"Joe Turner's Come and Gone" at Penumbra Theatre

When I was in New York City a few months ago, I saw signs for the Broadway revival of Joe Turner's Come and Gone, with some big names attached, but I'd rather see it at Penumbra Theatre right here in St. Paul. Joe Turner was the 4th play written by August Wilson in his Pittsburgh Cycle of ten plays, each taking place in a different decade, chronicling the Black American experience throughout the 20th Century. The second play chronologically, it takes place in Pittsburgh in the 1910s, but was written in the 1980s when August Wilson was living in St. Paul, working closely with Penumbra. This is the 4th of the ten plays I've seen, all at Penumbra, and there's nowhere better to see his work than at one of his artistic homes, directed by Penumbra founder Lou Bellamy who was his close collaborator, performed by actors who have spoken his words and inhabited his characters many times. Joe Turner's Come and Gone continues at Penumbra Theatre through June 21.

"Between Riverside and Crazy" at Park Square Theatre

Park Square Theatre was planning to produce the 2015 Pulitzer Prize-winning play Between Riverside and Crazy in 2023, shortly after its Broadway premiere, when they ran into financial issues and had to cancel half of that season and all of the next one. But they came back last summer with a new Artistic Director, Stephen DiMenna, who has long been trying to stage this play (read more about that journey here). It has finally arrived as the final show in Park Square's excellent comeback season, and it was worth the wait. The well-written family dramedy that deals with gentrification, racism, drug addiction, and policing has been perfectly cast with #TCTheater favorites and newcomers, on an incredibly detailed and lived-in NYC apartment set. Between Riverside and Crazy plays Thursdays through Sundays until June 8 in the Historic Hamm Building in downtown St. Paul.

"The Gin Game" at Park Square Theatre

After a couple of big shows (the world premiere mystery Holmes/Poirot and the joyously chaotic The Best Christmas Pageant Ever!), Park Square Theatre's return season continues with something a little smaller and more intimate, but no less affecting. The two-hander The Gin Game won the Pulitzer Prize in 1978 and has starred some legendary pairs (including original Guthrie company members Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn, and Cicely Tyson and James Earl Jones). It's being brought to life on Park Square's Andy Boss Stage by some local legends. It's a sweet and salty little play (that would make a great 90-minute-no-intermission show if not for the intermission) with masterful performances by Greta Oglesby and Terry Hempleman that are a joy to watch. The Gin Game plays Thursdays through Sundays until February 23 at Park Square Theatre, with James Rocco's Songbook Series: Broadway in Love happening upstairs in the main theater on Valentine's weekend.

"Shane" at the Guthrie Theater

"The farmer and the cowman should be friends," says the 1943 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Oklahoma! But in the classic American novel Shane, now with a brilliant new adaptation on the Guthrie stage, the farmer and the cowman most certainly are not friends. This Shane tells the story of a Mexican-American family trying to eke out a living on their farm in Wyoming, being threatened by a big time rancher, who wants to drive all of the farmers off the land and raise cattle. A lot of cattle. Enter Shane, a Black cowboy with a dark and mysterious past and a dangerous streak, who helps the family keep their land. But of course, the land used to be occupied by the Indigenous peoples of this land, who were previously driven off by the US government (using settlers like these). In the same way that the recent revival of Oklahoma! brought out all of the complexities of the origins of America, particularly the American West, that were always in the script, Karen Zacarías' adaptation of the 1949 novel by Jack Schaefer pulls in more voices and more stories to show a truer picture of the history of America, the people of color who were always there but often not seen in classic representations. But yet, it remains true to the spirit of the original story, and it's still a wildly entertaining and gorgeously told tale of the mythical American West, just a little more diverse and authentic. This new play (which the Guthrie co-commissioned and co-produced with Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park) is a dynamic conclusion to a truly excellent 60th season at the Guthrie Theater.

"Sweat" at the Guthrie Theater

Three years ago, the Guthrie premiered the new play Floyd's (which had its Broadway premiere as Clyde's earlier this past season) by two-time Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Lynn Nottage, a companion piece to one of her Pulitzer Prize winners, Sweat. The Guthrie was supposed to produce that play in the summer of 2020, which of course it didn't, but good things come to those who wait. Both plays were created based on an extensive series of interviews by Lynn and Kate Whoriskey (frequent collaborator and original director of both plays) with the people of Reading, Pennsylvania. The 2010 census determined that Reading had the highest poverty rate out of all cities in America with a population over 65,000, making it a microcosm of what was happening in the greater U.S. during the recession. The first play to come out of these interviews, Sweat is a grittily real, painfully American, and beautifully human story of a group of friends whose lives are torn apart by poverty, drug abuse, racism, and violence.

