"Secret Warriors" at History Theatre

Did you know that Japanese Americans served in the U.S. Army as translators, interpreters, and interrogators during WWII, at the same time that their families were imprisoned in internment camps back home? I didn't either, but I do now thanks to History Theatre's world premiere new play Secret Warriors. As always with History Theatre's original, often commissioned, plays and musicals, Secret Warriors shines a light on a little known aspect of history, usually with a Minnesota connection, and draws a straight line from the past to the present. Today, the very law that was used to intern Japanese Americans (the Alien Enemies Act of 1798) is being used to justify mass deportations, and we're seeing a rise of division and hate crimes. Director Lily Tung Crystal sums up this parallel in the program and the questions that this excellent new play raises: "What lessons from the past must we carry forward to ensure history does not repeat itself? How do we reconcile patriotism with the injustices committed by our own government? And what does it truly mean to be American?" Remembering our history is so important, and what better way to do that than through an engaging and entertaining play? You can learn about and pay homage to these Secret Warriors at the History Theatre in downtown St. Paul through April 19 (click here for info and tickets).

"The Moneylender's Daughter" at Six Points Theater

Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice can be problematic, with its ant-Semitic representation of the greedy Jewish moneylender, yet it also contains the famous "Hath not a Jew eyes... if you prick us, do we not bleed" speech that argues for a shared humanity. In a post-show discussion, Six Points Theater's Artistic Director Barbara Brooks noted that she's interested in depicting the character of Shylock onstage, and how it might be different at a theater that specializes in telling Jewish stories. But since their home stage at Highland Park Community Center is small, they can't really do a large-scale Shakespeare play, so instead they're presenting the world premiere of Brooklyn-based playwright Martin Coren's sequel The Moneylender's Daughter. I've only seen The Merchant of Venice once, pre-blog in 2007 (more on that later), so I'm not that familiar with it and pretty much viewed this as a standalone play. If you do have familiarity with the original it might have a deeper meaning, but I still found it to be a fascinating and moving play dealing with issues of identity, family, and the anti-Semitism that unfortunately is still very much a part of our world.

"The Rats & The Wasp's Nest" at Yellow Tree Theatre

About halfway through the first of a pair of one-act Agatha Christie mystery plays at Yellow Tree Theatre, it started to seem familiar. At intermission I checked cherryandspoon.com (which is much more reliable than my memory) and found that I had indeed seen these two plays before. They were part of a triptych of plays at Park Square Theatre in 2019 called Agatha Christie: Rule of Thumb. The director of that piece, Austene Van, has brought two of these plays to Yellow Tree Theatre, of which she is now the Artistic Director, to begin their 16th season in their warm and cozy space in a strip mall in Osseo. Each one of these plays is under 45 minutes long, and both are wonderful examples of tight and concise mystery storytelling. It's like a mini Agatha Christie repertoire festival, but it only takes you less than 90 minutes on one night to see the shows. You will be rewarded by great performances in these murder stories that are more light and funny than dark and scary. A perfect way to ease into October (continuing through October 29).

"Red Speedo" by Walking Shadow Theatre Company at the Hamline University Pool

Just a few days after seeing an incredible site-specific performance of The Courtroom by Jungle Theater in a Hamline University courtroom classroom (which will be performed at the Jungle for the next few weeks), I returned to the lovely St. Paul campus for another incredible site-specific performance. Walking Shadow Theatre Company (which recently held a Feast at Black Forest Inn) is performing the Lucas Hnath play Red Speedo at Hamline's competitive swimming pool. The play is about a competitive swimmer who admits to his brother that he's been doping, and all of the action takes place at the pool. So why not stage it at a pool?! I love site-specific theater, because half of the work is done for you. You don't have to imagine you're in a courtroom or a pool, because you actually are. Then it's just sit back and enjoy the show as it plays out in a location where the story actually takes place. With Red Speedo, there's a lot to enjoy - a smart and concise script that deals with thorny issues, a strong four-person cast performing just a few feet in front of you, and a realistic and immersive design (caution: you might get splashed). Put on your flip flops and head to the pool weekends through July 1.

