"The Privateer" by Transatlantic Love Affair at Illusion Theater

Introducing opening night of Transatlantic Love Affair's newest creation The Privateer, TLA company member and first-time director Derek Lee Miller humbly said, you don't want to hear me lecture about pirates for an hour and a half. As someone who quite enjoyed listening to him lecture about bananas for an hour this summer, I most certainly do want to listen to Derek Lee Miller lecture about pirates! Because it would be sure to be fascinating and educational and delightfully nerdy. But even better than a lecture, this excellent company tells a story about pirates through movement, words, and music. TLA fans are sure to love this new, exciting, dangerous tale. And if you haven't seen TLA before, what are you waiting for?!

"105 Proof; or, the Killing of Mack 'The Silencer' Klein" by Transatlantic Love Affair at Illusion Theater

Since being mesmerized by Ash Land at the 2012 Minnesota Fringe Festival, I've been a loyal follower of Transatlantic Love Affair, the physical theater troupe that casts a spell and weaves a dream by using nothing but their bodies, voices, hearts, and souls to tell stories. Their subjects are typically very loose retellings of fairy or folk tales (Cinderella in Ash Land, Little Red Riding Hood in Red Resurrected, the legend of the Selkie in The Ballad of the Pale Fisherman), but recently they've developed original stories including the memory play These Old Shoes and the modern-day love story emilie/eurydice. Most of their shows premiere at the Fringe, but thanks to their partnership with Illusion Theater, they, and we the audience, often get a chance to revisit the stories in a slightly expanded version. Such is the case with 105 Proof; or, the Killing of Mack "The Silencer" Klein, which debuted at the 2015 Fringe. 105 Proof is another original story, but one with a decidedly different tone than their other work. The tale of a small town boy who becomes a Chicago mobster in the Prohibition era is darker, grittier, more suspenseful, and also funnier than their usual dreamy tales. But what's not different is the way the cast (most of whom were in the original production) and live musical soundtrack create an entire world of the imagination that feels real and all-encompassing.

"These Old Shoes" by Transatlantic Love Affair at Illusion Theater

I'll never forget the first time I saw Transatlantic Love Affair. It was the "Audience Pick" show at the end of a long and exhausting 2012 Fringe Festival. I was tired and crabby and fringed out, but from the moment the lights went down on Ash Land, TLA transported me to another world, a world so specifically and beautifully created on a bare stage by a group of performers using nothing but their bodies, voices, and souls to communicate the story. I've seen them a number of times since then, both at the Fringe and as part of Illusion Theater's "Lights Up" series, and they continue to move me beyond what just "ordinary" theater is able to do. TLA returned to Illusion Theater last night with a remount of their 2013 Fringe hit These Old Shoes, a touching story of time, memory, regret, second chances, and long lost love rediscovered. In everything they do, TLA is nothing less than exquisite (not a word I use lightly, usually reserving it to describe the epitome of the art form that television can be, aka Mad Men). But disappointingly, the theater last night was not as full as it should have been. My goal in writing this piece is to get as many people as possible to go see These Old Shoes. You cannot call yourself a true Twin Cities theater fan if you've never seen Transatlantic Love Affair, and there's no better place to start than with this achingly lovely show.

In an original story conceived and directed by co-Artistic Director Diogo Lopes, These Old Shoes introduces us to a group of people living at a retirement community, and a man named Jim (Derek Lee Miller) who is reluctantly moving in. Jim's granddaughter Beatrice (Adelin Phelps) comes to town to help him pack up his house and move into the community. As Jim goes through his things, memories of days and people long past are stirred up. He remembers a young woman named Marjorie (Peyton McCandless) whom he once loved and planned to spend his life with, until his experience in the Korean War changed him and came between them. They both went on to live seemingly happy lives apart, but never forgot each other. I don't think it's a spoiler to say that Marjorie lives in the community that Jim is joining; the true beauty of the piece is watching the two stories unfold - past and present - and how they come together again.

In typical TLA style, there are no props or set pieces on stage. Barefoot actors in simple clothing create everything in this world - furniture, a grandfather clock, trees, doors, gravestones. They mime with invisible props. Sometimes you don't quite know what action they're miming or inanimate object they're embodying, but at other times, it's so clear you can almost see it. As we move from the past to the present, each of the ensemble members (also including Heather Bunch, Eric Nelson, co-Artistic Director Isabel Nelson, and Allison Witham) physically transforms from a young person to an old person, each in their own unique and specific way, whether it's the subtle droop of the shoulders and sinking inward, or a back that's fully bent over, or a slower less stable way of walking. Age affects people differently, and this cast allows you to see those differences. One addition to the piece since the Fringe version is that we get to see each of the members of the retirement community in their past, whether as an actor, or a secretary, or a doctor. This glimpse into the past helps to flesh out each of these characters and inform who they are in the present story.

Jim polishes these old shoes of Marjorie's
(Derek Lee Miller and Peyton McCandless)

Transatlantic Love Affair also knows how to harness the power of music to maximum emotional effect. Dustin Tessier provides the soundtrack to this story on electric guitar, alternately melancholy and hopeful as the story requires. The one theatrical "trick" that's employed is the lighting (by Michael Wangen), which along with the music helps to accentuate the mood created by the ensemble. All of these pieces combine to create a world that feels so real and specific, it's positively jarring to the soul to leave the theater and go back into the real world, a world that now feels too bright and garish, and somehow colorless at the same time, compared to that sparsely beautiful world experienced on stage.

It's not possible to adequately describe what it is that Transatlanctic Love Affair does. It's a style so unique and specific, you just have to see it for yourself. Let go of what you think is reality, let your imagination take over, and let them take you on this exquisitely lovely journey. These Old Shoes is playing now through February 14. Trust me when I tell you you need to see it, and be sure to take advantage of the discount tickets on Goldstar.com.


This article also appears on Broadway World Minneapolis.

Fringe Festival: "These Old Shoes"

Day: 4

Show: 12

Title: These Old Shoes

By: Transatlantic Love Affair

Created by: Diogo Lopes and the ensemble

Location: Music Box Theatre

Summary: Using their trademark physical theater style, Transatlantic Love Affair tells the story of a man packing up his belongings and memories as he prepares to move into an "old folks home," with the help of his loving granddaughter.

Highlights: Transatlantic Love Affair never fails to make me cry. The pictures that they create and the emotions that those pictures evoke are so beautiful; it's difficult to describe if you haven't seen them. The seven actors are on a completely bare stage with no set or props, dressed simply, but manage to create a rich and varied world in which to tell their stories. With only their bodies, voices, and facial expressions, they represent everything from furniture to trees to the characters in the stories. And they always use music very wisely to enhance, but never distract from, the story (Dustin Tessier on an expressive electric guitar). Without giving away too much, the story they tell here is one of aging, memory, regrets, and second chances. The entire cast is wonderful, but Derek Lee Miller and Peytie McCandless are especially lovely as they portray characters at various times in their lives. There's so much going on, such exquisite attention to detail, that it's impossible to see everything. I wish I had time to see this again* so I could drink it all in. My favorite of the Fringe so far, and I doubt anything else I see will top it.

Read more of my fringe fest reflections…

… including my top 5 shows

*And maybe I will see it again. They're continuing their trend of expanding Fringe shows at Illusion Theater with last year's Ash Land, to be presented at Illusion in February 2014. Dare I hope for These Old Shoes at Illusion in 2015?