"A Raisin in the Sun" at Guthrie Theater

The American classic A Raisin in the Sun premiered in 1959, making Lorraine Hansberry the first female Black playwright on Broadway, but it's anything but dated. Unfortunately, racism, discrimination, and unjust practices like redlining are still very much a part of our world, as evidenced by the recent racist and anti-Semitic fueled mass shooting in Buffalo, and the fact that in Minnesota 77% of White families own their homes compared to only 26% of Black families. This is the legacy of the world Hansberry wrote about that we're still experiencing. The Guthrie's production of this ever-relevant piece is beautifully wrought, from the detailed set to the raw and emotional performances by the entire cast. You can see it now through June 5 on the Guthrie's proscenium stage.

"Sisters of Peace" at History Theatre

In the second of a three-show HERstory spring, the History Theatre is telling the true story of four local sisters and Sisters who actively work for peace and justice. The aptly named Sisters of Peace brings these four amazing women to life on stage (who, by the way, are still alive and continuing their work in their 80s and 90s). I was so moved and inspired by these courageous and determined women who ceaselessly work to create a better world, that I was often moved to tears, amidst the laughter of their lives. These women fight not with weapons, but with kindness, music, love, and laughter. We would all be better people if we lived by the mantra, "what would the McDonald sisters do?" Sisters of Peace is not only a truly feel-good piece, but also a call to action to live more authentic lives and consider our fellow beings on this planet.

"West Side Story" at the Guthrie Theater

I grew up watching West Side Story. I've seen the movie dozens of times, listened to the music hundreds of times, and seen it on stage a handful of times (including the Ordway's gorgeous production last year). But I've never seen a West Side Story like the one currently on stage at the big blue building on the river. The Guthrie's West Side Story, directed by Artistic Director Joseph Haj and featuring new original choreography Maija Garcia (both children of immigrants), feels like it was made for today's world. A toppled over Lady Liberty dominates the set, and the musical's themes of institutionalized racism, prejudice towards immigrants, senseless violence, and hate born out of fear have never felt so relevant. It's still that timeless story of star-crossed lovers,* set to Leonard Bernstein's familiar, beloved, and gorgeous score, but with a cast that looks, moves, and feels like America today, for better or worse.

"Lone Star Spirits" at the Jungle Theater

Y'all, Jungle Theater's Lone Star Spirits got me feeling all the feels! Hilarious and heart-breaking, it's one of the best plays I've seen this year. Brought to us by wife/husband director/playwright team Sarah Rasmussen and Josh Tobiessen, it features crisply drawn characters beautifully brought to life by a brilliant five-person cast, an incredibly detailed and realistic set, family drama, a poignant exploration of small town life, ghosts, country music, and accidental gunshots. I was laughing throughout the show and wiping away tears at the end, which is pretty much my favorite kind of play. Friends, you'd be wise to get on down to the Jungle between now and May 7 to experience this practically perfect 90 minutes of theater.

"Grace" at Yellow Tree Theatre

Yellow Tree Theatre's production of Craig Wright's very dark comedy Grace starts with a bang (literally) and doesn't let up. Yes there are comic moments, but it's very intense and heavy. After less than 24 hours of letting it settle I'm not sure how I feel about the play (violence is difficult for me to watch, especially in such a small space), but I am sure this is an excellent production. You couldn't ask for a better cast than these four - two familiar Yellow Tree faces and two faces new to this stage. Director Terry Hempleman (who also directed Yellow Tree's last Craig Wright play, The Pavilion), clearly lays out the issues of faith, forgiveness, and connection that the play explores, and walks that fine line of subtle comedy in the midst of great tragedy. This is a tough play to watch (which is maybe why there were more empty seats on a Wednesday night in Osseo than there usually are), but if you can make it through the ugly violence of the play, there are moments of beauty to be found, and plenty of ideas to be left contemplating as the lights come up.

