"Top Girls" by Theatre Pro Rata at the Crane Theater

Everyone loves the '80s, right? Maybe not so much after seeing Theatre Pro Rata's production of Caryl Churchill's Top Girls, which takes an unflinching look at what the '80s were really like, particularly in the lives of working women who seemed on the surface to "have it all." It's dark, weird, and a little fantastical, like all of Churchill's work, but it's also smart, thought-provoking, grounded in humanity, and relevant to our world 40 years later, with a different sort of gender politics happening in the work place.

"Escaped Alone" and "Here We Go" by Frank Theatre at Gremlin Theatre

To begin their 31st season, Frank Theatre is returning to one of their favorite playwrights, Caryl Churchill. They're presenting two of the 80-year old British playwright's newer works, the short plays Escaped Alone and Here We Go. I don't know if these two plays were meant to be performed together, but they work very well with each other, dealing with similar themes of aging and death. Director Wendy Knox admits that they are "a couple of weird pieces," but I found them to be weird in a good way, a meaningful way. Odd, perplexing, surprising, funny, charming, sad, poignant, and profound are just a few of the adjectives that could be used to describe these plays. And as always, the audience is in good hands with Frank's excellent cast and design team to lead us through the weirdness to the truth of the piece.

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2018: "Far Away by Caryl Churchill"

Day: 8

Show: 29

Title: Far Away by Caryl Churchill

Category: Drama / Horror / Political Content

By: Wayward Theatre Company

Directed by: Sarah Nargang

Location: Rarig Center Arena

Summary: A terrifying post-apocolyptic world in which countries, animals, vocations, and even nature take sides in a brutal war.

Highlights: Wow, this one is super creepy cool. And admittedly, I didn't fully understand what happened until I talked to a friend who had read it and looked at the credits. Which just makes me want to see it again, because there's so much there. It starts off innocently enough, with a young girl staying at her aunt's house who's harmlessly folding laundry. When the girl tells her aunt of a scene of blood and people held captive just outside the house, her aunt assures here that her uncle is helping people, and only killing "traitors." Cut to a factory of people making hats, for some unknown nefarious purpose (yes, nefarious hats), and the young girl is now grown up and a new hat maker, learning the ways of the company. In the final scene all hell has broken loose, literally, with a full-on bloody war between ever changing sides. There's loads of symbolism that would take more space and thought than I have time to give it to unpack. The story is fluidly and stylistically told by the ensemble, even the props (whitewashed boxes of different sizes frequently moved around to create different environments and bright, beautiful, weird hats) and costumes (shades of white and gray) help to to the story. But perhaps my favorite part of the play is the four-piece band that plays during scene changes, original songs (I assume?) so haunting and cool that I hope they're a real band so I can buy all of their albums (music direction by Tim McVean). This is an odd, disturbing, and perplexing little play (it's Caryl Churchill, so of course it is), thoughtfully, hauntingly, beautifully brought to life by Wayward Theatre.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

"The Skriker" by Fortune's Fool Theatre at the Crane Theater

A dark fairy pursues two teenage mothers in Caryl Churchill's The Skriker, receiving a rare production thanks to Fortune's Fool Theatre. It's an ambitious undertaking, with a huge cast of 17, fantastical elements, and complicated often nonsensical dialogue. While I have to admit that the play is a little too weird for my taste, I can recognize the talent, artistry, and hard work that has gone into making this unique and striking piece of art.

"Love and Information" by Frank Theatre at the Ritz Theater

I admit it, I'm an eavesdropper. I love listening to other people's conversations when I'm out in a public place. But that's not really eavesdropping; what am I supposed to do, plug my ears when someone is having a conversation at the table next to me?  I'm just being observant. Or you could say, gathering information. Frank Theatre's production of Caryl Churchill's new play Love and Information is a lot like eavesdropping on conversations around you. You don't get the full story, it might be cut off before you want it to, or it might drone on and on as you wish it would stop. An ensemble of 14 actors performs over 50 short scenes in about 90 minutes, each with different characters in different situations, but all revolving around the theme of how we gather, receive, share, and process information. It's a truly unique experience at the theater, and one that's quite fascinating and thought-provoking.

This is where I usually do a brief plot summary, but there is no plot in this play. Scenes range from a few seconds to several minutes in length, and typically involve just a few people. They may be full conversations, or more often just fragments of a conversation, or fragments of a sentence even, that show us just a fragment of these characters lives. Some don't make any sense, some are so compelling I'd like to see them expanded into an entire play. Scenes take place in a shoe store, a beauty parlor, a dinner party, a prison, a restaurant, a bedroom, or in the great outdoors. Set pieces are moved on and off the stage relatively quickly during the frequent scene stages, while eclectic music plays.

the cast of Love and Information

The script comes with no character or set descriptions, and even the order of the scenes is somewhat loose. Director Wendy Knox and this fantastic cast, each of whom bring something uniquely interesting to the piece, have done a wonderful job constructing the piece and making it endlessly surprising, perplexing, and fascinating. And kudos to Kathy Kohl for designing the many many costumes to help define the characters that we may only see for a few seconds, and to the actors for the many many costume changes required. The whole thing demands precise choreography both onstage and off, and they pull it off without a hitch.

We live in the information age. We have endless amounts of information literally at our fingertips. People share some of their most personal and intimate information on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and whatever the kids are using these days. But what do we do with that information once we have it? Does it make us happier? Does it make our lives better? These are some of the questions this piece raises, in a fresh and modern way that's perfectly suited to this age of short attention spans. Love and Information continues at the Ritz Theater through February 22.