"Scrooge in Rouge" at Open Eye Theatre

This holiday* season, Open Eye Theatre is remounting** Scrooge in Rouge, which premiered last year, a show I called, "a little off-kilter, in the best possible way." The three-person musical reimagines the classic A Christmas Carol in the style of English Music Hall entertainment, meaning "witty lyrics, bad puns, and naughty double-entendres." The fabulous three-person cast portrays all of the characters in this story that hews fairly closely to Dickens' original, even including many of the famous lines you'll hear across town at the Guthrie. But there are a few ridiculous diversions too, resulting in a very entertaining and fun little show. You can see this alternative (or addition) to A Christmas Carol at Open Eye in South Minneapolis through December 29.

"Scrooge in Rouge" at Open Eye Theatre

Leave it to Open Eye Theatre to bring us a holiday* show that's a little off-kilter, in the best possible way. The three-person musical Scrooge in Rouge reimagines the classic A Christmas Carol in the style of English Music Hall entertainment, meaning "witty lyrics, bad puns, and naughty double-entendres." The fabulous three-person cast portrays all of the characters in this story that hews fairly closely to Dickens' original, even including many of the famous lines you'll hear across town at the Guthrie. But there are a few ridiculous diversions too, resulting in a very entertaining and fun little show. You can see this alternative (or addition) to A Christmas Carol at Open Eye in South Minneapolis through December 30.

"Once Upon a Winter Night" at Open Eye Theatre

Open Eye (née Figure) Theatre's new original work Once Upon a Winter Night was postponed from January to March, which often marks the beginning of spring. But never fear, this is Minnesota, so we're still in the throes of Winter. I attended the show after a matinee at the nearby Children's Theatre, and when I left the theater and saw the slush falling from the sky and filling up the streets and sidewalks, I almost drove home. But since I was there, I decided to stay, and sloshed through the puddles into the cozy and intimate space at Open Eye for a mesmerizing magical show. It turned out OK because it was still just raining when I drove home, with everything freezing and being covered by a couple inches of snow by the morning. Which just reinforces what we who live in the frozen North know - Winter is a mysterious, magical, at times menacing thing that we just try to survive every year. But there's a lot of fun and celebration to be had in Winter too, and that's what Once Upon a Winter Night is.

"The Holiday Pageant" at Open Eye Figure Theatre

Continuing with my marathon weekend of holiday shows (read more about that here), last night I saw Open Eye Figure Theatre's Holiday Pageant. Like Black Nativity is to Penumbra Theatre, The Holiday Pageant is Open Eye's annual tradition. And like Black Nativity, I had never seen it before this year. The show began as an entertainment for family and friends in the home of Open Eye Co-Founders Susan Haas and Michael Sommers (who wrote, directed, and designed this version), and has since expanded into the show currently on the charming, intimate, adorably tiny stage of Open Eye. The production values may have increased, with beautiful sets and costumes and a 12-person choir singing original songs by Victor Zupanc, but it still has that homey feel of a family pageant. We're luck that Susan and Michael have invited us into their home and family to experience this oddly sweet little gem.

"The Juniper Tree" at Open Eye Figure Theatre

Open Eye Figure Theater is in its 15th season, but surprisingly, I had not experienced their unique brand of theater until last night. I have been to their charming theater space on 24th Street just off 35W several times for other theater productions, but not to see one of their own shows. It's well past time that I remedy that glaring omission in my Twin Cities theater experience. With their adaptation of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale The Juniper Tree, I see what I've been missing at Open Eye, which "creates original figure theatre, animating the inanimate on an intimate scale." And that is delightful, whimsical, quirky, charming, engaging theater that combines multiple art forms including puppetry and original music to tell a story.

The Juniper Tree is not one of the Grimms' more well-known fairy tales; surprisingly, Disney has yet to make a movie about this stepmother who kills and cooks her stepson, feeds him to his father, and then is killed by a millstone dropped by the boy in bird form (Wikipedia offers a nice plot summary if you'd like to familiarize yourself with the story beforehand). Director/adapter/designer Michael Sommers and the team at Open Eye have taken this dark and disturbing tale (as most fairy tales are before being Disney-ized*) and turned it into something light and sweet and fun, although still with that undercurrent of darkness.

the epitome of
the evil stepmother
(Robert Rosen)

It seems like there are more than just six people on the tiny stage, playing all the characters and manipulating things behind the scenes. It's all perfectly timed and well choreographed, as puppets and humans interact almost like magic. Two of the onstage actors also play in the six-piece orchestra, playing delightfully whimsical original music by Michael Koerner. It's sort of all hands on deck as people smoothly transition from the orchestra to the stage to backstage puppeteering and back again.

the hauntingly lovely
Juniper Tree

I'm no expert on puppets, but these are really beautiful, or scary, or silly, depending on what is called for. There is a puppet of the titular tree, which moves like a living thing in the small stage space behind open doors, creating strikingly beautiful images as smaller versions of some of the characters dance among the branches. An almost lifesize boy and girl puppet interact with the human father (a jolly Julian McFaul) and stepmother (Robert Rosen, so loose and playful with the audience), who are just slightly too big for the charming cottage set with various opening doors and windows, creating an interesting juxtaposition. Puppeteers Liz Schachterle and Justin Spooner bring the girl and boy to life, and also pop up in human form, while Tara Loeper sings hauntingly as the boy's bird spirit.