"Orphan Train" at History Theatre

The History Theatre excels at telling often unknown Minnesota stories, as they did in 1997 with the original musical Orphan Train. At the time, most people hadn't heard of the so-called orphan trains, in which from 1858 to 1929 some 200,000 children were sent west from the East Coast to new homes across the country. The recent New York Times best-selling book Orphan Train has brought more attention to this fascinating bit of American history. Perhaps that's why the History Theatre is bringing back Orphan Train this season. The musical tells fictional stories of orphan train riders based on real events. While it's a bit cheesy and, well, Disney (for lack of a better word), the stories and music brought a tear to my eye on more than one occasion. The wonderful ensemble of seasoned pros and children alike, the excellent folk/Americana score played by a sparse but lovely orchestra, and the moving stories about immigrant orphan children in search of a home is a very affecting combination.

"The Parchman Hour" at the Guthrie Theater

"Woke up this morning with my mind stayed on freedom. Hallelu, hallelu, hallelujah!" The closing number of the fantastic music-theater piece The Parchman Hour by Mike Wiley is so uplifting and inspirational. This "docudrama" about the 1961 Freedom Riders, in which primarily young people, black and white, from all over the country, came together to make a stand for desegregation of the bus stations of the South, is pretty heavy and difficult to watch at times. But in the end it left me with an overwhelming feeling of hope. We've come a long way in 55 years, people are no longer beat up by a mob of bigots for sitting in the wrong waiting room, but we have our own issues today (the play ends with a chilling recitation of the names of black men and women who have been killed by police in recent years). But I believe that there are more people in this country like those Freedom Riders, perhaps not as brave and selfless, but with our minds stayed on freedom, than there are like the people who stood in their way. If we stand (or sit) together, stand up for freedom, practice non-violence, and sing, we can get through this difficult time and achieve true justice and equality for all. At least that's how I felt leaving the Guthrie Theater last night; such is the power of The Parchman Hour.

"Buried Child" by Red Bird Theatre at the Southern Theater

I'm starting to think Sam Shepard is a modern-day Tennessee Williams. Both write dark and tragic family stories, Williams focusing on Southern families, while Shepard's play have a modern Western feel (in tone if not geography). Shepard's first big hit was the 1978 Off-Broadway play Buried Child, which won the Pulitzer Prize for drama. Red Bird Theatre (a company previously unknown to me) is presenting this dark and twisted masterpiece as part of Southern Theater's ARTshare program, and I loved it. I'm not sure why, but the darker and more depressing a play is, the happier it makes me. Walking out of the theater after a Sunday matinee, it just felt wrong that the sun was shining on a beautiful day, and it took me a few minutes to shake the darkness off my shoulders. But what a wonderful experience; a terrific cast and excellent production of this darkly poetic and deeply disturbing American classic.

"The Seagull" by Theatre Novi Most at the Southern Theater

Chekhov's The Seagull is a classic of the theater, but I had never seen it. That's not exactly true, it was actually the first play I ever saw at the Guthrie, but being almost 25 years ago, I have no recollection of it. So it was as if I'd never seen it when I sat down to yesterday's matinee production of The Seagull by Theatre Novi Most, a company that specializes in Eastern European theater, as part of the Southern Theater's ARTShare* program. It took me a few minutes to get into this story of many inter-related characters with strange sounding names, but by intermission I was completely under its spell. This is one of those shows that is so completely captivating that it's hard to shake when you leave the theater. Funny, tragic, odd, and completely enchanting.

"Annapurna" at the Jungle Theater

Annapurna is the tenth highest mountain in the world, named after the Hindu Goddess of nourishment. In the new play by Sharr White (see also The Other Place), Ulysses writes an epic poem about his ex-wife Emma in which he uses climbing* Annapurna as an analogy for their long, complicated, fractured relationship. The revelation of the poem comes at the end of 90 minutes of taut, natural, funny, heart-breaking, real, beautiful dialogue between these two layered and well-defined characters. And you couldn't ask for two better actors than Angela Timberman and Terry Hempleman to play Emma and Ulysses. Everything about the Jungle's production of Annapurna, from the set to the acting to the music to the direction to the costumes (or lack thereof), is gorgeous in a starkly realistic yet poetic kind of way.

Ulysses and Emma used to be married, until something happened and she left him. 20 years later she shows up at his door, specifically, the door of his dilapidated trailer home in the mountains of Colorado. They spend the next 90 minutes reluctantly reconnecting and rehashing the past, trying to make sense of where they were and where they are now. The play is written as an intricate and beautiful dance between two people, and Angela Timberman and Terry Hempleman are both so natural, raw, and real in their performances that it just cracks your heart wide open. But don't worry, the play is really funny too! It starts out lighter and more comedic, until secrets of the past are revealed and we get into some pretty heavy territory.

