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.

"Dancing at Lughnasa" at Yellow Tree Theatre

Irish playwright Brian Friel's Dancing at Lughnasa is a perfectly lovely play, and a wonderful choice for the perfectly lovely Yellow Tree Theatre. The eight-person cast is actually on the large side for their cozy and intimate space nestled inside an Osseo strip mall, but the warm, humorous, and melancholic tone is a perfect fit. It's a beautiful play and a beautiful cast, and will leave you with a warm and wistful feeling.

Despite being a fan of all things Irish, I don't believe I'd ever seen a Brian Friel play, other than his adaptation of Checkhov's Uncle Vanya at the Guthrie a few years ago. In his story of the five Mundy sisters living together in a small farmhouse in County Donegal in 1936, he has captured the mix of joy, sadness, music, and family that is uniquely Irish. The sisters are a loyal and devoted family, yet are all individuals searching for something, something they never quite find. It's a bittersweet joy to watch their struggles towards a better life.

the sisters dancing

Dancing at Lughnasa is a memory play in the spirit of The Glass Menagerie. Michael, the son of youngest sister Christina, narrates the story as his adult self, while his 7-year-old 1936 self is never seen but is often talked to and about by the Mundy women, who obviously dote on the fatherless child. Or rather, the child of a father who's never around except for occasional visits, including during the events of the play. Gerry stirs up all of the women, especially Chris, with a hope that can never be fulfilled. Also throwing their world into disarray is the return of their older brother, the "leper priest" Jack, from 25 years of serving in Uganda, where he became a bit too enamored of the native ways for the Church's liking. These two events, along with developmentally disabled sister Rose's possible romance, the closing of the knitting factory where she and Agnes work, and the family's new wireless, create a moment in time that Michael remembers as one of the last happy times in the family, soon to be followed by work, sadness, and tragedy. The play is a lovely and bittersweet exploration of this family and their relationships in a changing world.

the cast of Dancing at Lughnasa

Under the direction of Jon Cranney, this wonderful cast feels like a family, with all the love, connection, and annoyance that goes along with it. Katherine Ferrand, Jessica Lind Peterson, Carolyn Trapskin, Rachel Weber, and Melanie Wehrmacher play these five very different sisters, and throughout the course of the play we get to know and love each of them, despite their shortcomings. Jason Ballweber's Michael is a warm and likeable guide through the story, Michael Lee is the charming absent father, and Patrick O'Brien is appropriately befuddled as the newly returned Father Jack. The ninth character in this play is Jeffrey Petersen's set, which somehow transforms the small thrust stage at Yellow Tree into the Mundy's entire world - the warm and rustic farmhouse and the rich green of the Irish countryside.

Dancing at Lughnasa is a great beginning for Yellow Tree Theatre's 8th season, which continues with a remount of last year's holiday hit A Hunting Shack Christmas, the smart and funny Raisin in the Sun follow-up Clybourne Park (last seen at the Guthrie), and one of my favorite musicals - Violet. It's a good time to go to Osseo!


This article also appears on Broadway World Minneapolis.

"The Glass Menagerie" at Yellow Tree Theatre

The Glass Menagerie is the final play in Yellow Tree Theatre's fourth season, and it's a great conclusion to an entertaining season. Written by one of the greatest American playwrights (and one of my favorites), Tennessee Williams, this play is a nice choice for Yellow Tree and fits their intimate style and space very well. The Wingfield family's dysfunctions feel very real and close as you sit just a few feet away from the action. The Glass Menagerie has long been one of my favorite plays. It's a self-described "memory play" in which one of the main characters, Tom, introduces and narrates the action, as well as taking part in it. He has several soliloquies, filled with such beautiful language: "Yes, I have tricks in my pockets, I have things up my sleeve. But I am the opposite of a stage magician. He gives you illusion that has the appearance of truth. I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion." Such is theater - truth in the disguise of illusion. Of all Williams' plays, this is the one that contains the most truths about his life and his past. Perhaps that's why it's so bittersweet.

