Minnesota Fringe Festival 2025: "An Exorcism, Don'tcha Know?"

Day: 9

Show: 33

Title: An Exorcism, Don'tcha Know?

Category: Comedy / Horror / Puppetry

By: New Endeavors

Created by: Andrew Rakerd

Location: Barker Center

Summary: The show description pretty much says it all: "Church Basement Ladies meets The Exorcist."

Highlights: I recently saw the original Church Basement Ladies for the first time, and the setup here is almost identical. There's a new pastor at the Lutheran Church in small town Minnesota, and the ladies holding an Easter fundraiser to raise money for a new furnace aren't sure what to think of him (he's "different"). And there's a young woman returned from school at "the U" in "the Cities," coming home different than when she left. And here's where this show diverges from CBL - she's possessed by a demon. A demon who is disappointed to find out he's been sent to torment not a Catholic Church, where they expect and know how to handle such things, but a Lutheran Church. The ladies (Angela Fox, Cayla Marie Wolpers, and Michelle Schwantes) and one husband (Mitch Kiecker) turn to Pastor Sal (Rob Ward) to help rid poor Regan (Emma Kessler) of the demon, but he's not sure what to do. One of the ladies has seen The Exorcist, and offers suggestions. But in the end, Minnesota Nice is the only thing that works to rid these Lutherans of the demon. Because it's not the Minnesota Fringe Festival without some Fargo accents and lutefisk jokes, and this show fills the bill nicely. The cast is great, particularly Emma with a blood curdling scream, her words echoed by Mike Dee as the demon, dressed all in black and shadowing her moves, creating a spooky otherworldly effect. This show is really fun and ridiculously funny, as I would expect from the team that brought us one of the most brilliantly stupid Fringe shows in my memory - 2017's The Buttslasher, and the 2019 sequel The Buttslasher: And Then There Were Buns. I'm still waiting for part 3, but in the meantime, you can catch the final performance of An Exorcism, Don'tcha Know? today (Sunday) at 1pm for some Minnesota humor mixed with a touch of horror.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here. 

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2024: "That Woman - The Monologue Show"

Day: 9

Show: 31

Title: That Woman - The Monologue Show

Category: Drama / Historical content / Political content

By: Tennessee Playwrights Studio

Created by: Molly Breen & Angela Gimlin

Location: Mixed Blood Theatre

Summary: Monologues by six women involved with President John F. Kennedy, including his wife Jackie.

Highlights: I finished my 2024 Fringe-going on a high note. We've all heard about JFK's infidelity, but have we heard the women's stories? In this show, five (alleged) mistresses get the chance to tell their story in monologue form, each one introduced by Jackie (Emma Bucknam), who gets the last word, and asks us not to define her by the short time in her life when she was Mrs. Kennedy. We also get to hear from German spy Ellen Rometch (Emma Kessler), who vows to take her secret to her grave; Mimi Alford (Molly Breen), a White House intern who had an 18-month affair with the President and kept it secret for 40 years; burlesque performer Blaze Starr (Haley McCormick-Jenkins) who had a brief encounter with the President, and other powerful men; Mary Pinchot Meyer (Alison Anderson), the ex-wife of a CIA agent who enjoyed having the President's ear (and paid the price for it); and Judith Exner (Simone Reno), the first woman to come out as a mistress of JFK. All of the monologues are well written and well delivered by the cast, sitting in the single chair on stage or walking around the stage. A great concept for a show, well executed, with a final performance today at 4.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.