Terry Hempleman and Angela Timberman
(photo by Dan Norman)

The Jungle always has the best sets in town on their perfect little diorama of a stage, perhaps because often the director and designer is one person, leading to a cohesive picture on stage. But this one takes the cake. Director/designer Joel Sass has placed a very real looking trailer onstage, open on one side, surrounded by dust and tumbleweeds. The entire play takes place within this enclosed space, save for a few wanderings out the door at the back. The trailer is packed from top to bottom with books, clothes, trash, and odds and ends, with functional sinks in the kitchen and bathroom. Usually when you walk into the Jungle the curtain is down, but this time there is no curtain, allowing the audience to take in the set before the show starts. It was all I could do not to hop up on stage and explore, although it's so realistic I would've been wary of smells and roaches. This detailed set brings Ulysses' world to life in a very authentic way.

Annapurna is a smart, funny, poignant, heart-breaking, beautiful play, and the Jungle's production is everything you could ask for. It plays through October 16 so you have no excuse not to see this gem of a production. Trust me, just go.


*For more about climbing mountains and relationships, see the upcoming movie Everest, based on Jon Krakauer's riveting Into Thin Air and other books about the deadly 1996 climbing season. I will be.


This article also appears on Broadway World Minneapolis.

Fringe Festival: "What You Will" and "Twelfth Night"

Day: 9

Show: 33 and 36

Title: What You Will and Twelfth Night

Category: Comedy

By: Renegade Play-Reading Company and Rough Magic Performance Company

Adapted by: Catherine Johnson Justice

Location: Rarig Center Thrust

Summary: Shakespeare's comedy Twelfth Night split into two shows, one focusing on the separated and disguised twins Viola and Sebastian, the other on the supporting characters.

Highlights: I was thinking this would be a Hamlet/Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are Dead kind of pairing, but rather it's really just Shakespeare's original, only split in two by subject matter. It's a fun idea, and well executed by director Terry Hempleman (who also appears as the Duke in one of the two shows) and the excellent large cast. I saw What You Will first, which tells of the shenanigans of the members of the lady Olivia's (Alayne Hopkins) household, including a delightfully dopey Sam Bardwell as Sir Andrew, the always entertaining E.J. Subkoviak as Sir Toby, a mischievous Katie Kaufman as Maria, and Sasha Andreev with some strong monologues as Malvolio, going from proud to ridiculous to pitiable. The second hour tells the main story of Twelfth Night, with Catherine Johnson Justice and Clarence Wethern as the twins getting mixed up in the wooing of Olivia by the Duke. The two stories are tied together by Emily Zimmer's ukulele-playing fool. It's a clever idea and a fun way to view Shakespeare in a new way, performed by great actors.

"The Pavilion" at Yellow Tree Theatre

This is the way the play The Pavilion by Minnesota playwright Craig Wright begins:

This is the way the universe begins. A raindrop (that isn't really a raindrop) drops, like a word, "rain" drops, into a pool (that isn't really a pool, more like a pool of listening minds), and tiny waves circle out in an elegant decelerating procession, -cession, -cession. Then, after a time, the pool of listening minds grows still once more.

Now, but backwards, this is the way the universe begins: the still pool of listening minds, the sudden shrinking circles dissolving at the center, conserving at the center until boom, sloop!, up goes the droplet, up towards the voice that raindrops words, up towards the voice and it hangs in the air — remember it there — because that’s the way the universe begins. A little pavilion. A momentary sphere. A word made of stars, dancing.

The play is filled with beautiful, poetic, profound, airy language such as this, interspersed with very real and grounded scenes of average humans at their 20-year high school reunion. The story itself is not very original (in life or literature) - high school girl gets pregnant, boy leaves her to deal with it alone, forever changing both of their lives. The original thing about this Pulitzer Prize nominated play is that this very common idea is used as the seed to explore themes of time, regret, happiness, letting go of the past, and second chances. It's funny and earthy at the same time that it's deep and philosophical. The Pavilion is another great choice by Yellow Tree Theatre - it shines on their intimate and homey stage.

