"Our Town" at Lyric Arts

Thornton Wilder's 1938 play Our Town is a classic of the American theater for a reason. It's a slice of life kind of play (or rather, three slices of life), in which not a lot happens, but everything happens. Our Town tells the story of an average American town in the early 20th Century, filled with average people. While the gender roles feel dated (the men go out to their jobs while the women stay home and take care of the home and family, and everyone is married), the themes still resonate. In fact I find the older I get, the more bittersweet the play becomes. The idea that it's the ordinary days that are the very stuff of life, and we rarely realize their value while we're in them, only becomes more relevant the more those ordinary days stack up behind you. Lyric Arts' new production uses the traditional bare bones style, and adds movement and music to help color the world of Grover's Corners. With beautifully sparse design and a talented cast, they've created something heart-breakingly lovely. You can visit Grover's Corners on Main Street in Anoka weekends through the end of June.

"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.

"Rogue Prince: Henry IV, Parts I and II" by Theatre Coup D'Etat at Calvary Baptist Church

When Ten Thousand Things did an all-female production of Shakespeare's Henry IV Part I a few years ago, I wrote "and with a cliffhanger ending suitable for any movie franchise, I found myself wondering, when's Part II?" Well, here it is. Theatre Coup D'Etat brings us both parts of Henry IV, condensed into one play adapted by Gary Briggle, who also plays Falstaff and directs with his wife Wendy Lehr. These two plays combined tell the story of the "rogue prince" Hal, the son of Henry IV, and his journey from a careless young man who spends his time with criminals in pubs, to the soldier and King Henry V. This journey is presented with inventive staging in an intimate space that makes the audience feel as if we're there with them.

"A Raisin in the Sun" at Lyric Arts

The last time I saw the American theater classic A Raisin in the Sun was in November 2016, at Park Square Theatre. Re-reading that post today, I was struck by this: "I'm writing this on the afternoon of election day, and no matter what tomorrow brings or who our president is, the work for social justice and equality continues. Theater such as this furthers that work by taking a deep look at our shared history and how it reflects in the present." Well, it's two and a half years later, and we now know what that tomorrow brought, and the tomorrows after that. The never-ending work for social justice and equality feels even more urgent now, and this play about "dreams deferred" for African Americans is as relevant as ever. Lyric Arts has brought this classic to their suburban Anoka stage and delivered a powerful production. I have previously called Lyric out for their lack of diversity on stage, which is something I know they've been working on. I commend them for bringing this play with a mostly African American cast to their stage and their audience, and for hiring a black female director (veteran #TCTheater artist Austene Van) to tell this story written by the first black female Broadway playwright, proving that this 60-year old story is one that still needs to be heard, even (or especially) in the suburbs.

"God of Carnage" at Lyric Arts

In 2009, God of Carnage won the Tony Award for best play. It closed in 2010, and the Guthrie produced it the following year, when I called it "a tightly wound, intense, darkly hilarious four-person play about what happens when our baser natures come to the surface." I still have vivid memories of it (which is noteworthy, considering I've seen over a thousand plays since them). It's a treat to revisit this smart, sharp comedy again in a well done production at Lyric Arts. The strong four-person ensemble is a great team, director Scott Ford has paced the 90-minute four-way conversation well, and the design tells us immediately where we are and who we're dealing with. To my knowledge, no #TCTheater has done this play since the Guthrie in 2011, so kudos to the little community theater in the 'burbs for tackling this prickly and sometimes unpleasant (in a good way) play and doing it so well.

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2018: "Proof! An Alien Abduction Pop Musical"

Day: 7

Show: 27

Title: Proof! An Alien Abduction Pop Musical

Category: Comedy / Musical Theater / Original Music

By: Sister Shakes

Written by: Anna Olson and Mark Schirmacher

Location: Augsburg Studio

Summary: The title says it all: it's a musical about a woman abducted by aliens.

Highlights: This show has been selling out the small studio space, and it must be because it's fun and well-done. Admittedly the 10pm timeslot didn't allow me to be as engaged as I'd like to be (note to self: don't see 10pm shows), but what I managed to catch was quite enjoyable. A talented four-person cast (playwright Anna Olson, Bill Williamson, Don Maloney, and Tynelle Marschall), fun poppy songs (by Mark Schirmacher), and an amusing plot about an alien sent to harvest a human soul who falls in love with said soul, and then they end up saving the world (or something). Just one show left on the last day of the fest, so plan accordingly if you want to catch this funny, poppy, clever show (with aliens!)

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

"You Can't Take It With You" at Lyric Arts

You can't take it with you. Meaning money, meaning when you die. What's the point of racking up piles of money at the expense of living? It's more important to rack up experiences and time spent doing the things you love with the people you love. At least that's the moral of the story in the classic play You Can't Take It With You, now playing at Lyric Arts Main Street Stage in Anoka. This 80-year-old play may be a little dated and old-fashioned, and I don't really see the urgency of doing this play at this moment in time. And of course, it's a privileged class of people who can contemplate giving up their high-paying job to spend more time on their hobbies. That being said, this is still a charming, funny, and uplifting play, a good way to spend an evening and a good reminder to not overlook the important things in life.

