"Pop Goes the Noggin" by SOS Theater at Gremlin Theatre

New #TCTheater company SOS Theater debuted a year and half ago with the dark comedy / family dramedy Roller Derby Queen. I really enjoyed that play, calling it "smart, funny, and well-written, with quirky but real characters," and was looking forward to their second outing. Pop Goes the Noggin is another new play written by Michele Lepsche, a dark comedy featuring quirky characters. Unfortunately it's an example of the proverbial sophomore slump as the great ideas don't quite come together, perhaps because due to an unexpected illness the playwright was unable to finish the play, which was completed by director Kari Steinbach and cast member Greta Grosch (one of the writers of the Church Basement Ladies series). But the play has an interesting premise, and a cast of unique and endearing characters (some more defined than others). There's definitely potential there, and it would be interesting to see it again after a round of revisions.

"Twelfth Night" by Orchard Theater Collective at Calvary Baptist Church

New #TCTheater company Orchard Theater Collective, founded by a quartet of U of M/Guthrie BFA grads, has brought us some interesting and innovative shows over the past year or so. They continue that tradition with Shakespeare's comedy Twelfth Night, a clever choice to stage in early January when this actual holiday (aka the 12th day of Christmas) falls. And they've made it feel like a holiday. What is essentially a church basement theater has been transformed into a warm, cozy, festive space with lights and colorful decorations, as well as drinks and a lovely spread of cheese, hummus, bread, and cookies, all included in the price of admission. The intrepid cast of eight brings many more characters to life in this gender-swapping mistaken identity romantic comedy, performed on the small stage and in a square in front of it, with the audience sitting at tables on three sides. This Twelfth Night is playful and fun, an evening of pure frivolity. Fortunately this show runs a little longer than their previous shows (sometimes one weekend only); you have until January 19 to celebrate Twelfth Night with Orchard Theater Collective (click here for info and tickets).

"The Good Person of Setzuan" by Frank Theatre at an Abandoned Rainbow Foods

Yes, you read that right. Last night I saw theater at an abandoned Rainbow Foods in South Minneapolis. It was definitely the strangest place I have ever seen theater, but not the strangest place Frank Theatre has ever done theater. According to a note in the playbill from Artistic Director Wendy Knox, Frank used to do a lot of shows in a found space, until they settled into more conventional spaces like the Southern and the Ritz in recent years. Some last minute changes this year caused them to get creative again, and with the dearth of small theater spaces (just as we gained The Crane Theater, we lost Bedlam Lowertown), theaters need to get creative. Frank has made terrific use of this space in their latest production of a Brecht play - The Good Person of Setzuan. Frank + Brecht = weird, but weird in a creative, interesting, entertaining way. Although the 8 to 11:15 pm runtime was way too late and long for this morning person (can we not all just agree to start all shows at 7:30, and can't we edit super-long plays into something more manageable?), it's a very well-done, intriguing, thought-provoking, entertaining play in typical Frank style.

"Trust" by Self-Reliant Productions at the Lab Theater

Sometimes theater is escapist entertainment (see The Drowsy Chaperone), and sometimes it's not. Sometimes it deals with difficult real-life issues and gives a voice to people whose stories need to be heard. The new play Trust is an example of the latter. It's intense and difficult to watch, but such an important story, and an all too familiar one. This story about a survivor of clergy abuse was written by John Woehrle and inspired by the real-life experience of his friend Jim Hanson (both of whom act in the play), and it's obviously a labor of love. The creators have worked with survivor networks as they developed the piece, which makes its Twin Cities debut at the Lab Theater. I was truly impressed by this work from a first-time playwright, a first-time director (actor Rich Remedios), and actors who were mostly unfamiliar to me. Trust is a powerful play telling an important story, tough to watch but worth the effort.

"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.