Pine City class of 1977's "cutest couple," Kari and Peter, reunite at their 20-year reunion, and it's not a happy reunion. She's still deeply hurt and angry that he left her when she got pregnant, a situation that isn't soothed at all by his deep regret. Unfortunately neither of them have been able to leave this unhappy incident behind them; she is trapped in an unhappy marriage and he is dating a 23-year-old because she's too young to realize how messed up he is. They begin the evening by trying to avoid each other, but by the night's end they have put it all out there. A narrator tells us about this couple and where they fall in the creation of the universe. There is much fourth wall breaking, as the narrator says things like "this is a play about time," calls for lighting and sound from the crew, and speaks directly to the audience. At one point the characters in the story, mostly oblivious to his presence, speak directly to the narrator. It's a really clever construction and an innovative way to tell a story.

Bonni Allen, Jason Peterson, and Michael Lee

Yellow Tree co-founder Jason Peterson as the narrator speaks these beautiful words with clarity and meaning. He also has the fun of playing multiple characters at the reunion who function as sounding boards for our two main characters. Bonni Allen, whom I've previously only seen in musical comedies, proves that she's a great dramatic actor too as she brings life to the conflicted Kari. Michael Lee is earnest and sincere in Peter's love for Kari. Local actor Terry Hempleman (who starred with Jason in the gripping Fool for Love at the Jungle last fall) does a beautiful job directing the piece.

At intermission I had a discussion with my friends about who to side with. There's no question that Peter did Kari a great wrong, but she's been holding on to the grudge for 20 years. We agreed that she needs to find a way to get over it and let it go for her own sake, not his. Whether or not he deserves her forgiveness, she deserves to forgive him and be at peace about it. The play doesn't wrap things up so neatly. It's an ambiguous ending, as the evening ends and the play fades away into starlight, with no clear direction about what happens next. It's one of those plays that's so full, I wish I could see it again.

The set (designed by Jeffrey Petersen) couldn't be more simple - a large square wooden dock with the word "PAVILION" in lights behind it, the stage empty except for a few crates. But the language is so specific that the imagination can easily fill in the details so that you can almost feel the wind off the water and smell the fresh air. The lighting (by Courtney Schmitz Watson) creates some really lovely effects, from the blue light under the dock to the stars overhead.

Minnesota playwright Craig Wright (who has also written for such TV shows as Six Feet Under and Lost, and graduated from my alma mater) has set this play (and several others) in Pine City, and the play is filled with Minnesota references. The characters casually drop many Minnesota place names, and he has perfectly captured the way that out-staters talk about "the Cities." It's great to see the work of Minnesota artists represented on our stages, especially a play like this that's so funny, bittersweet, and wistful. (Playing now through March 2 at Yellow Tree Theatre in Osseo.)

Because the language is so beautiful, I'll leave you with another quote from the play:

At every single moment, the whole creation is beginning again, stretching the tent of the present moment to bursting. And the waves that push up through the oceans, and the waves that push up through the stars; and the waves that push upwards through history are the same waves that push up through us. And so we have to say yes to time, even though it means speeding forward into memory; forgetfulness; and oblivion. Say "no" to time; hold on to what you were or what she was; hold onto the past, even out of love... and I swear it will tear you to shreds. This universe will tear you to shreds.

"Fool for Love" at the Jungle Theater

The Jungle Theater continues their excellent 2013 season, following the smart and sexy Venus in Fur, the thrilling Deathtrap, and the hilarious Urinetown with Fool for Love, an intense exploration of love, loss, and the complicated relationships of family. Written by Sam Shepard (see also True West), it's like a modern-day Western - stark and gritty and strangely beautiful. In a note in the playbill, director and set designer Bain Boehlke calls it "one of the greatest examples of theater poetry in the 20th Century," and after seeing it, that makes perfect sense. It's only an hour long (keep that in mind as you're paying your parking fee), but leaving the theater I felt like I had witnessed something epic. It's one of those theater experiences in which the world created is so real, so intense, that when the play is over, the lights come up, and you're spilled out onto the streets of the city, it's jarring. I found myself shaking my head in an attempt to readjust to my surroundings. Sitting there in the theater, the world of the play becomes the only reality, so that when it's over it's like a spell has been broken and you're not quite sure where you are or what just happened. This was perhaps the most gripping and intense hour of theater I've ever experienced.