A mother and her two adult children live in a small apartment in St. Louis in the late 1930s. Tom dutifully supports the family by working at a shoe factory, where he feels stifled and bored with life. Laura has a slight physical impairment that has caused her to become reclusive, wanting nothing more than to stay in the apartment, listen to records on the Victrola, and arrange her glass figurines, her menagerie. Their mother, Amanda, is constantly nagging her children - telling Tom how to chew his food and how to sit at the table, cajoling Laura into leaving the house to attend business school or entertain a "gentleman caller." She's a stereotypical fading Southern belle, who talks constantly of her glorious past and happy youth; she performs a memory play of her own for her children. She wants Laura to be as popular as she was, but Laura is nothing like her, and the time and place they live in is nothing like the one in which she came of age. The situation turns tragic as the gentleman caller experiment fails miserably, Tom leaves the family to find his fortune in the world, and Laura is left with her glass menagerie.

Tom (Jason Peterson) and his mother (Katherine Ferrand);
the looks say it all

Noted Twin Cities director Jon Cranney brings out the best in this fantastic four-person cast. Katherine Ferrand plays Amanda Wingfield, one of the greatest roles in American theater, and she knocks it out of the park. She's always talking, always fluttering about, telling endless stories, with lots of energy hiding a deep sense of desperation (like many of Williams' women). Katherine's sharp performance alone is worth the trip to Osseo! Yellow Tree Artistic Director Jason Peterson plays Tom, another great role. He speaks in memory-tinged melancholy as he narrates the scenes, with quietly controlled anger and restlessness in the scenes with his family. I was curious to see Carolyn Trapskin as Laura because her previous roles at Yellow Tree have been so crazy and over-the-top; this is a much more internal character than I've seen her play before, and she does it very well. Laura always breaks my heart, perhaps because I find myself relating to her, and this production is no exception. Finally, Josef Buchel is everything you want the gentleman caller to be - bright and charming, friendly and talkative with everyone he meets, but hiding an insecurity and uncertainty with life. Part of the tragedy is that Jim and Laura really do get along well, and she's able to open up to him somewhat, making them (and us) believe that things could have gone differently if the situation were different. But there are no happy endings with Tennessee Williams, only deep explorations of family, relationships, and societal bonds.

Laura (Carolyn Trapskin)
and her gentleman caller (Josef Buchel)

The stage at Yellow Tree is tiny, but they always seem to transform it into what's needed. This time the set (by Jeffrey Petersen) is a somewhat shabby but homey little apartment, with sloping wood floors and a small dining room separated by a curtain from the main living area, sparsely decorated with photos and mementos. I don't usually comment on (or notice) the lighting, but the candlelight scenes with Jim and Laura were beautifully done (lighting by Paola Rodriguez); it felt as if we were watching an intimate moment play out in the soft glow of candles.

Yellow Tree Theatre has recently announced their new season and it looks like another great one. I'm most excited to see Circle Mirror Transformation, a great character piece I saw at the Guthrie studio a few years ago which should be a great fit for Yellow Tree - intimate, funny, poignant, and full of awkward pauses and weird acting class exercises. And of course, nothing piques my interest like the words "new original musical," especially when the authors are one of my favorite local musicians, Blake Thomas, along with great Yellow Tree actors Mary Fox and Andy Frye. So if you missed out on this production (only two more performances, sorry for the late review), you have some great choices next season to visit Yellow Tree Theatre in charming Osseo, where good stories live.

"Still Life with Iris" at Yellow Tree Theatre

For the past year and a half I've seen every Yellow Tree Theatre production with a group of co-workers from our nearby office.  The group changes in size and composition depending on the show and people's schedules, but we always have a good time at the theater (and the lovely and delicious Nectar Wine Bar in downtown Osseo).  After seeing Still Life with Iris this week, my friends said to me, "I can't wait to read what you write about this because I don't quite know what to make of it!"  I'm not sure I do either, but I'll do my best.

Still Life with Iris is a fantastical tale set in the fictional world of Nocturno, where the inhabitants create everything that exists in the world.  They paint spots on lady bugs, teach the wind to howl, and lift the fog.  They're the worker bees behind the universe.  And they seem quite happy to toil away every night, fulfilling that last minute storm order.  Most importantly, they must take care of their coat, for their coat is what holds in their memory.  If it rips, they start to forget things; if they take it off, they forget their entire life, everyone and everything they've ever know.  (What happens when they take a shower?  Sorry, there's no place for logic in Nocturno!) 