"Trayf" at Six Points Theater

"Trayf" is a Yiddish word meaning "food not in accordance with Jewish dietary law." In the play Trayf, currently playing at Six Points Theater, the word refers not just to food, but to anything not following the strict Orthodox laws that the characters subscribe to (e.g., secular music, mixed gender swimming, musicals!). But really, the play is about friendship, and what happens when two friends begin to grow beyond their childhood beliefs and want different things. Can they still maintain that friendship when their lives begin to move in different directions? The 90-minute play is funny and touching, and explores ideas of faith, family, and adhering to ancient traditions vs. living in the modern world. See it at the Highland Park Community Center through March 12.

"Jacuzzi" by Dark and Stormy Productions at a found space in Stillwater

If you're looking for a palate cleanser to all of the holiday fare in #TCTheater this year, which can often skew towards the sickly sweet, look no further than Dark and Stormy Productions, which returns to the stage, er, hot tub, with the kind of dark comedy that has become their trademark. In Jacuzzi, the story of a couple of con artists preying on a gullible and dysfunctional father/son duo plays out over 100 minutes or so in and around an actual jacuzzi filled with actual water. It doesn't get much more site-specific than that. This is a great time of the year to visit lovely river-side Stillwater for holiday shopping, dinner at one of the numerous great restaurants, and some great and intimate theater (continuing through December 19).

"Significant Other" by Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company at Highland Park Center Theatre

Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company is continuing their 25th anniversary season with the regional premiere of the 2017 Broadway play Significant Other. They last produced the work of NYC-based playwright Joshua Harmon several years ago with Bad Jews. Both plays are smart and sharp modern comedies with depth, but while Bad Jews was about cultural identity and family, Significant Other is about, well, finding a significant other. Society put so much pressure on us to be coupled, a pressure that our protagonist Jordan feels increasingly strongly as he watches his friends get married. MJTC's production is top notch and features a fantastic cast and elegant deceptively simple design. If you've not been to MJTC lately, this is a great time to check them out.

"Samuel J. and K." at Gremlin Theatre

"A sports play written by Mat Smart? I'm in! (See also Tinker to Evers to Chance.)" I wrote this on Instagram last night, but as it turns out, Samuel J. and K. is not really a sports play. It's a play about brothers, family, betrayal, loss, and love. In the same way that Tinker to Evers to Chance (seen in a fantastic production at Artistry earlier this year) is not a sports play, but a play about family, grief, love, connection. There's something about sports that loosens people up and allows them to connect and talk about deeper things, and Playwrights' Center core writer Mat Smart uses that to great advantage in these plays. Here, two brothers (one adopted from Cameroon when he was three years old) bond over a game of basketball. Gremlin's production features two talented actors in their cozy intimate theater space, transformed into a basketball court and a hut in Cameroon by deceptively simple design.

"Isaac's Eye" by Theatre Pro Rata at Gremlin Theatre

In Isaac's Eye, playwright Lucas Hnath (recently nominated for a Tony for A Doll's House: Part Two, soon returning to Broadway with Hillary and Clinton) imagines the life of one of our most famous and most prolific scientists - Isaac Newton. The smart, funny, modern play, well written and well realized by Theatre Pro Rata, is one of those plays that will get you thinking about issues big and small. Similar to the theme of Sunday in the Park with George, a young Isaac is forced to decide between home and family, and his passion and work in the larger world. The play seems to question whether or not his hard work and sacrifice is worth it if he died alone. Looking at all of his contributions to the world of science, I would answer a definite yes. If he had chosen a small town family life, giving up science, we wouldn't now how gravity works! But that's a question for each viewer to grapple with and decide for themselves.

