"Come Back, Little Sheba" by Dark & Stormy Productions at Gremlin Theatre

Minnesota Fringe Festival is over, and the 2025-2026 #TCTheater season has not yet begun, which means it's time for another Dark & Stormy Production, a company that very smartly programs one of their unique offerings during this relatively quiet time. But this time, they're not serving us one of their usual dark comedies. The 1950 play Come Back, Little Sheba, by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright William Inge, is all dark and no comedy. It's a tragic play that mostly makes me think about how women's choices were so limited in the past, and in many ways still are today (and becoming more so). But it's thoroughly engaging and full of captivating and complex characters, beautifully brought to life by the cast and creative team. See it at Gremlin Theatre through September 7.

"Fire in the New World" by Full Circle Theater Company at Park Square Theatre

Rick Shiomi, founder of Theater Mu and current co-Artistic Director of Full Circle Theater Company, returns to the Japanese-Canadian noir detective world of post-WW II Vancouver in his new play Fire in the New World. The first play in what is now a trilogy, Yellow Fever, is set in 1973 and premiered in 1982, and was produced by Mu in 2013 as part of Rick's last season as Artistic Director. It was followed by the prequel Rosie's Cafe, set in 1951. Fire in the New World takes place between these two, in 1963, but don't worry if you haven't seen the other plays, it stands on its own (although it would be great fun to see the three plays in rep). Once again, private eye Sam Shikaze battles crime, gentrification, and racism with the help of his friends. See it at Park Square Theatre through November 6.

"Pyrates" by Theatre Coup d'Etat at Historic Fire Station 24

Ten years ago, I saw the first part (Millennium Approaches) of Tony Kushner's epic two-part masterpiece Angels in America on stage for the first time, by a new-to-me theater company Theatre Coup d'Etat. I was so impressed with how this small company handled this big play, and "found myself wondering when Theatre Coup d'Etat will present the second part." The bad news is they never did, and now they're leaving town. The good news is I've been fortunate to witness ten years of their work, which is always interesting, thoughtful, and unexpected, most often produced in an intimate non-traditional space; and that they have one more show before they leave #TCTheater. Pyrates, an original play by Artistic Director and frequent actor/director with the company, James Napoleon Stone, follows in this tradition. It's a rousing pirate story about loyalty, legacy, and camaraderie, featuring a talented and diverse cast and live music in an up-close-and-personal in-the-round space. Your final chance to see Theatre Coup d'Etat perform in #TCTheater ends on June 27 (click here for info and tickets).

"Black Comedy" at Theatre in the Round

When looking at the #TCTheater schedule for the second weekend of 2020, I saw Black Comedy at Theatre in the Round and thought - what's that? I went to their website to check it out and saw the below photo of Josh Carson and Don Maloney, and my immediate thought was - yes, please! You might know Josh from his Fringe shows or his sold out annual parody A Very Die Hard Christmas, and Don from various shows at Lyric Arts (and other stages around town) including a very funny Odd Couple. Not only was I correct in my choice to see these two in a comedy, but the entire cast is fantastic in what is a classic British '60s farce of a play, with detailed and clever design to make this comedy in the dark really shine.

"What Would Crazy Horse Do?" by Turtle Theater Collective at Mixed Blood Theatre

"The Turtle Theater Collective is committed to producing high-quality, contemporary work that explores Native experiences and subverts expectations about how and when Native artists can create theater. In addition to producing Indigenous plays, we center Native bodies and voices by situating them within the broader theatrical canon, providing opportunities for Native artists to grow and play."

"Ideation" at the Gremlin Theatre

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you. The characters in the play Ideation are definitely paranoid, entertainingly so, but whether or not someone is out to get them is still a question mark at the end of the play. The regional premiere of Ideation by Gremlin Theatre is a taut, thrilling, engrossing, and funny 90 minutes of work colleagues going down a paranoid rabbit hole, and it'll make your head spin, in the best way. Rarely has my logical math left brain side been so engaged and excited at the theater as I tried to follow these characters through their hypotheses and arguments and conclusions. Theories and algebraic equations are written on the white board, only to be erased and written over by a new theory. By the end you don't know what to believe, and neither do the characters in the play, but it sure is fun to watch their wheels spin.

"And Then There Were None" at Theater in the Round

And Then There Were None is the best-selling novel by one of the world's most popular mystery writers, Agatha Christie. If one can overlook the horribly offensive original title and the song from which it came (which, to be honest, I'm not sure one can), it's a suspenseful and gripping tale of the most deadly game of Survivor. Christie herself adapted the story into a stage play, even changing the ending. I'd never seen or read it, and I love a good mystery play, so I found Theatre in the Round's production to be an entertaining and surprising afternoon at the theater.

"Mere Trifles" by Theatre Unbound at SteppingStone Theatre

The month-long celebration of Women's History continues with Theatre Unbound's collection of four one-act plays written by women about women's stories. From a 100-year old play by a little known but important female playwright, to two new plays by local playwrights, to a play from the '90s by a nationally known playwright about to make her Broadway debut, the connecting thread of these plays is women making sometimes difficult decisions to better their lives and control their own destiny. Director Kate Powers leads the versatile six-person cast (Adam Gauger, Brian Joyce, Delinda "Oogie" Pushetonequa, Lynda Dahl, Nicole Goeden, and Pedro Juan Fonseca) through the stories, with short intros to each piece that provide interesting commentary but sometimes lead to awkward transitions. Below is a short summary/reflection on each piece.

