"Plano" by Third Space Theater at Mixed Blood Theatre

Third Space Theater made an impressive debut at least year's Minnesota Fringe Festival with the original play Breach, a gripping tale at sea that was part psychological thriller and part family drama. It makes sense, then, that for their post-Fringe debut they chose playwright and screenwriter Will Arbery's surreal family drama Plano. This regional premiere plays at Mixed Blood Theatre through January 18, and it's an engrossing, fast-paced, fantastical, funny, devastating play. Co-directors Alex Church and Em Adam Rosenberg have assembled a fantastic cast, including several of the Breach crew, and did a great job with this tricky script. The play deals with themes of domestic violence, so Third Space has partnered with the local organization Tubman, that offers support to people experiencing this and other traumas. They're donating 10% of ticket sales to the organization, and have information in the lobby. The night I attended, after a horrifying week of ICE terrorizing our community, they also had helpful packets of info about dealing with ICE (with whistles). This new theater company is already proving to be one that not only does great, interesting, entertaining work, but also engages with the community and world around them. Their name, which derives from the theory of a third space, in addition to home and work, for people to gather in community, seems entirely appropriate.

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2025: "Breach"

Day: 6

Show: 19

Title: Breach

Category: Comedy / Drama / Original Music / Physical Theater / Puppetry

By: Third Space Theater

Written by: Mariabella Sorini and Alex Church

Location: Theatre in the Round

Summary: On board a fishing vessel searching for crabs in the Bering Sea, a storm, family drama, and possibly mutiny wreak havoc.

Highlights: This is a thoroughly gripping story told in an hour that flies by and also somehow feels like an epic journey. It's well written with natural sounding dialogue, creating interesting and complex characters and setting up mysteries that pay off later in the show. Siblings Lennox (Stephanie Kahle) and Monroe (Em Adam Rosenberg) inherited the ship from their father, the former named Captain even though the latter is better at it. They and the rest of the crew (Isabel Estelle, Hannah Leatherbarrow, Mary Lofreddo, and Mariabella Sorini, great performances by all) perform the functions of their job (including gutting fish represented by water bottles), talk and joke, and have a wild night of drinking during a lightning storm. But things keep going wrong, and the tension builds in a wonderfully suspenseful way. Director Alex Church makes great use of the in-the-round space, with the cast climbing up and down the stairs, using various parts of the space as different parts of the ship. The lighting is spectacular, from bring lightning flashes to total darkness lit by flashlights. It's an immersive, visceral experience that makes you feel like you're on this doomed ship, and that's not a comfortable feeling. Simple but effective props and costumes, the occasional singing of sea shanties, beautiful movement to represent the waves and water, and one amazing crab puppet complete the experience.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here. 

"Mary's Wondrous Body" by The Birth Play Project at Elision Playhouse

One of my favorite things about being a Twin Cities Theater Blogger is checking out a new theater company and immediately finding a new favorite (e.g. Transatlantic Love Affair, The Winding Sheet Outfit). That's what happened last night when I went to see the new original "dark comedy with music" Mary's Wondrous Body by The Birth Play Project. Led by 2020 U of M grad Madeline Wall, the company focuses on telling birth stories, which is definitely an untapped niche in theater, although something we have started to see more of lately (see Penumbra's recent play Weathering, and the MN Fringe hit Endometriosis the Musical, which wasn't about birth specifically but the larger topic of women's reproductive health). In addition to being a unique and necessary topic, their work, at least based on this one play, is thoughtful, innovative, and bold. A woman belting out songs about the joy and pain of childbirth and everything surrounding it on stage in front of an audience - yes, we need that. I've never given birth (thankfully so after seeing shows like this), but for those who have, I imagine it feels quite validating to see the experience depicted on stage with respect and raw honesty. The birthing process is a fundamental part of the human experience from the beginning of human history, so (like House of the Dragon's theme of "the childbed is our battlefield") let's get into it. (Click here for info about and to purchase tickets for Mary's Wondrous Body, continuing through December 18.)