Minnesota Fringe Festival 2023: "The Brothers Dangus Vol. 2: The People v. Dango (A Court-Mandated Parable)"

Day: 10

Show: 40

Title: The Brothers Dangus Vol. 2: The People v. Dango (A Court-Mandated Parable)

Category: COMEDY

By: The Brothers Dangus

Created by: The Brothers Dangus

Location: Rarig Thrust

Summary: The trial of a new drug with really unusual side effects that draws on classic crime movies.

Highlights: This was the stupidest show I saw at the Fringe this year, and maybe also one of the most clever. Definitely the most potty humor I've heard in an hour in a long time, including countless poo puns that are so dumb you can't help but laugh. I didn't see Volume 1 last year, but if I had I probably wouldn't have seen Volume 2. It's not really my kind of show, the humor goes a little too far for my taste, but I do admire their efforts and the extreme satire of white nationalists, conspiracy theories, misogyny, and a certain Fringe show that may have been all of the above. The four-person cast (Brian Hesser, Derek Meyer, Zach Morgan, A.J. Sass) is complete committed to the ridiculousness of this story, playing multiple characters both human and otherwise, and sometimes take turns playing the same characters. There are more movie references that I could catch (including the famous A Few Good Men courtroom scene), and wild props and costumes. Amidst all of the craziness going on, perhaps the strangest thing about this show is that veteran #TCTheater actor Charles Numrich is sitting at the back of the stage throughout the entire show, sitting in an easy chair eating, drinking, and reading the paper, and at the very end of the play he comes to the podium to recite a speech. What it all means, I'm not sure, but it's a very strange and funny and well done satire.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

"The Red and the Bright" by nimbus theatre at the Crane Theater

photo by Todd Craig

nimbus theatre is celebrating 20 years in #TCTheater with their 50th production, the original play The Red and the Bright. From my first nimbus show, the original and locally historical play Bohemian Flats in 2013, to the harsh look at race and racism in America in Nacirema, to the breathtaking design of Ghost Sonata, to a fascinating look into art forgery in From Darkness, to many historical dramas and even a comedy, what I've come to expect from nimbus is something interesting, thoughtful, and unique. Sometimes a little weird, sometimes a little rough, but always intriguing, forward-thinking, and worth checking out. They often do original plays, as is the case with The Red and the Bright, written by co-Artistic Director Liz Neerland and directed by co-Artistic Director Josh Cragun. They began working on it before the pandemic, and it's finally seeing the stage, presenting a fantasy world that feels real and complete unto itself, from the language spoken, to the relationships amongst the tight community, to the detailed design. Only two more performances remain; click here for info and tickets.

"A Life of Days" by nimbus theatre at the Crane Theater

nimbus theatre's new original plays always explore some fascinating topic, idea, or historical era in a way that gets me thinking and wanting to know more. Their latest such work, A Life of Days, officially opens tonight and was inspired by a true story about a family that lived completely isolated in Siberia for 40 years. You can read that super fascinating story here, as well as playwright Liz Neerland's other literary research and inspiration here. I want to read all of these books, preferably by myself in a remote cabin in the woods, but as that's not possible at the moment, I'll settle for seeing this thoughtful rumination on solitude, society, nature, civilization, and humanity.

"Goodbye Cruel World" by Theatre Pro Rata at the Crane Theater

Theatre Pro Rata's Goodbye Cruel World closes today so if you haven't seen it already, I'm afraid you're out of luck. (Sorry about that, blame NYC.) But for the record, it's a fun and wacky ride ably driven by six actors playing multiple characters, often in the same scene. A modern adaptation of Russian playwright Nikolai Erdman's The Suicide, which was banned by the government and not produced until after his death, it's a farcical look at a man down on his luck who offhandedly wonders if he would be better off dead, only to be taken seriously by his wife, neighbors, and eventually the whole town. Everyone from the church to the intelligentsia, a post man to an artist, wants Semyon to promote their cause in his suicide note. His neighbor decides to turn it into a lottery, but in the end Semyon realizes he doesn't want to die, much to everyone's disappointment. Read on for some highlights of the show.

"The Storms of November" at nimbus theatre

What I love about nimbus theatre is that they often present original work, usually based on history, that, while not always flawless, is always interesting and thought-provoking and sheds new light on their subject. Such is the case with their newest work The Storms of November (written and directed by Co-Artistic Directors Josh Cragun and Liz Neerland, respectively), about sailors, ships, and shipwrecks on Lake Superior. November is a notoriously dangerous month on Minnesota's great and mysterious inland sea, and this play explores the lives of fictional characters on and off the ships, inspired by real people and events.