The story centers on ex-lovers Eddie and May. After years of suffering in their tumultuous relationship, May has run away and taken up residence in a seedy motel. Eddie drives thousands of miles to find her and convince her to come back to him. She refuses, but can't bear for him to leave either. There's so much more to their relationship that unfolds over the hour. In the midst of it, May's date Martin shows up to take her to the movies, bringing the intensity to new heights. And through it all, an "old man" is sitting in a rocking chair on the side of the stage (and has in fact been sitting there since the theater doors opened), sometime telling stories, sometimes interjecting or commenting, even entering the action. There's a harsh realism to the play, even surrealism with this character who's sort of there, but not really. And there is a sort of beauty. At one point, Eddie tells a long story about a walk through town with his father in language that is beautiful, but in a stark, gritty, Larry McMurtry kind of way.

This four-person cast is totally in the moment and fully invested in their characters. Jennifer Blagen gives a fearless performance as May, swinging from one emotion to the next, about to crawl out of her skin. Terry Hempleman is intense and riveting as Eddie. Jason Peterson perfectly plays the nervousness and uncertainty of poor Martin, who doesn't know what he's gotten himself into. And Allen Hamilton is a little too creepy as that "old man" sitting just beyond the story but at the very center of it.

Jennifer Blagen, Allen Hamilton, and Terry Hempleman

The set is, as per usual at the Jungle, perfection. Grimy greenish walls surround the bare space, which holds only an iron frame bed, a table with two chairs, a bare light bulb, and a ceiling fan that looks like it hasn't worked in years. Lighting (by Barry Browning) and sound (by Sean Healey) add to the atmosphere, with strange and beautiful shadows cast on walls, and a loud thunderclap perfectly choreographed to every time someone slams a door or hits a wall (which happens often). Each character's wardrobe (by Amelia Cheever) perfectly suits them, from May's too short dress, to Eddie's blue jeans and duct-taped boots, to Martin's plaid pants and bolo tie. There's great attention to detail in every aspect, which creates a very real universe in which the story takes place.

This is a play I could definitely see again; it's just so full. (If only I weren't fully booked with theater for the next several weeks.) Sharply written, wonderfully acted, with detailed perfection in all elements of the production, it's a very rich hour of theater.

"Deathtrap" at the Jungle Theater

One of the highlights of the Jungle Theater's stellar 2012 season was the deliciously thrilling Dial M for Murder, about which I wrote "murder shouldn't be this fun." Three of the five members of that cast, along with the director/designer, reunite for this year's thriller Deathtrap. Dial M is a classic from the 1950s, and Deathtrap was written by Ira Levin in the late 1970s as an homage to the thriller genre of which Dial M is a prime example. It's a bit more modern feeling, less tense and more funny, and very meta. Several characters in the play are playwrights who begin to write a play describing their lives, and then continue to act in order to figure out what happens next in the play, in a life imitates art imitates life sort of way. There are several surprising plot twists and turns, including one moment so shocking that there was a cry of fear and delight throughout the audience such as I've never heard before inside a theater. The audience reaction was almost as much fun as what was going on onstage.

I really don't want to give away too much of the plot, because watching it unfold is part of the fun. Usually you can sort of tell where a play is going or how it's going to end, but watching Deathtrap, as each scene ended, I had no idea where the next scene was going, which certainly kept me alertly watching throughout the show. The play centers on once-great playwright Sidney Bruhl, who is desperate for another hit. When a student from his seminar sends him what could be that hit, he hints to his wife Myra that he just might be willing to kill the man to make that hit play his own. After all, he's written enough murder mysteries for the stage to be able to conduct one in reality (or so he thinks). Sidney invites the young playwright Clifford to his home, to his wife's dismay. The plan continues, but not in the way you might think. There's also a Dutch psychic (or as they called it in the late '70s, ESP), and a lawyer called in to settle some affairs. Oh just go see it, you'll find out what happens!

Sidney (Steve Hendrickson) and Myra (Cheryl Willis)
argue as Clifford (Michael Booth)
finds himself in a sticky situation

The cast that worked together so well on Dial M last year does so here as well. Michael Booth is once again the man plotting to kill Cheryl Willis (I hope she doesn't take it personally), and both are great to watch - Michael with his deft transformation from naive innocent to something more sinister, and Cheryl with her British accent and over-the-top histrionics  Steve Hendrickson steals the show with his very physical portrayal of Sidney, all loose exasperation and paranoid plotting. One of the biggest audience laughs came when he flopped around on a chair for many long minutes while Clifford typed away, unaware of the spectacle in front of him. Claudia Wilkins is a hoot as the concerned Dutch psychic ("I sense much pain, much pain!"), and Terry Hempleman (another Dial M vet) as the lawyer is the calm at the center of the storm, until he's not.

