"The World Over" at Open Window Theatre

It's been almost four years since Open Window Theatre lost their space in Minneapolis due to a conflict with the landlord that resulted in a multi-year lawsuit, which they eventually won. Now they're back in a brand new space in Inver Grove Heights (about ten miles south of St. Paul). They're presenting two shows this spring in what looks like a strip mall in the suburbs, in which they've created a nice space with an intimate theater. The World Over, which opened this weekend and runs through March 15, is a fitting story of overcoming obstacles in pursuit of a singular goal.

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2019: "A Cult Classic"

Day: 2

Show: 4

Title: A Cult Classic

Category: COMEDY / HISTORICAL CONTENT / POLITICAL CONTENT / RELIGIOUS CONTENT / SHAKESPEARIAN ELEMENTS

By: Sheep Theater

Created by: Sheep Theater

Location: Southern Theater

Summary: A doomsday cult of unknowing can't remember how to achieve the final goal because they forgot everything, including how to read.

Highlights: "The world is really really loud and complicated," says the cult propaganda flier passed out before the show. So true, and maybe that's why humans are so susceptible to religions that tell us how the world works and promise us that things will turn out OK, even the weird extremist religions that we call cults. Sheep Theater takes this idea and runs with it, with their typical "deranged sincerity," in a new work written by Joey Hamburger and directed by Michael Torsch. Four members of a cult (Erika Kuhn, Jacob Mobley, Joey Hamburger, and Madeleine Rowe) are convinced that their leader (Robb Goetzke at his creepiest) has died/disappeared/ascended to "the five stones in the sky," so they perform the final ritual. Which includes preparing an elixir (obviously poison, a la The Peoples Temple) that they don't realize they need to drink. When they don't ascend, they get desperate and look for help from a possible new leader (Kyle Munshower) and a crisis counselor (Iris Rose Page). Wacky things continue to happen (including a pretty brilliant power point presentation), but it's funny (and scary) because it's true. The story unfolds in one long scene that gets more and more desperate and almost a little sad as as these people's deluded dreams are shattered. A Cult Classic is a very Sheepy, very Fringey absurd comedy.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

"George" by Sheep Theater at Phoenix Theater

Celebrate Independence Day with Sheep Theater, who is bringing back their delightfully wacky original comedy George for the July 4th weekend. This show was my first introduction to Sheep four years ago, with their motto of "Original plays. Deranged sincerity," and I've enjoyed many moments of deranged sincerity since. At the time I called George "funny, clever, and irreverent, with jokes about the many things America is best at (giving speeches, celebrating) and how it's OK to lie if it's for the good of the country." Revisiting it, it gave me all of the patriotic feels, watching a bunch of goofballs make fun of our founding fathers (and mothers!) in the most lovingly irreverent way, celebrating all of the freedoms we hold dear, and remembering the ideals this country was founded on (which is easy to forget these days). As my great-grandmother, daughter of Polish immigrants, used to say - hooray for the 4th of July!

"Caught" by Full Circle Theater at the Guthrie Theater

When I took the elevator up to the Guthrie Theater's 9th floor Dowling Studio, accompanied by high school students dressed for prom*, I didn't know what I was in for. I knew I was attending my third Full Circle Theater show, and I knew enough about them to expect it to be something thoughtful, well done, and relevant to the world we live in. And I knew this play had something to do with Chinese political art. All of those things are true, but Caught is so much more. It's a Russian doll of a play with layers upon layers of truth, reality, and artifice. By the time it was over I didn't know what was real, where the play ended and reality began. And that's the point of Caught, to make us question truth, reality, art, politics, even theater. It's a brilliantly written play (by California based playwright Christopher Chen), perfectly executed by director Rick Shiomi and the team. I'm not going to be able to tell you too much about it because I don't want to spoil the surprising and delightful trip, but just trust me - you need to see this play. And with all tickets just $9 as part of the Guthrie's Level Nine initiative, you have no excuse not to.