"The Crucible" by Theatre Coup d'Etat at Zion Lutheran Church

I first saw Arthur Miller's 1953 play The Crucible last spring at the Guthrie, and was wowed at how this story about the infamous Salem witch trials of the late 17th Century, during which twenty people were put to death for the crime of witchcraft, speaks to the issues of the day. Things have changed a lot in the last year and a half, making the play's themes of religious fanaticism, mob mentality, and persecution of people who are different even more scarily relevant. How terrifying to live in a world where one person's false accusation can incite mass hysteria and result in the persecution of innocent people, a world that sadly isn't too far from the current reality. I'm not saying that our president elect is Abigail Williams, but I, and this excellent and intimate production by Theatre Coup d'Etat, am suggesting that we need to take a breath and look at the facts before we rush to condemn someone based on a spiteful rant. The Crucible dramatizes one of the greatest failings of the American, or rather pre-American, judicial system, and 60 years after it was written still remains a cautionary tale.

"One Flea Spare" by Theatre Coup D'Etat at the Soap Factory

"Our lives are but a splash of water on a stone. I am the stone they fell upon, and they have marked me." So ends the hauntingly beautiful play One Flea Spare by Naomi Wallace. Theatre Coup D'Etat's production, currently playing in the cold dark basement of The Soap Factory*, an art gallery near St. Anthony Main, is one of those theater experiences that will stay with me long after the lights go up. Focusing on four people trapped in a house together in 1665 plague-infested London, the play takes a hard look at who people really are when the everyday distractions of life are removed, and there's nothing left but themselves and each other. It's a harsh but beautiful view of humanity.

A 12-year-old girl named Morse begins and ends the story for us. She has broken into her neighbor's home, that of the well-to-do Mr. and Mrs. Snelgrave, after everyone in her home perished from the plague. A sailor named Bunce has also sought refuge in the house, which has all been boarded up except for one room, the only room in which no one has died. After discovering this break-in, the guard Kabe, their only contact with the outside world, has ordered them to say inside for 28 days to ensure none of them are infected. So begins a long process of these strangers getting to know each other, and the long-married couple facing their long-buried issues. We're told by Morse at the beginning of the play that not everyone survives, so we wait to see who dies and how, like a 17th Century deadly version of Survivor.

Morse (Briana Patnode), Mr. Snelgrave (Jim Ahrens),
Bunce (Peter Beard), and Mrs. Snelgrave (Ellen Apel),

It doesn't get much more intimate than this space, with just a few rows of seats on three sides of the small square that serves as the stage. There's nothing between the audience and the actors, and all of their performances are almost too real. I was completely drawn in by them, almost to the point of feeling uncomfortable as if you're eavesdropping on some very intense conversations. As their true colors begin to show in this small room with nowhere to go and nothing to do, we learn that Mr. Snelgrave is hard and cruel, Mrs. Snelgrave is lonely and suffering from a long-ago hurt, Bunce the sailor is kind and tender-hearted, yet unwilling to tolerate Mr. Snelgrave's classist attitude, Kabe the guard is a selfish opportunist, feeding off the dead, and little Morse is curious and precocious, innocent yet knowing more of the pain of the world than any little girl should.

James Napolean Stone does a beautiful job directing this fine cast and so vividly creating this world. As Morse, Briana Patnode is utterly captivating and appealing, with her ever-changing emotions displayed plainly on her open face. Peter Beard's Bunce has a raw intensity boiling just below the surface of his calm demeanor. Ellen Apel is as sympathetic as Mrs. Snelgrave as Jim Ahrens is vicious and appropriately unlikable as her cruel husband. Last but not least Brian Joyce brings the right mix of humor and creepiness to the guard who occasionally shows up at the window. Helping to set the tone is the sparse set by Meagan Kedrowski, which consists of two chairs and one boarded up wall with a window. The surroundings are well-incorporated into the set, most effectively in the concrete floor of the basement that is momentarily marked by the water that is splashed on it, until it drinks it up. The beautiful period costumes by Barb Portinga range from shabby to elegant and help to define the characters (there's even some clothes-swapping as roles are reversed). I particularly loved Morse's too-large dresses, ragged and dragging on the floor.

"Our lives are but a splash of water on a stone. I am the stone they fell upon, and they have marked me." And this play has marked me. You can't ask for much more than that from theater - a beautifully written, thought-provoking, disturbing play with wonderfully real and raw performances by the small cast in a space that adds to the tone of the show, that has a lasting impact on the audience. It's playing for two more weekends and I highly recommend that you check it out as one example of the fine work being done by small theater companies in unusual spaces.



*It really is chilly in the basement, so bring a sweater. There is street parking around The Soap Factory, but leave a little extra time to drive around and find a spot.