Tuesday, August 14, 2018

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2018: "Book of Shadows"

Day: 10

Show: 33

Title: Book of Shadows

Category: Comedy / Dance / Drama

By: Erin Sheppard Presents

Directed by: Erin Sheppard

Location: Theatre in the Round

Summary: A series of dances pieces about witches, more specifically about a 13-year-old girl's experience and thoughts about witchcraft.

Highlights: This show is both creepy cool in the choreography (by Erin Sheppard, Regan K. Saunders, and Jessica Chad) and endearlingly sweet in Taj Ruler's confessions of a 13-year-old. Her stories of middle school life are very relatable, even if you didn't practice witchcraft. But Taj did, and kept a spell book from which she recites along with tales of teenage torment and joy. After each story/spell, we see it come to life in dance, performed by an eight-person ensemble (the choreographers along with Caroline Sable, Coralee Kaivo, Derek Meyer, Paige Siegrist, and Rhett Romsaas). There's a spell for your enemies, a love spell, and even a brief reenactment of the Salem witch trials. It's an interesting concept to explore the idea of witches both in history and legend, and through the mind of a young girl who uses witchcraft as a way to feel like she has power in a powerless time. The dances are beautiful, powerful, affecting, and funny. Watch for a follow-up at this year's Twin Cities Horror Fest.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.