Minnesota Fringe Festival 2026: "Minnesota is the Shire, or Fair & Back Again"

Day: 4

Show: 13

Title: Minnesota is the Shire, or Fair & Back Again

Category: Solo Show / Storytelling / Historical content

By: Seán McArdle / Hero Props

Created by: Seán McArdle

Location: Barker Center

Summary: A solo storytelling show about how Minnesota is like Tolkien's Shire (Hobbit country), specifically in the scouring.

Highlights: OK, I went to this show because I've loved The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings for 40 years, but I left again being moved and inspired by my fellow Minnesotans. Prop master Seán McArdle loves LOTR even more than me, and in this well-constructed show, which he primarily reads from a lectern decorated with LOTR and protest memorabilia, he first tells us about his love of all things Tolkien, even painting maps on the walls of his high school classroom for his senior project. He compares the Minnesota State Fair to the Shire, primarily in the prevalence of food and drink and the opportunity to have many meals. But then he comes to the main thesis, that Operation Metro Surge was like "The Scouring of the Shire," a story at the end of The Return of the King in which the Hobbits return home to find that Saruman has turned the Shire into a fascist state (which was omitted from Peter Jackson's adaptation, which Seán says is its biggest flaw). He draws the parallels in a really convincing and moving way, even if you don't know LOTR. He shares social media posts and videos that he made during the time of the Surge, and his contribution of making and distributing many many whistles for people like his friend Kyle Dekker who were out on the streets (see Kyle's show Witness Loudly at Strike). He teaches us a few words of Elvish, and points to the three beacons of hope in LOTR (Aragorn, Gandalf, and Sam) for inspiration. I last read the books in 2020, after returning from my second visit to New Zealand on March 11, to find that the world I knew was completely changed, and found great inspiration in revisiting my favorite story during that difficult year. Tolkien famously hated allegory, as Seán said, but it's hard not to see parallels to our own world when reading these books. This show is a beautiful and moving thesis defense that has 100% convinced me, and a uniquely comforting way to help process our recent collective trauma and find inspiration to keep fighting.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here. 

at Bilbo's house in Hobbiton, Leap Day 2020

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2026: "Castrati: A Tale of Two"

Day: 4

Show: 11

Title: Castrati: A Tale of Two

Category: Comedy / Musical Theater / Original Music / Puppetry / Historical content / Shakespearian elements

By: True Men Productions

Created by: Cali Garzon, Julia Maskin & Eli Maskin

Location: Barker Center

Summary: A musical set in 1400s Rome, about a castrated boy who is rejected by his family and finds identity and confidence in singing.

Highlights: This might be the Fringiest thing at the festival this year. I'm not quite sure what to make of it, and couldn't quite figure out the tone. Are we supposed to laugh at all of the testicle puns? Are we supposed to feel for the characters? It landed somewhere in between. The 13-person (uncredited) cast is talented, particularly the actor playing the castrato (historically, a boy who is castrated before puberty in order to retain a higher vocal range), who has a great voice and creates a lot of empathy for the character, although they have more of an alto voice and I'm not sure why they're dressed as a woman. The characters speak English with no accent, except for a few that have an Italian accent or inexplicably a Cockney or Scottish (?) accent. They're dressed in black, with a few character-specific pieces added for the main characters. The highlight of the show is the 7-piece band, probably the largest of the festival, and the songs are catchy modern pop songs, with some Italian flavor. After being rejected by his family and struggling with doubt, it was nice to see the castrato come into his own at the end, with confidence and self-assurance.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here. 

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2026: "Bay Creek"

Day: 4

Show: 10

Title: Bay Creek

Category: Horror / Solo Show / Storytelling

By: The Miller Conspiracy

Written by: Derek Lee Miller

Location: Barker Center

Summary: A solo show about four generations of men smuggling contraband across state lines and rivers, with the help of a demon.

