Fringe Festival 2017: "Subpar Heroes"

Day: 7

Show: 28

Title: Subpar Heroes

Category: Comedy

By: Renegade Theater Company

Created by: Renegade Theater Company

Location: Southern Theater

Summary: A small town donut factory and its employees are forever changed when an evil woman buys it and fires them, and then a comet passes overhead, giving everyone sort of special powers.

Highlights: It's super fun to see my favorite Duluth theater peeps in Minneapolis in this super fun show! It's pretty standard fringe fare, but performed with flair by the terrific cast. Shortly after our gang (Andy Frye, Angie Martin, Carolyn Trapskin, Katy Helbacka, Zachary Stofer) is laid off from the donut factory, a comet passes over giving them all superpowers that are less than super, like levitating small objects, or seeing two seconds into the future, or making people sing and dance (which is actually a pretty awesome superpower). At the same time, the new owner of the factory (a gleefully maniacal Mary Fox) also gains a superpower, and for some reason decides to sprinkle ecstasy into the donut batter, making the town go crazy. The subpar heroes plot and plan to pool their limited resources to overthrow her, but can't quite make it happen. Still, they can sing about it (with delightfully fun original music by Andy Frye). Next time you're in Duluth visit Renegade Theater (they're doing the rarely produced Pasek and Paul musical Dogfight right now!), and listen to the Take It With You (live radio theater from Duluth!) to hear more silliness and music like this.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

Fringe Festival 2016: "Take Talkback"

Day: 7

Show: 33

Title: Take Talkback

Category: Comedy

By: Six Four Six One Productions

Directed by: Brad Erickson

Location: Ritz Theater Proscenium

Summary: The post-show talkback of a community theater's production of an edgy play takes a darkly funny turn.

Highlights: I always stay for a post-show talkback, so I couldn't resist a talkback that IS the show! After a performance of the edgy two-person drama Take at Beulah Community Theatre (abbreviated BCT - is that an intentional or inadvertent reference to the theater now called Artistry?), artistic director Becky (a hilarious Christine Karki) introduces the talkback and tells us about BCT's new season (the whole show is performed with house lights up). She's joined onstage by the director (Ben Thietje), the actors (Bobby Gardner and Anna Weggel-Reed), and the writer (Patrick Kozicky), who traveled from NYC just for this event (or did he?!). The play (written by Adam Hummel) pokes gentle fun at talkbacks and theater in general (the actor sipping tea, the grumpy audience member using the talkback as an opportunity to complain he couldn't hear the dialogue). But then disgruntled actors (Joe Bombard and Angie Martin) bust in and demand to be heard. The tame talkback turns into a mess of a situation as secrets come out. Although making a joke out of people with guns attacking a public gathering is a little uncomfortable in light of recent events, Take Talkback is a darkly funny spoof of all things theater.