"The Viking and the Gazelle" by The Waterfront Productions at Mixed Blood Theatre

The independently produced Minnesota Fringe play The Viking and the Gazelle is being remounted at Mixed Blood Theatre this December with a mostly new cast. Producers (under the name The Waterfront Productions) and co-writers William and Suzanne Bengston based the play on their experiences as an interracial couple. It's an interesting premise and the play includes some good discussions, bringing up some important issues like institutional racism and white spaces that hopefully encourage discussion amongst those who see it. But there's no nuance or subtlety; every character is one extreme or the other, so much so that they feel less like real people and more like caricatures of certain "types" of people. Still, these are important conversations to be had.

"A Crack in the Sky" at History Theatre

The world premiere new play A Crack in the Sky, now playing at St. Paul's History Theatre, teams up Ahmed Ismail Yusef, author of the book Somalis in Minnesota, with Playwrights' Center core writer Harrison David Rivers* to tell Ahmed's very personal and very relatable story of being a Somali immigrant in America. The play was workshopped and read last year as part of History Theatre's Raw Stages series, and has now come beautifully to full life in this production. It's a play that's funny and playful, short and sweet, and tells a very human story of a man striving to make a better life for himself and his family, while pursuing his love of knowledge and storytelling.

"The Liar" at Park Square Theatre

Playwright David Ives' adaptation of the 17th Century French farce The Liar, now playing at Park Square Theater, is a like a Shakespearean mistaken identity comedy (two women are mistaken for each other, and there are twins) mixed with a bit of Jane Austen (it's all about who marries whom and what they can offer), told with a sort of Spamalot wackiness, but instead of music there is rhyme. Sure the plot is sort of sexist (a man woos a woman he barely knows, then quickly switches to another woman he barely knows, and the women only care about getting married), but that blow is somewhat softened by the casting of a woman in as the most offending man, the titular liar. And the silly plot is just a frame upon which to hang the clever and beautiful pentameters and the hilarious performances by this fantastic eight-person cast.