If you've never experienced the unique wonder that is Open Eye Figure Theatre, The Juniper Tree is a great place to start. Innovative storytelling at its best, using multiple art forms that come together to create something truly unique.



*For another look at how Disney the fairy tales wrong, go see Disenchanted, in which Disney princess tell the real story to hilarious musical effect.

"Misterman" by Frank Theatre at the Southern Theater

I go to a lot of theater (obviously). Most of it falls within the realm of the expected. It's rare that I see something that's completely unlike anything I've seen before. So when I do, I appreciate it, even if I don't quite understand it all. It's refreshing in my typical 3-4 shows a week schedule to see something bold, edgy, risky, and utterly captivating. Frank Theatre's production of Irish playwright Enda Walsh's* one-man show Misterman is such a piece. Featuring a truly remarkable performance by John Catron, a fantastic space, and pretty intricate technical choreography of audio recordings and equipment that start and stop on cue, it's definitely something to see. It may not for everyone, but as someone who sees a great quantity of theater, it's just what I needed to jar me out of the usual.

I'm not sure I can even summarize the plot for you, but I'll try. There's a man named Thomas living in the small Irish town of Inishfree. He reenacts one day in his life with the help of audio recordings of his parents and neighbors. When he leaves his front door (but not really) and meets people in the town (but not really), he also acts out their side of the conversation. He buys his mammy's favorite biscuits, visits his father's grave, treats himself to a cheesecake, and goes to a local dance. This is all happening inside his own head, as he desperately tries to make sense of how he ended up where he is (wherever that is). It's not so much about what happens as how it happens and what it means for this fascinating character.

John Catron channels crazed
Irishman Thomas

This is a gutsy, fearless, no-holds-barred performance by John Catron (and I thought he let loose as the drunken Jamie Tryone in Long Day's Journey Into Night, but that was nothing compared to this!). In what must be a physically and emotionally exhausting ninety minutes, he sprints across the large space of the Southern Theater, laughs, cries, cooks an egg and eats it, gets drenched by rain, strips, runs in place, climbs up and down stairs, and plays several different characters opposite each other, all with different accents and physicality. He acts opposite a tape recording and makes it so believable you can almost see the person he's talking to. He is completely immersed in this character, and just watching the expression on his face change as he listens to a recording of a particularly pivotal moment in his life is revelatory. Thomas is a deeply disturbed man, but John also makes him sympathetic. It's a fully committed performance that is fascinating to watch.

The Southern Theater is one of my favorite places to watch theater. The cavernous space has so much room to be transformed. Sometimes it's sparse, bare, and beautiful, and other times, like this, it's cluttered with the things that make up the universe of the play. All kinds of discarded recording equipment are piled on shelves and in corners. A makeshift kitchen is on one side of the stage, complete with a working hot plate and sink. A cemetery is constructed out of orange pop cans, as if Thomas has created the world in which he plays out his story. Kudos to director Wendy Knox and the tech team (set design by Michael Sommers, sound design by Michael Croswell) for the flawless execution of the many pieces and parts that go into this play - recordings that play right on cue, things that drop from the ceiling, and tape players that turn on and off. (Some pretty big local theater names lend their voices to the recordings, which are mostly unrecognizable due to the accents, but it's still fun to guess.) There are a lot of moving parts in this "one-man show," and it all appears seamless and effortless.

Misterman plays at the Southern Theater Thursdays through Sundays, now through April 28. If you're looking for something different and interesting and a little bit bizarre, this is it. In addition, Frank Theatre is offering free readings of three other plays by Enda Walsh on Wednesdays at the Southern. If I weren't booked the next three Wednesdays I'd check it out to get a deeper look into the (somewhat disturbed) mind of this playwright.




*A big reason why I wanted to see this play is to see more work by Enda Walsh, who I know as the Tony-winning book writer of the musical Once, the musical adaptation of one of my favorite movies. Never in a million years would I have connected the writer of Misterman with Once, so different are the two pieces. But after thinking about it a bit, it makes perfect sense. The movie Once is a quiet, subtle story, one that doesn't translate easily to the traditional big Broadway musical stage. Enda Walsh brings some of that rawness that is so apparent in Misterman to Once, keeping it from becoming too sweet and sappy, and keeping it grounded in reality. I guess that's why they gave him a Tony for it.