minutes. Brant Miller surfaces for the second time in the evening, this time as the hapless victim of two newfound drinking buddies who then enlist him in their army. This ends up getting him flogged repeatedly when he's unable to deal with the noise from artillery practice. The comical flogging here took up about as much of the preview time as the gay-bashing in the Steel Kiss preview, prompting host Robin Gillette to remark at the end of the evening, "Thank you for attending this surprisingly violent Fringe-For-All." There's a reason that Fringe hits follow Four Humors around wherever they go. They're good at what they do, and what they do is smart comedy. Bonus points for now insuring that the most unlikely people will be added to the list of those who know the basic plot of Candide.

A few more in the "Not My Thing" category

Room For Cream - Emily Schmidt Productions

"Grace, what's your spirit animal?  It tells about how you threaten when provoked."

How do you like your coffee? Generibou barista Grace prefers a shot of sugar-free romance, a half pump of 5am and no creepy customers. She's not always so lucky. Hey, economy - thanks a latte!

She's so good with the satire of a dead-end service industry job at a coffeehouse chain that it was painful to watch. In the same way the British version of The Office was so deeply painful to watch that I literally let it play on the TV at the other end of the apartment while I did things like cleaning, so I could hear it, but didn't have to sit still and allow it to assault me head-on. Funny? Yes. The last thing I'd willingly make myself sit through. Unfortunately also yes. But if day job comedy is your thing, you probably won't find a funnier one at the Fringe this year.



Behind The Big Top - Travnastic Travesties

"Your breath smells like whiskey and shame."

A funny yet tragic play about an aging clown in the circus struggling to manage both his crumbling life and his insane co-workers.

The name makes you think it might be about transvestites. But it's about clowns. Washed up, alcoholic, manic depressive clowns. Two schlubby clowns taunt a third pretty boy clown. There's some good lines here, but just like the zombies and day job comedy, clowns kind of freak me out. And clowns acting as if theirs is a dead-end profession, like any other day job, depresses me, too. I'm feeling it more than just letting the comedy roll off my back, so enjoyment here escapes me. Again, if day job comedy is your thing, the clowns put a twist on it.



Aesop's Musical Foibles - Laughter Supplement

"I asked you to call me Lightning Jack!"

Poor Aesop can hardly think straight! His mind is crowded with stories and hysterical characters. Accompanied by rock and roll music, Aesop's fables are shared with the world, with a few twists along the way.

Oh dear. The costume bits for the animals are cute. The concept is clever. The small army of young performers in tie-dye T-shirts emblazoned with the show's logo dove in with all the energy and enthusiasm they could muster. But they were relying on a microphone that was either dead, or which they didn't know how to operate, and thus failed to project their voices much at all in the big musical number. Some of them musically were also really flat. All this will doubtless get worked out in the rehearsals they have left. It'll probably turn into a nice little family show when they're done. But I'm not their audience.



Hans The Obscure - Mindless Mirth Productions

"It seems to me like there's an awful lot of doofuses wandering the countryside."

Three little-known tales by Hans Christian Andersen. Witty suitors! Undersea kingdoms! The love that dare not cluck its name! Delightful, devilish, decadent fun!

I like Mahmoud Hakima as a performer a whole lot, so his involvement here makes me inclined to like the show. Also a big Hans Christian Andersen fan. It'll probably make for another fine family show. It got a lot of laughs, particularly when stuffed animal horses were tossed at the actors when it was time to go horseback riding. Personally, though, this style of storytelling isn't my thing.



Sneak Thief - International League of Diamond Thieves

"There's no such thing as two weeks' notice when you're being fired."

Two diamond-hungry thieves plan to steal the big kahuna. Starring Tim Hellendrung (MN Middle Finger 2011, Speech 2010) and Brant Miller (Mortem Capiendum 2008, Traveling Musicians 2009, Bards 2007)

Nothing at all wrong here. Brant Miller, Tim Hellendrung, both extremely funny guys, and both extremely funny here. However, watching a guy get fired, no matter how funny, is still painful for me to watch. Like the "Room for Cream" coffeehouse day job satire earlier in the evening, well-executed comedy of the humiliations of daily life can be enormously entertaining. I'm personally just a little too close to going under myself these days to get much enjoyment out of it. These men deliver the funny, however, so if you're looking for a laugh, this is your duo.



Coach - Charlzik Theatre Company

"Why do we keep having this discussion?"

He wants to coach. She won't let him. A hard-working father of three boys works with a Harvard fry-brain drop-out at a power plant about to close. It's about finding your life's passion at any cost.

A man wants to coach football. His wife won't let him. Gee, did a guy write this? Yup. I have a hard time having patience with a set up like this because it's clearly just convenient for things the writer wants to say, rather than looking like it's based in something like reality or character development. I have even less patience when no one onstage outside of the wife can bother to speak up so I can hear what they're saying. Meet me halfway, people. The problem here is I'm siding with the woman over the schlubs she has to deal with and want it to be her play, but we're supposed to think she's the obstacle. Sigh. Nobody keeps you from doing what you want to do, unless you let them. Pass.