Minnesota Fringe Festival 2024: "Gasthaus"

Day: 6

Show: 21

Title: Gasthaus

Category: Drama / Original Music / Historical content

By: TROMPE L'OEIL

Written by: Kevin Bowen & Lynn Bowen

Location: Phoenix Theater

Summary: The story of an inn on the border between West and East Germany not too long after WWII.

Highlights: Inspired by a true story, the playwrights tell the fictional tale of a family trying to run their inn and dealing with border patrol inside their home. It's a compelling story, if a bit cliche, in which the West German daughter falls in love with one of the East German soldiers. The charming German-themed set, authentic period costumes, and live accordion music help set the scene, with the cast speaking Germlish (English with a few German words thrown in like Nein, Guten Morgan, Ost, and Danke - the language I used to speak with my friends when studying abroad in Austria). Directed by Amanda Weis, the cast is talented and engaging in this look at a fascinating time in history in which families and friends were separated by an arbitrary border (which has happened a lot throughout the history of this planet). An overall enjoyable show, even if the ending is a bit too easy and abrupt.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here. 

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2019: "The Buttslasher: And Then There Were Buns"

Day: 6

Show: 20

Title: The Buttslasher: And Then There Were Buns

Category: COMEDY / MYSTERY / HISTORICAL CONTENT

By: New Endeavors

Written by: Andy Rakerd

Location: Rarig Center Thrust

Summary: A sequel to the 2017/2018 Fringe hit Buttslasher, about the infamous criminal of Stillwater and the detective who hunts them.

Highlights: If you saw the original, you're in for more of the same cheeky fun here (pun intended). But don't worry if you didn't see the first one, this is a "stand-alone sequel," in which our hero Detective Heck Bills (once again perfectly portrayed by Glen L. Dawson) is invited to a dinner party at which the guests keep dropping - slashed in the butt. Even though Heck solved the crime in the last show, it seems our serial Buttslasher has returned to the dangerous town of Stillwater, or maybe has turned into something even worse - an ass-vampire (which is the set-up for the best/worst pun in the show, "hot cross buns"). The plot is a little convoluted (including deceased wealthy urinal cake tycoon Harry Backside and a senator jailed for slug fighting), but the puns come fast and furious, and the cast (Al Fiene, Cayla Marie Wolpers, Harry Lantto, Joy Rakerd, Thalia Kostman, and Varghese Alexander,) is great fun as they portray these noir-ish characters (and Thalia's mime is, as they say in the show, a delight). I could watch a new episode of Det. Heck and the Buttslasher every year, they really go all in with the theme of mocking yet paying homage to the noir genre, with as many silly puns as possible.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.