Minnesota Fringe Festival 2024: "The Wind Phone"

Day: 3

Show: 8

Title: The Wind Phone

Category: Drama / LGBTQIA+ Content

By: Broken Wing Productions

Directed by: Nicole Wilder

Location: Campbell Plaza (outdoors)

Summary: Several individuals visit a wind phone to talk to their deceased loved ones.

Highlights: Based on the real-life phenomenon of the wind phone which began in Japan, the show explores themes of grief, loss, and healing. Four people visit the wind phone in a park in Minneapolis (not hard to imagine since that's where we are, the natural amphitheater set in a park on the U of M campus), with the park's caretaker Lana (Sheree Froelich) there to give advice, disinfect the phone between visits, and just chat. We meet MaryAnne (Boo Segersin) who needs to talk to her mentor with a problematic history, Carter (Anthony Sisler-Neuman) who visits annually to talk to his husband, and exes Peggy (Kira Pontiff) and Alice (Megan Kim) who are mourning the loss of Peggy's mother and their relationship. The show (co-created by Callie Aho and Sheree Froelich and written by Sheree) is basically a series of monologues, well delivered by the cast. Each story of grief is different but all are moving, and the show is not without moments of lightness and humor. The setting is perfect, and the cast can be heard despite fighting against ambient sounds of wind or passers by. They use the large performance space well, which contains both permanent sculptures and the set pieces and props for the show (designed by Andrew Lester). I love an outdoor show at Fringe, and this one fits the bill well. Get there early to sit in one of the comfy camp chairs, or sit on one of the two cement arcs.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

"Language Archive" by Theatre Pro Rata at the Crane Theater

Julia Cho's The Language Archive, which premiered in 2010, is a sweet, odd, and endearing little play. Park Square Theatre produced the regional premiere in 2015, when I called it "smartly written, funny, a bit fantastical but very grounded in reality... touches the heart as well as the mind and the funny bone." I described it thusly: "It's about the different languages that we all speak, not just the actual language, but also the more intimate informal languages that we develop in relationships with the different people in our lives. Even though the characters in the play all speak English, they struggle to communicate with each other on a deeper level, sometimes succeeding, sometimes failing, as we all do." It's a great choice for Theatre Pro Rata, which consistently makes interesting choices (this is actually one of the rare times when I've seen one of their play choices previously). They've employed a talented five-person cast (Park Square had seven), and an inventive design with some unique delights. You can see this little gem of a play now through May 4 at the Crane Theater.

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2023: "Tales from the Fiefdom"

Day: 6

Show: 22

Title: Tales from the Fiefdom

Category: COMEDY / MUSICAL THEATER / ORIGINAL MUSIC

By: Gnarly Bard Theater Company

Written by: Bubba Holly & Louie Opatz

Location: Southern Theater

Summary: A very fringey musical about people in the Middle Ages, just trying not to die.

Highlights: If you're looking for a fun, silly, fringey musical with catchy and clever songs that are well-sung by a talented and committed cast, look no further. With songs like "Come to the Apothecary," "I'm Not a Witch," "I Don't Wanna Sh#t in a Bucket Anymore," "The Pleasant Peasant," and "Sir Lance-a-little," how can it not be fun? The seven-person cast (Madison Fairbanks, Bubba Holly, Ryan Huxford, Megan Kim, Clare Rollinger, Haley Sisler-Neuman, and Nicole Wilder) sings unmiked to a recorded track with songs of varying styles of pop music - Country-Western, Beach Boys, doo wop, and more (or at least that's what I heard). The topics sung about are very bleak - the plague, the burning of women as witches, and constant warfare and violence - but the music is so happy! The cast performs cute and fun choreography wearing Renn Fest-esque costumes, and set pieces include the apothecary's shop, where much of the action takes place, a stake for burning at, and a charming DIY fire. It's really a delight and everything you want in a Fringe musical. 

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2022: "The Hysterical Woman"

Day: 6

Show: 19

Title: The Hysterical Woman

Category: COMEDY / DRAMA / HISTORICAL CONTENT / LGBTQIA+ CONTENT / POLITICAL CONTENT

By: Fortune's Fool Theatre

Created by: Ariel Pinkerton

Location: Rarig Center Xperimental

Summary: A collection of new and classic stories, news pieces, and poems around the idea of the historical and continuing diagnosis/accusation of "hysteria" in women.

Highlights: This powerful and moving collection includes pieces written by cast members, female writers like Mary Oliver and Emily Dickenson, and moments in history. Performed by a five-person ensemble (Ariel Pinkerton, Linda Sue Anderson, Rachel Flynn, Destiny Davison, and Andrew Troth), each piece is a little story unto itself, some funny, some tragic, all relatable. Stories about women at the doctor's office, or a conversation with her partner, or with a coworker. And when the interaction goes well and the woman is listened to and heard, the cast interrupts with "this never happens" and provides informative background about gaslighting, sexual harassment, or medical misdiagnoses. Which is funny because it's true, and we begin to expect it. Particularly impactful is the reading of Anita Hill's testimony at the 1991 Supreme Court confirmation hearings, and a mash up of the short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" with Britney Spears's recent testimony to end her conservatorship. The staging (direction by Nicole Wilder) makes good use of the Xperimental space, and the individual pieces flow smoothly from one to the next, comprising a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. This piece illustrates the fact that the more things change, the more they stay the same. We still call women "hysterical" when we don't like what they're saying or doing, if not in so many words. 

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

"Dog Act" by Fortune's Fool Theatre at Gremlin Theatre

Dog Act is a little like The Walking Dead, but with entertainers. Because even in an apocalypse (zombie or otherwise), we still need to tell our stories, and be entertained by storytelling. In Dog Act, produced by Fortune's Fool Theatre at Gremlin, a traveling performer and her dog/person try to survive in a post-apocolyptic world that, much like the TWD universe, consists of scavengers and worse, people who will stop at nothing to survive. Those are the ideas explored in this weird but oddly sweet play, well executed by the Fortune's Fool team.

"Preferred by Discreet Women Everywhere" by Freshwater Theatre at the Crane Theater

This fall, Freshwater Theatre is featuring new work by women artists, and they couldn't have picked a better time. In rep with a short play festival called "The Feminine Surcharge," they're presenting a collection of three short plays set in a women's bathroom. A place where many of us spend a considerable amount of time. While my visits to the restroom are usually less dramatic than these, it certainly is a place for drama, for strangers coming together, for friends having intimate conversations, for women hiding from undesirable people or events outside the bathroom door (true confession: I've been known to spend a longer time than necessary in the bathroom when events are awkward or boring or uncomfortable). Ruth Virkus' three plays under the title Preferred by Discreet Women Everywhere explore these ideas. The result is funny and real and poignant, and feminist. An all-female cast and creative team shouldn't be as rare and novel as it is, but you can witness it now through October 28 at the Crane Theater in Northeast Minneapolis.

"The Lady With A Lap Dog" by Fortune's Fool Theatre at Open Eye Figure Theatre

Attention lovers of small, intimate, beautiful new musicals! Fortune's Fool Theatre is presenting just such a piece at Open Eye Figure Theatre for two short weekends only, of which this is the final one. Unfortunately it opened on the same weekend as about a dozen other #TCTheater shows and I was unable to catch it until a few nights ago, and now just two performances remain. But if you hurry, there's still time to see The Lady with a Lap Dog. Based on one of Chekhov's best known short stories, with just a three-person cast and a three-piece orchestra and about 80 minutes long, it's a lovely little piece and shouldn't be missed by anyone who loves new (and locally created) musicals.