"Six Characters in Search of an Author" at Park Square Theatre

I first saw director and playwright Alan Berks' adaptation of the 1921 Italian play Six Characters in Search of an Author three years ago at Gremlin Theatre (one of the last shows in their space on University in St. Paul). I called it "a weird, trippy experience, one that's difficult to explain or make sense of. But it sure is fun to try." I was eager to take that trip again with a slightly revamped version of the show, featuring some of the original cast members and some new ones. It was fun to see it in a new space with some new additions, and with a little more preparation for what I was in for. It's still pretty weird and trippy, and still asks some intriguing questions about reality, fiction, and theater itself. What follows is what I wrote three years ago, but with some updates about this production.

"The Reagan Years" by Workhaus Collective at the Playwrights' Center

I've never seen the movie American Psycho, but the idea I have of it in my head is similar to what I saw at the Playwright's Center last night. In Workhaus Collective's production of Dominic Orlando's dark new play The Reagan Years, we meet a wealthy young man who appears to be mostly normal on the outside, but is hiding a deep dark psychopathic soul. It's a compelling and fascinating story, well directed by the playwright and well performed by a talented young cast, but it's a hard one to stomach due to the ugly and violent nature of the situation and the characters.

It's 1988, near the end of the Reagan years, and four college buddies are facing graduation and having to leave their free and easy partying college life for the real world. Calling themselves "The Danger Boys" (a name that later becomes startlingly fitting), they live together in a house owned by Guy's father, who runs a large corporation. Guy is the typical spoiled little rich boy, entitled, conceited, generous with his friends but demanding of loyalty almost to the point of subservience. The primary victim of this is young Moth, possessing an artist's soul and a sycophantic love for Guy. Frisbee is the perpetual stoner and party boy, and Walkman is the ambitious one who wants a place in Guy's family's company. On the night before graduation after a weekend of blissfully ignorant partying, the guys find out that there's been a deadly accident involving the company. Walkman convinces Guy to tell him the truth about what's going on, and it's not good. Further complicating matters is Dawn, the hitchhiker that Guy picked up, who seems unusually curious about the company. Things take a dark turn, as Guy reveals his psychopathic nature, and his friends must decide where their true loyalty lies.

the Danger Boys Walkman, Frisbee, and Moth
(Gabriel Murphy, Paul LaNave, and Michael Hanna,
photo by Leah Cooper)

The play is tightly written and directed, coming in at under two hours with a brief intermission (necessary for dramatic effect and to give the audience a much needed break). Everyone in this six-person cast (none of whom were probably alive in 1988) gives a well-defined performance as these very different characters caught up in a messy situation. Michael Hanna's Moth is the most sympathetic, as he imbues the young artist with conflicting feelings of loyalty and justice, showing the depth of the love-hate relationship with Guy. Paul LaNave is the comic relief as the loopy goofy Frisbee, Gabriel Murphy expresses Walkman's inner conflict between his ambition and doing the right thing, and Jessie Scarborough-Ghent and Charlotte Calvert have nice turns in the less-developed roles of Dawn and her friend. But this is really Guy's story, dark as it is, and Bryan Porter is scary good as he portrays this rich playboy's descent into madness, making Guy something truly menacing.

Guy in front of Moth's flag mural
(Bryan Porter, photo by Leah Cooper)

The stage at the Playwrights' Center feels like a frat house in the '80s, with all the mess, music, and period clothes. The entire back wall of the stage is covered by the impressive mural that the character of Moth has created - the original US flag created by painted wood slats. Some cool and trippy slo-mo moments add to the mood.

This was a difficult one for me to watch and to write about, to try to make sense of. I suppose it says something about the end of the Reagan years, the danger of capitalism without a conscience (what do I know, I spent most of the Reagan years doing homework and watching sitcoms). If you're sensitive to violence you might want to stay away, although it's worth noting that much of the violence occurs off-stage, yet is still palpably felt. Only four performances of The Reagan Years remain, so make plans quickly if you're interested in a dark and disturbing tale of greed gone wrong.