Highlights: I saw this show at the 2025 Twin Cities Horror Festival, and it was so good I was happy to see it on the schedule for this festival. This is a good old-fashioned ghost story, brilliantly written and performed by Derek Lee Miller. The entire show takes place in a police interrogation room (with voiceover of law enforcement by Rob Ward) in Pike County, Illinois - where Derek is actually from, and from which he takes inspiration for the stories. He plays a fourth generation drug smuggler, from the days of prohibition through the acid craze to the legalization of marijuana in Colorado but not neighboring states, creating opportunity for families like this. We hear stories of his great-grandfather, grandfather, and father - whom the police are currently looking for. He refuses to give any incriminating evidence, until the power is knocked out by the loudest thunder clap I've ever heard in a theater, that you can feel in your bones. Since he's no longer being recorded, he confesses to all sorts of crimes, which he assures the listeners can never be corroborated. The stories aren't just about drug smuggling, but contain elements of demons, ghosts, mysterious escapes, and other supernatural phenomenon. With a healthy dose of family drama and trauma thrown in. Derek embodies all of the characters in the stories, primarily sitting on a single chair next to a table strewn with papers, or standing just in front of it. Each one of these stories would be effective at a campfire, and together form a collective of great scary storytelling. Derek has constructed a fictional story from pieces of truth, which is always the best kind of story. It's a wholly engrossing 60 minutes that fly by like ten. If you're looking to add some scary to your Fringe, this is the show.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here. 

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2025: "The Wickie"

Day: 10

Show: 39

Title: The Wickie

Category: Clowning / Comedy / Physical Theater / Solo Show / Storytelling / Audience participation

By: Richie Whitehead

Created by: Richie Whitehead

Location: Barker Center

Summary: A physical theater clowning solo show about a lighthouse keeper and the search for his missing shoe.

Highlights: For my final Minnesota Fringe show, I went to see a show that was not on my schedule, but which so many people recommended. That final performance was sold out (or very nearly so), and later that night the show won an Artist Pick Golden Lanyard Award. Richie Whitehead, along with collaborators and directors Marc Frost and Salomé Mooij, has created something so charming and delightful, not even the interruption by someone trying to record the show on smart glasses could disrupt it (which Richie handled gracefully and totally in character). The show is a series of vignettes in the life of the lighthouse keeper, aka Wickie. The ocean has taken his shoe, and he wants it back. He has to climb 147 stairs to get to the top of the lighthouse to perform his duties, and it's exhausting. He communicates with his friends via Morse code. He goes looking for the grave of the first Wickie. In a gray wig and beard, Richie looks right at the audience, their impish facial expressions speaking to us as much as their words, inviting us into the story. With some clever audience participation, we feel like we're all in it together and a part of the story. Really great physical comedy, great use of props (including one tall ladder and a couple of buckets), bold lighting, and a bit of fourth-wall breaking make for a really fun, sweet, funny, and entertaining show for all ages. A show that has traveled to fringes around the world, The Wickie is deserving of all of the awards it has received, including "best strip tease dance scene" and "most outrageous fake accent."

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here. 

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2025: "Boxcutter Harmonica"

Day: 10

Show: 35

Title: Boxcutter Harmonica

Category: Mystery / Solo Show / Spoken Word / Storytelling

By: Paper Soul

Written by: J Merrill Motz

Location: Barker Center

Summary: A couple of historical detectives dig into mysteries surrounding artists in early 20th century New Orleans and Renaissance Italy.