"A View from the Bridge" at Theatre in the Round

If you're a fan of American theater classics, get yourself to Theatre in the Round (which happens to be the longest running theater in town) in the West Bank neighborhood of Minneapolis. Their excellent production of Arthur Miller's A View From the Bridge features strong performances from the whole cast (particularly the leads), a really cool set with vintage props, and great staging in their intimate in-the-round setting. This completely engrossing and tragic story of flawed and very real characters navigating hard times and tricky family relations in 1950s working class Brooklyn will get under your skin. It's one of those experiences that makes you feel like you've been on a journey with these characters, one that's hard to shake when you leave the theater. It's probably the second best play I've seen at TRP (the best being the gorgeous production of Tennessee Williams' Summer and Smoke in 2012). Don't let this one fly under your radar.

"Odd Couple" at Lyric Arts

Sometimes all you need is to laugh at a good old-fashioned comedy. Neil Simon's 1965 play The Odd Couple fits the bill. Yes, it's a "first world problems" kind of play, and the depiction of women as playthings is problemantic in today's world. But there's a reason it had such long-lasting success (it was made into not just a movie, but also a TV sitcom and a recent reboot). The reason being that Simon's sharply drawn characters and fast witty dialogue are just plain funny. And yes it's been done a lot, but Lyric Arts' production makes this old chestnut worth seeing again with their perfect casting, spot-on direction, and fantastic set. So take a trip back to 1960s NYC and have a good time with "divorced, broke, and slobby" Oscar and his reluctant roommate Felix, who "wears a seat-belt at a drive-in movie."

"A Lie of the Mind" by Theatre Pro Rata at nimubs theatre

An all too real depiction of the real-life hanging of a circus elephant. A disturbing adaptation of a well-known dystopian novel. A devastating and thought-provoking portrait of a child molester. And now a deep dive into an abusive relationship. Theatre Pro Rata doesn't shy away from the tough stuff. After a brief trip to the lighter side with The Illusion at Park Square this summer, Pro Rata returns to the dark side with a sobering look at abusive and dysfunctional families in Sam Shepard's A Lie of the Mind. This dark fable of a modern day Western offers little hope, but once again Pro Rata offers a beautiful, well-acted and -directed, and disturbing evening of theater.

The play begins shortly after Jake (a frighteningly good Nate Cheeseman) has beaten his wife Beth (a frail yet strong Amy Pirkl) so badly that she ends up in the hospital with brain damage, and has to relearn how to walk and talk. This is not the first time this has happened, and Beth's brother Mike (Bear Brummel) and parents (Don Maloney and Delta Rae Giordano) take her home to recover in Montana where she grew up. Similarly, Jake's sister (Joy Dolo) and bitter mother (Kit Bix) take him in while his brother Frankie (Gabriel Murphy) travels to Montana to check on Beth and make sure she's not dead, as Jake feared. What follows is an exploration of three dysfunctional families. Beth's father is the stereotypical head of the household, spending all his time in the hunting shack and ordering his wife to apply oil to his dry and cracking feet. Jake's mother has never recovered from her husband leaving and his tragic death. And we know how Jake and Beth ended up.

Nate Cheeseman and Amy Pirkl
as the not so happy couple
(photo by Charles Gorrill)

This is one of those plays that makes one happy to be single. What's the point of getting married if all you do is make each other miserable, and raise miserable children who go out to make other people miserable? None of these characters are particularly likeable, but all are beautifully brought to life by the strong cast under the direction of Carin Bratlie Wethern. Perhaps the least hateful of these miserable people is Beth, who, like many so-called simple-minded characters, speaks simple and eloquent truth in her blunt and mixed up speech. And Frankie seems like a good guy, trying to make up for his brother's sins. But maybe looking for good guys isn't the point of the play. Maybe it's to recognize the bad guys within all of us. And then hopefully not marry one.

The starkly beautiful West of Sam Shepard's imagination is well represented on nimbus' intimate stage by scenic designer Ursula Bowden. The stage elegantly and seamlessly combines three very different sets - a hotel, hospital room, and childhood basement bedroom - with a painted Western backdrop tying them together. The former two sets are replaced by the Montana living room, which shares some of the same space with the basement bedroom. In fact they almost seem to exist in the same space, even though they're presumably hundreds of miles apart, as Jake and Beth can almost seem to see each other across the distance.

The last Shepard play I saw was only an hour long, so I was expecting this one to be short as well. It's not, coming in at almost three hours with intermission. That's a long time to spend with these miserable people in their miserable lives, but it's a compelling and engaging play despite the misery. A Lie of the Mind continues through September 27.