Our heroine Iris is chosen to go to Great Island, which is not as great as it seems.  First her mother's coat is removed so she'll forget she ever had a daughter, and then Iris' coat is removed so she won't mourn for her own life.  She's taken to Great Island to be the daughter of the Goods, who have one perfect specimen of everything.  Hence they only wear one shoe, one sleeve, one eyebrow, in a delightfully asymmetric world.  But Iris is a special girl, she knows something is off, something existed before she got to this island that she can't quite remember.  So she escapes, and is aided in her attempt by none other than 18th century composer Mozart (whom she affectionately calls Moz) and the fictional Annabel Lee, from the Edgar Allen Poe poem.  They manage to escape and find the lost memory coats, and Iris returns home to the life she loved and remembered.  If I were to try to make sense of this wild ride, I'd say that we need to actively hold on to our memories, our past.  Not just our own past but our family's past.  Like in the genealogical show Who Do You Think You Are (Fridays on NBC), in which celebrities search for their ancestors' stories, we need to remember our collective past in order to live our best present.  My great-aunt recently passed away, the last remaining member of her generation, leaving behind a treasure trove of stuff in my great-grandparents' house.  I feel like I've found a few lost buttons and threads of my coat, looking around in that beautiful, run-down, stuffy old house.

As always, the cast features wonderful members of the Yellow Tree family (for that's what it feels like).  The director, Andy Frye, has himself appeared on stage in Miracle on Christmas Lake II and [title of show].  The always captivating Mary Fox plays Iris, giving her childlike strength and wisdom and curiosity.  She's a hero we can root for.  I'm not quite sure why Mozart is there, but I'm glad he is, with his Austrian accent and oversized keyboard.  Yellow Tree newcomer Nathan Surprenant is a natural charismatic presence on stage and I look forward to seeing more of him.  Molly McLain gives a delightfully wacky performance with a Cockney accent as Annabel Lee.  Doree Du Toit plays Iris' mother; she has the role of the mourning mother down pat, having played a mother who loses her daughter in Steel Magnolias and Our Town.  Our favorite nerdy stereotypical Minnesotan couple from Christmas Lake, Carolyn Trapskin and Ryan Nelson, are reunited here as Mr. and Mrs. Good.  Their characters are just as quirky but much more evil.  I was particularly impressed with Carolyn's ability to gracefully maneuver in her dress with a long side train while wearing only one high-heeled shoe, and with her maniacal laugh.

The show has a wonderful look.  Yellow Tree regulars might do a double-take when they walk into the theater, as I did.  The stage is on the opposite side of the room, and the curtain dividing the stage from the lobby is gone, making room for the two story set with lots of stairs and doors and windows to play with (set design by Katie Phillips).  The costumes by Sarah Bahr are adorable (striped socks and colorful patchwork sweaters in Nocturno), sleek (the Goods in their stark, asymmetrical black), and whimsical (Annabel Lee's fairy-like layers).

I'm not sure how well I did in making sense of this play, but I'm not sure sense is what it's about.  It's more about the feeling that's created.  And as always at Yellow Tree, it's a good feeling.  Their next production is one of my favorite plays, The Glass Menagerie.  Unlike musicals, I don't have a lot of favorite plays (it's pretty much The Glass Menagerie and Tom Stoppard's Arcadia), so it goes without saying that I'm looking forward to it!