Highlights: Since the Fringe is over, I'll spoil the joke that is at the crux of the show. This is not a two-hander starring #TCTheater artist J Merrill Motz and traveling fringe artist Martin Dockery. It's a solo show by Motz (rhymes with boats) in which he plays a version of himself playing a detective waiting for a version of Dockery who is supposed to play the other character in the show. But spoiler alert - he doesn't show. Motz, as Detective Black, continues on with the show, occasionally receiving texts and calls, and growing increasingly more frustrated. But the tale he's spinning, now on his own, is fascinating and more complex than I can relate here. Suffice it to say the detective tells stories about two pairs of artists, one in the shadow of the other. One part of each pair is tempted to make a deal with the devil in order to become a better and more famous artist, and their different decisions affect their lives. But by the end of the show we realize we're actually talking about three pairs of artists, as "Motz" has an existential artistic crisis of his own, and perhaps takes a third road. It's a very smartly written show, with a compelling performance by Motz and great use of props, including writing words on a large sketchpad and laying each sheet on the floor to form a literal crossroads. This show is an epic experience encompassing so many things, for which Motz received a staff pick Golden Lanyard Award for his unique use of tech and turning tropes on their head.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here. 

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2025: "An Exorcism, Don'tcha Know?"

Day: 9

Show: 33

Title: An Exorcism, Don'tcha Know?

Category: Comedy / Horror / Puppetry

By: New Endeavors

Created by: Andrew Rakerd

Location: Barker Center

Summary: The show description pretty much says it all: "Church Basement Ladies meets The Exorcist."

Highlights: I recently saw the original Church Basement Ladies for the first time, and the setup here is almost identical. There's a new pastor at the Lutheran Church in small town Minnesota, and the ladies holding an Easter fundraiser to raise money for a new furnace aren't sure what to think of him (he's "different"). And there's a young woman returned from school at "the U" in "the Cities," coming home different than when she left. And here's where this show diverges from CBL - she's possessed by a demon. A demon who is disappointed to find out he's been sent to torment not a Catholic Church, where they expect and know how to handle such things, but a Lutheran Church. The ladies (Angela Fox, Cayla Marie Wolpers, and Michelle Schwantes) and one husband (Mitch Kiecker) turn to Pastor Sal (Rob Ward) to help rid poor Regan (Emma Kessler) of the demon, but he's not sure what to do. One of the ladies has seen The Exorcist, and offers suggestions. But in the end, Minnesota Nice is the only thing that works to rid these Lutherans of the demon. Because it's not the Minnesota Fringe Festival without some Fargo accents and lutefisk jokes, and this show fills the bill nicely. The cast is great, particularly Emma with a blood curdling scream, her words echoed by Mike Dee as the demon, dressed all in black and shadowing her moves, creating a spooky otherworldly effect. This show is really fun and ridiculously funny, as I would expect from the team that brought us one of the most brilliantly stupid Fringe shows in my memory - 2017's The Buttslasher, and the 2019 sequel The Buttslasher: And Then There Were Buns. I'm still waiting for part 3, but in the meantime, you can catch the final performance of An Exorcism, Don'tcha Know? today (Sunday) at 1pm for some Minnesota humor mixed with a touch of horror.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here. 

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2025: "Cabin Fever"

Day: 9

Show: 32

Title: Cabin Fever

Category: Comedy / Improv / Audience participation / LGBTQIA+ Content

By: Small Waves

Created by: Mikela Anderson, Naomi Brecht, and Katie & Della Christ

Location: Barker Center

Summary: The finale of a lesbian dating reality set in a cabin in the woods.

Highlights: I've never watched a reality dating show (except for the most recent locally filmed season of Love is Blind which I'm only halfway through), but it's a great premise for an improv show. Hosted by the drag queen Buttercream, the show is structured as a recap of the season, one-on-one dates with the bachelorette Ashleighy (Haley Methner) based on audience suggestions (skydiving, an improv show, being in a donkey costume, and jazzercize), the final "s'more" ceremony (instead of "rose," although there sadly were no actual s'mores), and of course the reality show confessionals. Within this structure, the cast (also including Mikela Anderson, Abigail Aune, Madison Lang, Misha Suarez, and Madison Wagner) improvises scenes and storylines, as ridiculous as "real" reality shows can be. On a set that's fairly elaborate by Fringe standards (designed by Della Christ), scenes take place in the living room setup on the right, with dates on the left, and a big sign surrounded by pine trees in the center. They've got one more show at 4pm today (Sunday).