"Street Scene" by Girl Friday Productions at Minneapolis Theatre Garage

Hello.  My name is Jill and I'm a theater-aholic.  It had been two weeks since I'd been to the theater, and I didn't have anything on my schedule for another two weeks.  A month without theater, perish the thought!  So when I received an email telling me about Girl Friday Productions' Street Scene, I eagerly looked it up.  A theater company I'd never seen, a location I'd never been to (the funky Minneapolis Theatre Garage), a Pulitzer Prize winning play from 1929 about immigrant life in a NYC tenement  - sold.  As one of the characters in the play says, "you never know, when you get up in the morning, what the day will bring."  Unlike the tragedy that the day brought to the characters in the play, my day unexpectedly brought a wonderful and moving experience at the theater.

Street Scene was written by Elmer Rice and first produced on Broadway in 1929.  The entire three-act play takes place on the streets and stoops in front of a NYC tenement building, teeming with life of all flavors.  The mix of accents is a delight to the ear - Irish, German, Italian, Swedish, and New York "natives."  20-some actors (including several children and a dog) play 50+ different roles, some as small as a man who strolls down the street singing and is never seen again, or a little girl being reluctantly pulled along by her mother, or a milkman making his deliveries.  The busy sounds of the street are playing softly throughout the play, as well as 20s-era radio (songs, ballgames, talk) playing during intermission and before the show.  It all sets up the environment of the show: a close, supportive, and contentious neighborhood in which the neighbors all know each other - perhaps a little too well.

The show starts off with everyone mopping their brow and asking "hot enough for you?" - a scene that could have been lifted from just about any neighborhood in the country right now (I suspect that the "it's not the heat it's the humidity" line might have been added to cater to local audiences).  The first act establishes the characters: the gossipy and bigoted Mrs. Jones, with her bully son Vincent and flapper girl daughter; the Maurrant family, sad suffering Anna and her abusive husband and idealist working-girl daughter Rose; the outspoken Bolshevik Mr. Kaplan and his smart student son Sam, in love with Rose.  The characters have long conversations with each other, both philosophical and practical, and gossip about their neighbors behind their backs.  The chief object of gossip is Mrs. Maurrant, who appears to be having an affair with the milkman.

Things start to happen in the second act.  Vincent torments Sam, and he and Rose talk about running away together, getting out of the tenements.  She's hopeful of a better life; he believes life is nothing but pain.  He has a serious case of Weltschmerz, as his father points out.  Mr. Maurrant goes off on a trip for a few days, and Mrs. Maurrant invites her milkman up.  In true soap fashion, her husband returns to find them together and (spoiler alert) kills them both in a bloody and action-packed scene.  In the final act, Rose is forced to grow up fast and make a new life for herself and her little brother.  She plans to leave town, and Sam wants to go with her, declaring his undying love for her.  But Rose gently refuses him, putting her in the position of having to comfort him (which doesn't seem fair since she's the one who's just lost both of her parents!).  Rose says people shouldn't belong to anyone but themselves, and that was part of what caused her parents' problems.  She's determined not to fall into the same trap.  As the show ends, modern day sneaks into the old neighborhood: a Lady Gaga song is heard, a man enters with a cardboard coffee cup and Target bag, and a boy rides a skateboard while listening to an iPod.  Life goes on, not so different now from what it was then.

The Theatre Garage is a small space with a small stage, but there's nothing small about this production.  The large cast fills the space and moves around and through it with ease (as directed by Craig Johnson).  It's a strong ensemble; most of them are new to me.  Anna Sundberg is luminous and captivating as Rose, and Logan Verdoorn is heart-breaking as the serious studious Sam.  John Middleton (Theater Latte Da's Song of Extinction) brings a strength to the frail old Mr. Kaplan.  Ellen Apel provides much of the humor as the busybody Mrs. Jones.  Kirby Bennett conveys sadness and longing with a look as the poor Mrs. Maurrant, and Bob Malos as her jerk of a husband is infuriating and somehow almost sympathetic.  It was a thrilling, engaging, tragic night at the theater.  From what I gather, Girl Friday's shows are few and far between, but judging from Street Scene, it's worth the wait.

Thanks to Nancy for telling me about this show, that otherwise would have passed me by without my knowledge.  Please, friends, be my enablers in my theater addiction.  Tell me about theater going on in the Twin Cities that I might not have heard about, so that I don't have to go two weeks without going to the theater again.