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Saturday, August 8, 2020

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2020: "Paul & Erika's HOUSE SHOW"

Location: Digital Hub (available anytime)

Length: 35 minutes

Title: Paul & Erika's HOUSE SHOW

By: Theatre Mobile

Summary: Paul Strickland and Erika Kate MacDonald do a show from their house to your house.

Highlights: This one's a real charmer, and surprisingly poignant. There are several different segments, or start-overs, the first with an impossible director Sterling Spoon (an actual spoon) complaining about their lack of skills. They call it a "we don't know how to make a movie but I guess we have to now" production. I love that they fully acknowledge this is a weird and wrong way to do and watch theater, but it's all we've got, so let's make the best of it. And they do, in a great example of creative artists adapting their art to fit the times. They sing, tell stories, do fun edits, share outtakes, in a mostly silly and fun show. Until they brought tears to my eyes at the end when they talked about how much they miss performing in front of an audience, and that "we tried to make a show that shows what a show is in a time of no shows," but that the real "show" is what happens in the space between the performers and the audience. A space that seems cavernous right now. I really hope Paul and Erika come to a live in-person MN Fringe, because I'd love to watch them do what they do in person!

Read all of my Nightly Fringe mini-reviews here.

Read all of my Digital Hub mini-reviews here.