Minnesota Fringe Festival 2025: "Grief, It's What's For Dinner"

Day: 7

Show: 22

Title: Grief, It's What's For Dinner

Category: Comedy / Drama / Puppetry

By: Aethem Theatre

Written by: Kayla Hambek

Location: Open Eye Theatre

Summary: A funny and moving play about caregiving, loss, and finding your way through the difficulties of life with the help of friends.

Highlights: It's not the Minnesota Fringe Festival if I don't cry a few tears, so thanks to Kayla Hambek for letting me cross off that bingo square. She's written a really beautiful autobiographical show (she steps out of character at the end to tell us the real details) that's so relatable to anyone who's experienced loss or caring for an aging parent. She plays a character named Kate who (along with her dad) is caring for her mother who has early onset Alzheimer's, while also dealing with a neurodivergent sister. Her mother is still with them, but the daughters are mourning the mom they knew. She has a therapist and support group to help her through, and maybe even meets a boy. The small ensemble (Danielle Krivinchuk, Emma Paquette, Sher U-F, and Courtney Vonvett) plays everyone in Kate's life, most of them playing multiple very different roles. The use of hand puppets (to represent her inner self as a rainbow puppet, some of the support group members, and silly little musical numbers) adds a whimsy and charm to the story. Like the spoonful of sugar that makes the medicine (a story about grief) go down. Grief is a sweet, funny, relatable, and moving show.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here. 

"Miss Woodhouse Presents" by Aethem Theatre Company at Elision Playhouse

In a delightful piece of Jane Austen fan fic, Aethem Theatre Company brings us the new play Miss Woodhouse Presents, written and directed by their Managing Director Kayla Hambek. It's a sort of mash-up of all of the novels, in the form of a British reality TV show. In just 90 minutes, we see love lost and won among the Dashwoods, the Bennets, and more familiar characters. Fans of Austen, who are not too precious about it, are sure to enjoy. The short run ends this weekend; you have just three more chances to see this charming play at Elision Playhouse in Crystal (click here for info and tickets).

"Persuasion" by Aethem Theater Company at the Wellstone Center

"Men have had every advantage of us in telling their own story. Education has been theirs in so much higher a degree; the pen has been in their hands." These words were written by Jane Austen 200 years ago, spoken by Anne Elliot, the heroine of Persuasion, but they're just as true today. OK maybe we've evened things out a little bit in the last 200 years, but women's stories told by women are still in the minority. Fortunately, Jane Austen was able to tell her story despite the obstacles, a story of strong women who are determined to decide their own fate despite living within the confines of early 19th Century English society. One of the less common iterations of this story, her final novel Persuasion, has received a new adaptation by local theater artist Kayla Hambek for Aethem Theatre Company, and it's just delightful. Full of the Jane Austen charm, the familiar story of a strong, determined, principled woman who won't settle for less than her heart's desire, brought to life by a large wonderful cast with creative use of movement to convey emotions - it's a must-see for Janeites.

Fringe Festival 2015: "Workshop"

Day: 7

Show: 31

Title: Workshop

Category: Comedy

By: AEthem Theatre Company

Written by: Kayla Hambek

Location: Minneapolis Theatre Garage

Summary: A group of friends commiserate about life, love, and their day jobs while planning the next season of their theater company.

Highlights: They always say, write what you know. The characters in this play, and perhaps playwright Kayla Hambek, have taken that to heart. Lindsey (Ali Close) is struggling to write a play for her theater company's upcoming season while dealing with the fact that she may lose her day job as a cardiologist and have to move away from the friends and the theater she loves. Monday night workshops with Rachel (Danielle Krivinchuk), Anna (played by the playwright), and British for no reason (other than it gives Kyler Chase a chance to show off his charming British accent) Nick become more stressful as they come closer to the season announcement deadline. Enter rival Charlie (Brendan Veerman) who Lindsey thinks stole one of her plays. Life, art, and friendship collide as the group contemplates the reality of possibly having to give up their dream. This appealing and very natural young cast delivers a sweet and funny play about the love of friends and theater.