"Miracle on Christmas Lake II" at Yellow Tree Theatre

Three years ago Yellow Tree Theatre faced a dilemma: the rights to the Christmas show they were planning to do were pulled, and they only had a few weeks to come up with something. They performed a “miracle.” They wrote and produced an original play in a few weeks that turned into a hit that ran every December for three years. Miracle on Christmas Lake is about a small town Minnesota theater that has to develop a play in a few weeks in order to keep the theater from closing down, and they do it to hilarious effect. This year Yellow Tree is presenting the brand new sequel, Miracle on Christmas Lake II (both shows written by Jessica Lind). Our favorite characters return (except for the soap fan with the hairy mole) – Colin, who runs the theater, and his wife Tess are now parents of a six month old baby, and Martha, loveable despite (or because of) the fact that she embodies every bad stereotype of Minnesotans, is now (sort of) engaged to her nerdy Little House on the Prairie loving costar from last year’s production. The town of Christmas Lake is in danger of being annexed, and the town savior appears in the form of Hollywood scout Joey Deschantel, who is going to recommend the town to his producers as location for the upcoming remake of It’s a Wonderful Life, starring famous Minnesota actors Josh Hartnet and Jessica Biel. He takes charge of the town Christmas pageant, making it into a spectacle so Hollywood will take notice.

That’s a whole lot of complicated exposition, but the details of the story don’t really matter. What matters is that this is a hilarious show with tons of heart and local flavor. It’s not the usual holiday sugary sweet schmaltz, but you’ll still leave the theater with a warm glow to carry out into the cold Minnesota night. You’ll remember fondly this crazy quirky little Minnesota town full of loveable characters that may actually resemble people you know.

Of the four returning characters from the original Miracle on Christmas Lake, only one is played by the same actor: Ryan Nelson as the nerdy Neil.  My favorite thing about Neil is his love for Little House on the Prairie, which I share. It was my favorite show as a kid and I still have to stop and watch whenever I come across it on TV. (Beth and Manly!!) The other fun thing about Neil is that he thinks it’s not acting if you use your normal speaking voice, so he always imitates a famous actor, despite the director’s protests. Said director is played by Andy Frye who played Hunter in [title of show] this spring. His super high energy brings new life into the little town. The moon boot and high-waisted jeans wearing Martha Knutson is played this year by Carolyn Trapskin, and she ably contorts her face and voice into the weirdness needed for this character. And it works for her, she has three men chasing after her! Our sane couple (loosely based on Yellow Tree founders, director Jason Peterson and playwright Jessica Lind) are played this year by J.C. Lippold and Mary Fox (both of whom also appeared in [title of show]).  Mary's given some great and diverse performances around the cities this year, as she does again here. While she effortlessly created an outrageously quirky character in Theater Latte Da’s Spelling Bee this fall, she does a great job here of playing the straight role among these other crazies (although she does get to appear in a tutu and speak in rhyme). J.C.’s Colin is a calming, grounding presence as the man who desperately wants to save his hometown, because he doesn’t know who he is without it. Gary DuBreuil fills out the cast playing several diverse roles, from a minister to a volunteer police officer to a Hollywood producer.  All together it's a very capable and entertaining cast that plays well together on the little stage (which is an actual raised stage for this production).

A lot of crazy things happen and the show falls apart for various reasons, but still manages to be a success because the townspeople pull together to make it happen. The play within a play (a very modernized version of the Christmas story) is in rhyme, with Mary delivering much of it in a halting cadence as if Tess is making it up on the spot. Colin accompanies the show on the piano, and it closes with everyone joining in to sing a wonderful new holiday ditty, “A little bit of lovin' and a Christmas tree” (written by one of my favorite local musicians Blake Thomas, if you like country/folk music, you must check him out). It’s a really sweet and fun end to a really good time. In fact, if a single were available for download, I’d download it today (hint, hint, to whoever may be reading this!).  Or you can just watch this video on a continuous loop, like I do.  ;)

I think it's safe to say that their Christmas show is Yellow Tree’s most popular show of the year; it's playing six days a week (which their other shows typically do not) and has been extended into January. If you're looking for a fun and non-traditional holiday show that still has that traditional holiday spirit, check it out, especially if you’re in the Northwest suburbs. And make sure to get there in plenty of time to get seats. I went with a group on a Tuesday night and it was packed, maybe even sold out. We were enjoying our half price bottles of wine at nearby Nectar Wine Bar (which I highly recommend for a pre-show dinner) so much we didn’t get to the theater as early as we hoped, so we had to take whatever seats we could get! But even from way in the corner it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening.