Minnesota Fringe Festival 2019: "Frankenstein: Two Centuries"

Day: 9

Show: 26

Title: Frankenstein: Two Centuries

Category: HORROR / MYSTERY / SCI-FI / SPOKEN WORD

By: The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society

Created by: Shanan Custer, Joshua English Scrimshaw, Tim Uren, Eric Webster, and Joe Weismann

Location: Rarig Center Thrust

Summary: Two original radio plays done in the style of two real life radio series, Escape and Sanctum Mysteries.

Highlights: This group has perfected the old timey radio show performance, complete with classic microphones, sound effects, and smooth radio voices. Often they recreate actual historical radio scripts, but here they've written originals, and both are a delight. The first one is creepy cool, and continues after the ending of Mary Shelley's classic novel if Captain Robert Walton's sister Margaret went looking for the creature, whom she sees as wondrous, and instead finds the evil doctor himself reincarnated. The second one is, as the cast described in the informative intro (which they do for both plays), more silly and fun than scary. I honestly can't remember or make sense of the plot, but it involved lots of monsters and horrible/great puns, hosted by a darkly funny man along with the chipper but desperately unhappy Lipton Tea lady (as voiced by the Queen of the Minnesota Fringe, Shanan Custer). Check out their website to find out about future performances and to listen to their podcast.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

Fringe Festival 2017: "The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society"

Day: 10

Show: 40

Title: The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society

Category: Something Different

By: Goulish Delights

Created by: Joshua English Scrimshaw, Tim Uren, Eric Webster, Shanan Custer, and Joe Weismann

Location: U of M Rarig Center Thrust

Summary: A reenactment of two radio broadcasts from the '40s and '50s, complete with commercials and sound effects.

Highlights: Pairing a 1952 episode of Hall of Fantasy with a 1943 episode of The Shadow, this show is an entertaining and creepy homage to an era gone by, that of the radio drama. The creators of this show have a podcast of the same name (you can find it here, along with future live performances), and their love for and knowledge of the genre is evident. I closed my eyes a few times during the show, not just because I'm super sleep deprived after ten days of Fringing, but also because it's almost more chilling and thrilling to just listen and let your imagination create the picture of what's happening. And what's happening in these two programs is a lot of mysterious creatures and mad scientists and smart sleuths and the like. But it's also fun to watch the performers (see creator list above, plus Marc Doty filling in for Joe Weissman on keyboard when I saw the show), who all have such great retro radio voices (and smart retro wardrobe to match) with inventive sound effect implements. There's a reason these radio horror shows were so popular, and happily they continue to exist in some form today thanks to Goulish Delights.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.