"Waiting for Godot" at the Guthrie Theater

Where do we go from here? On.

The Guthrie's first production of Samuel Beckett's classic Waiting for Godot since the year I was born (which was a long time ago), and Artistic Director's Joseph Haj's first time directing it, comes at the perfect time. Written as a reflection on the devastation of WWII, it speaks to the idea of waiting. For what? Anything. For things to get better, for things to get worse, for salvation. As cast member Jimmy Keiffer explained in a post-show discussion, absurdism is the idea that life has no meaning, so what do we do to give it meaning? What seems on the surface a silly and ridiculous little play at some point becomes exquisitely profound, with the "giving birth astride of a grave" of it all. And it's somehow oddly hopeful, despite the existential angst. In the face of destruction or disaster, the only thing we can do is go on. 

"A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the Guthrie Theater

A Midsummer Night's Dream is probably my favorite Shakespeare play. Partly because it's also probably the one I've seen the most on stage (this is my 10th time seeing it, and my 7th time writing about it in my almost 15 years as a Twin Cities Theater Blogger), but also because it's really the perfect rom com, with a little bit of everything. In his final season as the Guthrie's Artistic Director, Joe Dowling staged a memorable in-the-round production in 2015, and now current Artistic Director Joseph Haj is bringing us his version of this classic. I was lucky enough to attend the first meet-and-greet with the cast and creative team back in early January, when Joe talked about what the show means to him. He staged it at Oregon Shakespeare Festival in March 2020, and we know how that story goes - the show only had a few performances before being cancelled due to the pandemic. So this is a re-do of sorts, even bringing a few cast and creatives back. But this is a fresh, new Midsummer, bringing a bright warm glow to the Guthrie stage now when we need in most in this bleak, dark Midwinter. It's a delightful production full of heart, humor, and hope, and more music than any previous Midsummer I've seen. Whether you've never seen Midsummer before (where have you been?) or you've seen it a dozen times, here are ten reasons to see the Guthrie's new production of A Midsummer Night's Dream:

The History Plays: "Richard II," "Henry IV," and "Henry V" in rep at the Guthrie Theater

Once in a lifetime, if you're lucky, you'll have a chance to experience an epic theater event at your home town theater, which just happens to be one of the best respected and most highly acclaimed regional theaters in the land. That was April 13, 2024, a day I will never forget, a day in which I consumed more theater than I ever have in a single day. Some 8 1/2 hours of theater, more than seeing Tony Kushner's epic two-part Angels in America on Broadway, more than the longest day at the Minnesota Fringe Festival. Sometimes known as The Henriad, Shakespeare's Richard II, Henry IV (two plays here condensed into one), and Henry V tell the stories of three English kings in the late 14th and early 15th Centuries. But this was not some boring slog through ancient history and archaic language. It was a living, breathing, dynamic, compelling, thrilling, jaw-dropping, heart-stopping, laugh-inducing, thoroughly engaging binge-watch of some of the best plays in the English cannon, brought to life by some of our best theater artists from the Twin Cities and around the country. Each play has a somewhat different tone or look or feel, but all are cut from the same cloth so that when knit together, they form a whole much grander than the sum of its parts. If you have the financial means and physical stamina to do so, I highly recommend attending the one remaining marathon day on May 18. It's a rare shared community experience, with artists and patrons joining their energies together for some 14 hours in the same space. Or you can take in the trilogy in a more reasonable manner - see all three plays in a weekend, or more spread out over time. But if you're a #TCTheater fan (and if you're not, why are you reading this blog?), see it you must. This is something we'll be talking about for generations. Click here for details and tickets.

"South Pacific" at the Guthrie Theater

"Are we just as naive in America, even today, as we stand at the global altar, concurrently rejecting and embracing new faces? In our national mind and on our conscience we can hear the first three notes of South Pacific heralding again and again the foreignness and the familiarity of what we face, the potential and the risk. If music can store energy, it can release it."

Rodgers and Hammerstein's 1949 musical South Pacific is undoubtedly a genius musical score and a sweeping romance. But as the above quote from composer Adam Guettel (grandson of Richard Rodgers) indicates, South Pacific is so much more than just a pretty musical, and was truly ahead of its time. It told a story of interracial relationships 20 years before Loving v. Virginia abolished laws prohibiting interracial marriage. The song "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught" is a brilliant thesis on racism and prejudice. When asked to remove the song because "it's untimely and it's not what patrons want to hear when they go to a musical," Oscar Hammerstein replied, "That's what the play is about!" Nearly seventy years later, with issues of immigration and prejudice on the daily news and in every political debate, South Pacific's themes of fear of the other vs. embracing and accepting the other are perhaps more relevant than ever. It's a perfect choice, then, to conclude Guthrie Artistic Director Joseph Haj's first season, and he does justice to this beautiful and meaningful classic with this wonderful production.