All of this crazy action is beautifully directed by the Jungle's Artistic Director Bain Boehlke (with fight choreography by Peter Moore, also part of the Dial M cast). Bain also designed the set of course. As usual, the intimate stage at the Jungle houses a specific, detailed, impeccable set. This time it's a carriage house that's been converted to a writer's study. The walls are covered with posters window cards from (real and fictional) Broadway plays, scripts litter the floor under a bench, and books crowd onto huge built-in shelves. But the most impressive thing is the wall of weapons that Sidney has collected from his murder plays and elsewhere. Several of them figure prominently in the plot, and all are beautifully displayed on the wall above the fireplace. The lighting (Barry Browning, who won an Ivey for lighting Dial M last year) and sound (Sean Healey) all add to the very specific sense of time and place that is so characteristic of the Jungle's work.

If you've never been to the Jungle Theater in the Uptown neighborhood of Minneapolis... what have you been doing with your life? I cannot recommend them enough. I'm always impressed by the quality of work, beginning with the sets, that are the best in town, and continuing with every other aspect, including interesting choices of plays (this summer - Urinetown the Musical!). Deathtrap is delightfully fun and chilling, a play that pokes fun of the genre while paying homage to it, perfectly produced by the Jungle, as per usual (playing now through May 18).

"Dial M for Murder" at the Jungle Theater

I can't think of anything better to do on Valentine's Day than go to the Jungle Theater and see a play about a horribly dysfunctional, but highly entertaining, married couple.  I'd never seen the play or the 1954 Hitchcock movie version of the classic thriller Dial M for Murder, but I did recently see the 1998 remake The Perfect Murder (thanks to the Viggo Mortensen auto-record on my DVR).  So I vaguely knew what the storyline was, but I didn't realize just how delightfully it would play out on the Jungle stage. There's an undercurrent of tension and suspense throughout the whole play that's just delicious. Murder shouldn't be this fun.

The entire cast just sparkles, speaking in British accents for this London-set story.  Starting with Michael Booth as our hero/villain, Tony, a professional tennis player who married for money and develops an elaborate plot to kill his wife so he'll inherit her money.  He's smart and smooth, and thinks he has every detail worked out.  As things go wrong he continues to plot and scheme, and almost pulls it off. Cheryl Willis (aka Shirley Valentine) is the neglected wife and target of the plan, Margot.  She's so naive and trusting of her husband, even though he did a complete 180 a year ago and suddenly became the perfect husband.  Around that time she ended her affair with an American crime writer, Max (Terry Hempleman), who has just come back to town and is obviously the one who truly cares for Margot.  She thinks the three of them can be chums, and Tony decides to use that to his advantage and work Max into his plan.  He blackmails an old school friend (Peter Moore), who's already a bit of a con man and a gigolo, into doing the deed.  Fortunately Margot is tougher than she appears and is able to fight off her attacker, but is not so lucky when her husband subtly schemes to have her charged with the crime.  Gary Briggle, who says so much with just a grunt or an mmm-hmmm, is the Columbo-esque detective who can smell something's not quite right with this story, and doesn't give up until he's figured it out.  I love moments of silence in a play, when there's such expectation and anticipation of what's going to happen next, and there are several such delightfully tense moments in this production.

The play is directed by Jungle Artistic Director, Bain Boehlke, who also designed the set.  I don't know of too many directors who design their own set, but who better than the director to know just what the stage should look like?  And when you've got the talent to do both, as Bain does, it's a beautiful cohesion of story and environment.  In this case the set is a detailed London apartment, complete with tennis trophies and tea sets, and the all important turnkey.  I don't know if it's the way the theater and stage are structured, but at the Jungle I always feel like I'm looking into a very detailed and perfect little diorama that comes to life when the actors enter.

This is the first production in the Jungle Theater's 2012 season (playing now through March 18), and they're off to a fabulous start.  With The Birthday Party, Noises Off, Waiting for Godot, and In the Next Room (with some great casts already lined up), 2012 could be a very good year at the Jungle!