"From Darkness" at nimbus theatre

Everything I know about art I learned from playing the game Masterpiece as a kid (Private Auction! anyone?) and from the Baroque Art History class I took at the University of Salzburg (a pretty amazing experience because we took field trips to Vienna and Rome to see the art we were studying). So I don't know much, but I am fascinated by art and art history. But I've never thought much about art forgery, which adds a whole new level of fascination. This topic is the inspiration for nimbus theatre's new play From Darkness, written (along with the ensemble) and directed by co-Artistic Director Josh Cragun. Specifically, how does someone with the skill of an art master decide to practice art forgery instead of creating original work? From Darkness sets fictional art forger Stanley Mansfield among real artists in NYC's post-WWII abstract art scene and attempts to answer this question, as well as explore ideas of what makes art valuable. It's a fascinating, thought-provoking play, and as is often the case when I see a play at nimbus, it made me want to find out more about the topic.

Caravaggio's The Denial of St. Peter

We follow two groups of characters in two different time periods in NYC - a group of artists and art collectors in the '30s, '40s, and '50s, and art curators at the Met in the current day. Both stories center around the above piece of art - The Denial of St. Peter by Caravaggio (one of my favorite artists from the Baroque Art History class). A new curator at the Met discovers something off about the painting, leading her to research its history. At the same time, we're watching Stanley Mansfield's life and career as an artist unfold. He's a figurative painter at a time when abstract painting is all the rage. He watches his friends (including Jackson Pollack and Lee Krasner) succeed while he struggles to find his place. Through a series of circumstances, his career begins to take a different path. At the end of the play the two stories come together, and we're left wondering just who the bad guy is, if there is one.

Nicholas Nelson as the forger Stanley Mansfield

Everyone in the eight-person ensemble plays multiple characters, except for Nicholas Nelson who plays forger Stanley Mansfield, and makes his transition believable and sympathetic. Highlights in the ensemble include Art Peden as the older Stanley, Zach Morgan as his stern father and the tempestuous Pollack, and Heidi Berg as the strict art curator and gallery owner Betty Parsons. The clever set is constructed of rotating panels, opening up to form different locations, revealing reproductions (by Ursula K. Bowden) of different paintings, from Caravaggio to Pollack. The rotating panels make for some awkward scene transitions, which are nicely covered by period music and images of paintings, buildings, or old New York displayed on either side of the stage. And I recognized a few of my favorite Masterpiece paintings in the images projected before the show and during intermission. (Set design by Brian Hesser, video design by Caitlin Hammel.)

As a new play, From Darkness feels a bit long and could be tightened up a bit, but the multiple characters and timelines are nicely woven together and the ideas explored compelling, relevant, and definitely worth exploring. Who decides what art is worthwhile, and which artists are worthy of acclaim? If a viewer gets as much enjoyment from a reproduction of a painting as the original, isn't that worth something too? Fashion designers don't physically construct the garments they design (except on Project Runway); someone else makes them according to the designer's specifications. That's not so very different from Mansfield constructing a painting following Caravaggio's design. In the current age of the internet, reproductions and replications of all forms of art abound. As long as the original creator is given credit, and we all know what's going on, isn't that a good thing, to spread art to as many people as possible? I don't know, but these are some of the things this play made me think about.

As Caravaggio excelled in the technique of extreme light and dark known as chiaroscuro, "from darkness, light," nimbus theatre excels at creating original work around an interesting topic, bringing to life on their stage relevant ideas and questions about various facets of life and history. From Darkness continues through June 14 (discount tickets available on Goldstar).

"The Lower Depths" at nimbus theatre

The Lower Depths, an early 20th century Russian play about people living in poverty in a homeless shelter, is pretty dark and depressing, but it's also a fascinating exploration of the universal themes of life, truth, and relationships. As director and adapter Josh Cragun notes in the playbill, "fundamentally, it is a show about humanity and what it really means to be human." The nimbus theatre production places the story in Depression-era America. This large cast of diverse characters, embodied by a talented ensemble, lives in a run-down building, with only a bunk to call their own, and shares the joy and desperation of life with each other. Plotlines include a love triangle, illness, alcoholism, and depression, but more important are the ideas and the characters that are drawn. The ending offers no closure, but instead seems to say that this life and these people continue on.

