Minnesota Fringe Festival 2023: "The Resilient Child"

Day: 1

Show: 2

Title: The Resilient Child

Category: DRAMA / MUSICAL THEATER / ORIGINAL MUSIC / SPOKEN WORD / STORYTELLING / LGBTQIA+ CONTENT

By: Fortune's Fool Theatre

Created by: Ariel Pinkerton

Location: Augsburg Mainstage 

Summary: Storytelling about resiliency, childhood, and parent/child relationships from four adults and three children.

Highlights: Ariel Pinkerton is a veteran Fringe storyteller, frequently sharing stories from her life and travels in solo shows. This time she brings along her daugher Fiona, her "fellow" Aaron Henderson and his children Toad and Eli, and grown-up #TCTheater artists Denzel Belin and Katie Starks. Each one of them tells a story of resiliency from their life - growing up in a bubble, the death of a beloved pet, a difficult or rewarding relationship with a parent, or rolling with the changes of life. The kids are brave and vulnerable and sweet, the adults funny or poignant or both. The stories are tied together with songs (accompanied by Aaron on steel guitar) that are appropriate to the topic, like "If Only You Would Listen" from the musical School of Rock and "Parents are People" from the album Free to Be... You and Me. The show is an interesting twist on the Fringe staple storytelling show, sweet and heart-warming and engaging, from experienced artists and young stars in the making. As Ariel says in her concluding piece, maybe kids are the strong ones.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2019: "Xena and Gabrielle Smash the Patriarchy"

Day: 2

Show: 5

Title: Xena and Gabrielle Smash the Patriarchy

Category: COMEDY / DRAMA / SCI-FI / POLITICAL CONTENT

By: Mermaid Productions

Directed by: Katy McEwan

Location: Theatre in the Round

Summary: Xena and Gabrielle (from the '90s TV cult hit series) are transported from ancient Greece to a modern day comic con.

Highlights: Confession: I've never seen Xena: Warrior Princess and don't know anything about it, so I probably only caught about half of the references. (I am a nerd, but only about a few specific things, including theater). But while Xena fans might get more out of this show than I did (and the audience certainly seemed to), you don't have to be a fan to relate to and enjoy this fun, fierce, feminist show. At the comic con, Xena and Gabrielle encounter sexism from men, as well as women cutting each other down, an issue that real live comic cons face (I've also never been to a con). But with the help of a little magic and music, we all learn to be better. And the speculation about the two characters' relationship is finally, satisfactorily, resolved. Producer Ariel Leaf and playwright Nissa Nordland Morgan are perfectly cast as Xena and Gabrielle and surrounded by a strong supporting cast, including Elora Riley and Katie Starks as two very different comic con women, Matthew Kessen, Nicholas Nelson, and Richard "Doc" Woods in the thankless roles of the jerky men, and Heather Meyer in a hilarious turn as.... well, I won't spoil it here. A must-see for comic con goers and fans of Xena: Warrior Princess (my friends at Minnesota Theater Love, fans of the series, loved it), but you don't have to be either to enjoy the show.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

Fringe Festival 2017: "Code: L-O-V-E"

Day: 4

Show: 15

Title: Code: L-O-V-E

Category: Comedy

By: Highlander Kitty

Written by: Jenna Papke

Location: Crane Theater

Summary: A retelling of Cyrano de Bergerac set amongst WWII code-breakers, with the genders flipped.

Highlights: In this charming version of the classic story of unrequited love, experienced code-breaker and field agent Cynthia (Cyrano) and new agent Christine (Christian) are in love with the handsome Robin (Roxanne). The story plays out as in the original, with all of the letter-wooing, death, and too late confession of love. The WWII espionage adds a level of intrigue, and the gender-swap shows the old story in a new light. Compelling and heartfelt performances by the three members of the love triangle (Megan Rene Guidry, Meredith Kind, and Ethan Bjelland) make the journey through this familiar tale worthwhile, even though you know it ends in heartbreak. A sweet and entertaining re-imagining of a classic love story.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

"Stop Kiss" by Fortune's Fool Theater at nimbus theatre

In 1998, a young gay man named Matthew Shepherd was brutally murdered in Laramie, Wyoming. This incident increased the conversation about hate crimes and eventually led to changes in legislation (and a really beautiful play). I couldn't help but think about Matthew Shepherd while watching Fortune's Fool Theatre's production of Stop Kiss, which was coincidentally (or not?) written and first produced off Broadway the same year. The defining moment of this play is an act of violence against two women, similar to what happened to Matthew. It's a sweet, funny, and sad play that uses fiction to explore the very real issues of hate crimes and violence against women.

Stop Kiss takes place in the greatest city in the world, New York City, which almost functions as another character. Callie (Ariel Leaf) has lived there since college, when into her life comes Sara (Katie Starks), who has moved to the city on a fellowship to teach children in Brooklyn. Callie shows Sara around town, and the two become friends, and then something more, despite previous (and current) relationships with men. The action of the play flashes back and forth between two timepoints - before and after a pivotal moment in their relationship and their lives. Soon after their first kiss on a park bench, the women are brutally attacked. We see scenes of Callie and Sara getting to know each other and falling in love, building up to that moment, interspersed with scenes of the fallout from the attack. It's quite effective, although the build up seems to go on a little too long (a few of the scenes could have been combined or cut to get to the conclusion quicker). It ends on a sweet note and we never see the violence, but it hangs over the play like a black cloud.

The moment that really struck a chord with me is when Sara's ex asks if the man who attacked her was bigger than him, implying that if Sara had been with a man instead of Callie, she wouldn't have been hurt. Firstly, it doesn't matter how big the attacker is if he has a weapon, but secondly, it's sad that we still live in a world where in some places a woman can't walk alone or with other women for fear of being harassed or worse.

The two leads have a sweet and believable chemistry, with nice turns by the supporting cast, including Andy Chambers as Callie's genial buddy George and Michael Ooms as Sara's grieving ex. The set (by Ursula K. Bowden) looks like a cute and homey NYC apartment, with a curtain drawn to reveal a hospital bed on the side. All in all this is very nice production of a sweet, tragic, and all too relevant play. (Playing through February 8 at nimbus theatre.)