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here. 

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2025: "Breakneck Twelfth Night"

Day: 9

Show: 30

Title: Breakneck Twelfth Night

Category: Drama / Musical Theater / Original Music / Physical Theater / Solo Show / Shakespearian elements

By: Timothy Mooney Repertory Theatre

Created by: Timothy Mooney

Location: Barker Center

Summary: Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, or What You Will, performed in one hour by one actor.

Highlights: Timothy Mooney is such a pro at this, and always impressive. The show truly is this familiar comedic play about a brother and sister separated by a shipwreck and mistaken for each other when the sister disguises herself as a man and woos the lady Olivia on behalf of the Duke, but at breakneck pace. And I don't think he really cuts out any plotlines, he just condenses everything. He walks us though the play scene by scene, summarizing some of the lines as exposition, but also speaking many of the lines as all of the different characters. He also provides some commentary, like the fact that Shakespeare always included male actors in drag, in particular this play with its double-drag, because women weren't allowed on the stage. And he fully performs each character, all distinct with different mannerisms and body carriage and style of speech, even singing the songs written into the script (this is the play that gave us the famous line, "if music be the food of love, play on"). He presents these 400+ year old classics so convincingly, so engagingly, so entertainingly, in this short time, that one wonders why Shakespeare ever needs to be more than an hour.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here. 

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2025: "Shrieking Harpies Presents: Period Piece"

Day: 4

Show: 15

Title: Shrieking Harpies Presents: Period Piece

Category: Comedy / Improv / Musical Theater / Original Music / Audience participation / LGBTQIA+ Content

By: The Shrieking Harpies

Created by: Lizzie Gardner, Taj Ruler, Hannah Wydeven, and Justin Nellis on the Keys

Location: Barker Center

Summary: An improved musical, set in a period chosen by votes on The Shrieking Harpies' Instagram.

Highlights: Improvisers/singers/performers Lizzie, Taj, and Hannah are such pros at this (accompanied by Justin on keys) that this year they gave themselves a new challenge - a period piece! At the show I attended (the one and only 10pm show for this morning person, that's how much I love them) the period was the 1990s, which for someone who was a fully grown adult in the '90s doesn't feel like a period piece, it feels like a few years ago. So unfortunately I didn't really get the period piece feel from this show that I wanted; it was really just like any other Shrieking Harpies show. Which is to say - beautifully performed, ridiculously funny, with characters and storylines that come to a satisfying conclusion. Go see one of their final two shows, and be sure to vote on what period you'd like to see, hopefully one that's longer than 30 years ago.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here. 

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2024: "As Above, So Below"

Day: 9

Show: 30

Title: As Above, So Below

Category: Drama / Physical Theater / Solo Show / Storytelling

By: Michael Rogers

Created by: Michael Rogers

Location: Barker Center for Dance

Summary: A solo storytelling piece dealing with traumatic family issues that is visceral and mesmerizing.

Highlights: Michael Rogers gives the best performance I saw at Fringe this year. He performs the piece in a stream of consciousness style, almost like a long form poem. It's beautifully written, with lyrical and descriptive language that makes you see and feel what he's describing. He talks about the recent falling apart of his family, that showed cracks long ago. As he says, his mother was diagnosed with cancer, his father was diagnosed with Q-Anon, and only one recovered. He talks about his dad's childhood, his own childhood, and into the recent past when a bad breakup sent him on a downward spiral in which all of these things simmering below the surface finally boiled over. Michael performs in a small circle spotlight in the middle of the stage, with an easy chair, end tables, candles, and wine. The show starts off lighter and a little funny, and then begins to loop around and around and back again, until the audience is completely riveted to the point where you could hear a pin drop. It's the kind of raw, vulnerable, brutally honest performance that requires him to assure us at the end that he's OK. It feels that real. He just completely goes there in his performance, letting us in to the worst moments of his life, and it's incredibly moving. Truly an astounding and unforgettable show.

