"Men on Boats" by Ten Thousand Things at Hennepin United Methodist Church

Over 15 years ago, I hiked into the Grand Canyon with nine other women (one old friend and eight new friends), many of us in celebration of our upcoming 40th birthday. It was no three-month journey through an uncharted wilderness, but it was a challenging full day hike down to the bottom of the canyon, a couple of nights at the charming Phantom Ranch, and a challenging full day hike up and out. Last night, seven of the ten of us reunited to experience Ten Thousand Things' wonderful production of Men on Boats, a reimagining of the first government sanctioned expedition down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. It's a story of adventure, of the camaraderie that comes with doing hard things together, of the complicated ideas of Manifest Destiny and unchecked masculinity upon which our country is founded. Ten Thousand Things has put their usual clear-eyed bare-bones all-the-lights-on spin on this story, with a fantastic cast of ten female/non-binary/trans actors, told in a playful way with heart, humor, and physicality to represent all the various locations and situations on the journey. i.e., there are no cisgender men and no boats in Men on Boats. Nothing against either, but this is an inventive way to tell the story. You, too, can experience this challenging and satisfying journey at Hennepin United Methodist Church, Capri Theater, or 825 Arts through March 15.

"After the Fires" by Transatlantic Love Affair at Illusion Theater

Transatlantic Love Affair is a unique #TCTheater company. Unique in their process (ensemble created work rather than a set script, although other companies in town do that too), unique in their execution (they create the entire world of the play with their bodies and voices only, without the use of sets or props), and unique in the feeling evoked by their work (indescribable). They often reintrepret fairy tales or classic stories that we all know, but sometimes create new fairy tales as well. Their latest work After the Fires, playing at Illusion Theater through February 22, is an example of the latter. It's an original story that feels like an old story, a story of courage, adventure, nature, and community.

"The Devout" by Transatlantic Love Affair at Illusion Theater

In their first all female ensemble piece, devised physical theater troupe Transatlantic Love Affair takes on the myth of Medusa. If I didn't know that going in, I wouldn't have known it from the show, which is typical of TLA's reimagining of fairy tales that is more about exploring the theme than telling the exact same story as we think we know it. In this case, Director Isabel Nelson and assistant director Joy Dolo have focused on this part of the Medusa myth (per Wikipedia): "In a late version of the Medusa myth, related by the Roman poet Ovid (Metamorphoses 4.770), Medusa was originally a ravishingly beautiful maiden, 'the jealous aspiration of many suitors,' but because Poseidon had raped her in Athena's temple, the enraged Athena transformed Medusa's beautiful hair to serpents and made her face so terrible to behold that the mere sight of it would turn onlookers to stone. In Ovid's telling, Perseus describes Medusa's punishment by Minerva (Athena) as just and well earned." This is 2019, and we won't stand for that anymore. TLA imagines a world in which Medusa (here called Demeres) isn't punished for being raped, but rather is supported by her sisters while her attackers are brought to justice. That's a wonderful narrative to put out into the world, and the six-person ensemble does so with TLA's trademark beautiful and evocative physicality.