In a beautifully run-down and cluttered shack of a building (nicely designed by Zach Morgan), we meet a group of people down on their luck (as many people were in the Depression). Among them are an immigrant couple, an actor, a shoemaker, a formerly wealthy society lady, and a prostitute. Keeping them in line are the dysfunctional family of the landlord, his wife, and her sister. Into their midst comes a self-described pilgrim, affectionately called "old man" or "gramps" by the others. He listens to the residents, comforts them, and tells them what they need to hear to soothe or provoke them into action. Love, abuse, camaraderie, death, and celebration all have their place here in the lower depths. One of the residents happily exclaims that all you need is "food, drink, music, and friends," but there's a desperation hiding beneath the surface of the frivolity of drinking and the daily routines of shopping and sweeping. As the Wikipedia page nicely sums up, "The theme of harsh truth versus the comforting lie pervades the play from start to finish, as most of the characters choose to deceive themselves from the bleak reality of their condition."

the cast of The Lower Depths
(photo by Mathieu Lindquist)

This is truly an ensemble piece, and nimbus has assembled a really nice ensemble of 14 actors. All of them have their moment to shine, particularly in the second act when plot gives way to a series of monologues about life, truth, and the human condition, and they all use it well. It seems a shame to call out any of them because they all do a fine job. But if I must: standouts include Andrew Sass in his intense portrayal of Karl (at the apex of the love triangle), Art Peden as the kind and gentle old man, a sympathetic Emily A. Grodzik as the abused sister, Nicholas Nelson as the tormented actor (of whose opera-trained voice we only hear a sample), and Brian Hesser as the genial drunk. The appropriately shabby and lived-in costumes (designed by Barb Portinga) help to create the characters, and the tone is set by Depression-era music playing before and after and the show and during scene changes, and all too briefly sung by the cast.

The Lower Depths plays at nimbus theatre's space in Northeast Minneapolis through December 22. It's nice counter-programming to the likes of A Christmas Carol, and deals with some of the same themes of poverty and generosity, but in a more somber way. I'll leave you with another quote from the director:

In a time when issues of class disparity, morality and social welfare are taking the spotlight in our national conversation, this 110-year-old work has never felt like it had more to say. But the remarkable part about this play is that it does not preach. It simply shows. A world, a diverse set of characters, and their diverse set of views on truth and the human condition. Each one has insights, Each one has weaknesses. we are left to come to our own conclusions.

"Bohemian Flats" at nimbus theatre

The chance to experience a new theater and learn about Minnesota history? I'm in! Last night I attended my first play at nimbus theatre in Northeast Minneapolis (I really wanted to see their production of The Cripple of Inishmaan last fall after seeing A Behanding in Spokane by the same playwright, Martin McDonagh, but didn't quite make it). I love checking out new theater spaces, and in this case an unassuming exterior leads to a quite nice space inside. Their current production is the new original play Bohemian Flats, written and directed by Co-Artistic Director Liz Neerland, about the life of immigrants living in a Minneapolis community of that name in the late 19th and early 20th century. Bohemian Flats was located on the west bank of the Mississippi, at the site of what is now the Washington Avenue bridge. Residents built their own little wooden houses, and those on the lower levels moved out every spring when the river rose. The city of Minneapolis eventually cleared out the flats in the name of progress, but the community lives on in this play which is less of a cohesive story and more of a series of vignettes about life in the flats throughout its 60-year history. More globally, it's a common story of our immigrant ancestors who came to this country to make a better life for themselves and their families.

the cast of Bohemian Flats

The play opens in the 1930s with a man who has lived in the flats for 50 years, in the house his father-in-law built. He reminisces about the people who lived in the once busy community (it housed a church and a saloon, two things every town needs), and the good times and bad they experienced. The drab little wooden shanties soon come to life with flowers and people, and we see scenes of weddings, tragedies (the 1878 explosion at the Washburn A. Mill, where many of the residents worked), arriving immigrants, and community life. Several scenes include immigrants reading letters from family members left behind in the old country, or writing to them of their new life in America. The eight-member ensemble ably brings these many characters to life. I found myself looking for a little more follow-up on some of the stories (did the woman's son survive the mill explosion? did the young girl ever make it out of the flats?), or a return to the man from the beginning of the play for some sort of closure. There's no one thread to follow through the play, no one person to grab on to and become emotionally invested in as you follow their story. Still, the play effectively brings the audience into the world of Bohemian Flats, a unique community on the very shore of the river, but with a universal story of the immigrant life.

Helping to create this world are the set (by Brian Hesser, also one of the ensemble members) and costumes (by Andrea M. Gross). Walking into the theater space at Nimbus, I was immediately charmed by the rustic shanty town on stage, which later blossoms with life as flower beds and other decorations are added. The costumes reflect a plain, hard-working people, with people from "up in the city" differentiated by their somewhat more distinguished clothing.

Bohemian Flats is playing now through April 7 at nimbus theatre. Check it out for an entertaining lesson on local history.

a historical photo of the community know as Bohemian Flats

a historical photo of the community know as Bohemian Flats