​

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here. 

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2024: "DIVINE/GYPSY"

Day: 4

Show: 14

Title: DIVINE/GYPSY

Category: Clowning / Comedy / Dance / Drama / Horror / Musical Theater

By: The Blair Kitsch Project

Created by: Hailey Woolverton

Location: Barker Center for Dance

Summary: The musical Gypsy, if Mama Rose were played by iconic drag performer Divine, star of several John Waters movies.

Highlights: This is a mashup that makes sense. It's a Gypsy that's a little cruder and trashier (that's a compliment, and I think what they were going for). In about 45 minutes they hit the highlights of the musical, singing along to recorded tracks (the Patti LuPone version, natch). Three local drag artists play all of the characters in the condensed story. Blair Kitsch (Hailey Woolverton) plays Mama Rose with the right amount of camp and sincerity, with an emotional high in the final song "Everything's Coming up Roses." Mink Hole (Cam Crawford) is an awkward and loose-limbed baby Louise (there's no June in this story, or maybe the two sisters are combined into one character), later transforming into the seductive stripper Gypsy Rose Lee. Pistachio Creampie (Samuel Karie) acts as narrator and plays a few other characters, with some poignant commentary on fame, identity, and self-confidence. This divine Gypsy succeeds as a fun campy drag version of Gypsy.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here. 

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2024: "Heart Ripped Out Twice And So Can You!"

Day: 3

Show: 7

Title: Heart Ripped Out Twice And So Can You!

Category: Clowning / Comedy / Solo Show

By: Linnea Bond

Created by: Linnea Bond

Location: Barker Center for Dance

Summary: A hilarious and heart-wrenching solo show about medical procedures, heartbreak, and the wonder of human existence.

Highlights: As advertised, this one ripped my heart out. But not literally, like what happened to touring artist Linnea Bond when she was diagnosed with two benign but fast-growing tumors, one on her brain stem and one behind her heart. As good artists do, she's turned an unimaginably painful experience into a thing of beauty, and a way to connect with the world. The show is structured as a timeshare presentation, complete with power point presentation, but what she wants us to buy into is human existence. As she describes the things that could happen (open heart surgery, infections, the person you love abandoning you), it doesn't sound very appealing. But by the end you're all in, and somehow the laughter at the way she tells her story in an absurdist clowning way has turned into tears at the unfathomable beauty of life. For someone who had severe health issues, Linnea's performance is incredibly physical, running around the stage, changing clothes, using silly puppets, traipsing through the audience. This is a well-honed professional show and she perfectly delivers, somehow getting us to laugh at her pain, until the breakthrough and the reveal of whom she's really trying to sell brings it all home. This is the kind of show that Fringe is made for, and so beautifully done.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

Fringe Festival 2016: "Circus McGurkus"

Day: 7

Show: 32

Title: Circus McGurkus

Category: Dance

By: Mike's Brass

Choreographed by: Erinn Liebhard

Location: U of M Barker Center for Dance

Summary: Dr. Seuss' If I Ran the Circus, told through music, clowning, acrobatics, and dance.

Highlights: Circus McGurkus is a delight for children of all ages, even us grown-up children. Andrew Chambers reads excepts from the book about a fantastical circus, while the dancers and musicians interpret the words through movement and music. The brass quintet Mike's Brass plays a variety of circus-sounding songs (with a little Lady Gaga thrown in as an encore). Dancers Lori Ledoux, Derek Meyer, Rachael Schlee, and Sydney Swanson perform playful and charming dances with wonder and joy (choreographed by Erinn Liebhard), and acrobats Michelle de Joya and Brandon Wharton perform some thrilling Circque du Soleil-style acrobatics. It's great fun to watch Dr. Seuss' silly words and creations come to life before your eyes in such imaginative and joyful ways.