Traveling by train through Europe, specifically Germany (or even better - Switzerland), is one of life's greatest pleasures. I highly recommend it if you haven't done it yet. Firstly, it's so easy and convenient and accessible; you can get anywhere, and America has a lot to learn from Europe about public transit. But it's also a fun and relaxing way to travel. You can get up and walk around, get a snack, or just stay in your seat and nap or read or stare out the window. Watching the world pass by is an ideal environment for rumination, about the big and the little things in life. Such is the beginning of Michael Rogers' new solo show
Berlin to Rügen. It starts off with a person on a train staring out the window and ruminating about their life, and then those ruminations go places I wasn't expecting. Places that are funny or heart-wrenching, and often both. See this new work by the artist who gave
the best performance I saw a Minnesota Fringe last year,
through Saturday only at the Phoenix Theater in Uptown.
Rügen is an island off the northern coast of Germany, and the play takes place on a train that's headed there from the metropolis of Berlin, and also in the imaginations and pasts of the people we meet. Michael plays multiple characters on the train. First we meet an American who's traveling in search of something. He wishes he were an assassin, like Jason Bourne, and then we see that character as he fights to save the world from a one-eyed villain. In one riveting scene Michael plays both halves of a couple running away to get married, one Irish and one French, with a delightful battle of the accents. We meet a character going through the mundane routines of daily life, and another (perhaps the first traveler) doing a sort of stand-up routine. Except it's as tragic as it is funny, as he recounts a lost love of his youth, a German exchange student. All of these scenes and characters seem on the surface unrelated, except that they all explore common existential themes of identity, purpose, anxiety, family, and relationships.
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Michael Rogers and Michael Rogers
(photo by Ruben Gomez) |
Three large panels dominate the Phoenix Theater stage, like three train cars, each with a large window in them. The middle window is a screen upon which we see images and videos as well as some shadow work performed by Michael behind the screen. The windows on either side are open, where we see the train passengers. Michael is dressed in black with a few changes of accessories to signify different characters, and lighting and sound are used to good effect to differentiate and punctuate scenes. (Set design by Justin Hooper, editing by Anna Griffin, and lighting design by Andy Tollin.)
Like in his Fringe show
As Above, So Below, Michael gives a raw, honest, vulnerable, and physical performance. Although this show is a little lighter and funnier than that one, but still plunging into the depths of what it means to be human. Until you can get to Europe and have your own ruminations on a train,
board this train at the Phoenix to experience Michael's engaging and relatable ruminations.
