Minnesota Fringe Festival 2026: "A Woman's Place is in the House"

Day: 6

Show: 22

Title: A Woman's Place is in the House

Category: Comedy / Spoken Word / Storytelling / Audience participation / Historical content / Political content

By: David Alan Berger

Written by: David Alan Berger

Location: Rarig Kilburn Arena

Summary: The first four women elected to Minnesota's House of Representatives time travel to the present to give us hope in these uncertain times.

Highlights: This was an appropriate show to see the day after Minnesota's primary election, which resulted in two female candidates for Senate and the two female candidates for Governor, meaning that Minnesota will soon have its first female Governor, and it's about time! It all started in 1922, just two years after women finally got the right to vote, when four women were elected to Minnesota's House. This play starts in 1923 when they're arriving to start their jobs - the young and slightly boy crazy union organizer Myrtle Agnes Caine (Olivia Dubiel), realtor Sue Metzger Dickey Hough (Amber Payne), farmer and teacher Hannah Jensen Kempfer (Rachel Ratkowski), and businesswoman Mabeth Hurd Paige (Megan Rowe). They're visited by a time traveler from our times (Ann Frances Gregg), who explains the dire situation we're currently living in, and invites them to travel with her back to the future, to inspire people in a rally just when we need it most. And they do just that, finding humor and camaraderie along the way. But the most inspiring part of the rally-within-the-play are the speeches by the guest stars - real female members of today's Minnesota House of Representatives, the enduring legacy of these four pioneers. The play is a little pedantic and on-the-nose, the effect of the women's visit a little too rosy, but I'm OK with that. In the end it's inspiring and educational, and like Aaron Sorkin's West Wing or The Newsroom, sometimes we need stories that are aspirational in a time when reality is stark. This play provides hope that a better future is in store if we work for it, a future in which women are in the House, and the Senate, and the Governor's office, and the White House.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here. 

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2026: "Sisters on Stage: An elder millennial’s exploration of Shakespeare’s sisters"

Day: 6

Show: 21

Title: Sisters on Stage: An elder millennial’s exploration of Shakespeare’s sisters

Category: Comedy / Drama / Solo Show / Shakespearian elements

By: Deanne McDonald / The Traveling Players

Created by: Deanne McDonald

Location: Mixed Blood Theatre

Summary: A solo show exploring the sibling relationships in Shakespeare's plays.

Highlights: Deanne McDonald was inspired to create this show after seeing Patrick Paige's solo show All the Devils Are Here: How Shakespeare Invented the Villain on tour at the Guthrie a couple years ago, shortly after playing middle daughter Regan in King Lear at Theatre in the Round. While Regan could be seen as a villain, she's definitely a sister, and as a middle child herself, Deanne has brought those sibling relationships into her many Shakespearean roles over the last couple decades. The show is part memoir, part Shakespearean study, part treatise on family dynamics. With direction by Sara Pillatzki-Warzeha, Deanne performs scenes from a half dozen or so plays, many of which she's performed in the past, each one preceded by a story about her family or life at the time (e.g., "I played this role in a pub in Chicago"). She plays weird sisters (Macbeth), scheming sisters (King Lear), really bad siblings (Richard III, who allegedly killed his brother's sons), friends close as sisters (Midsummer), tortured siblings (Hamlet), and loving siblings (Twelfth Night). With a great soundtrack of the last few decades, and an array of props and costumes specific to each character and also her story, Deanne embodies all of these characters, sometimes multiple in one scene, and makes them feel real and grounded. She makes these ancient and much-performed plays feel alive and modern and relatable, especially for anyone with a sibling.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here. 

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2026: "Tapeze - a la seconde"

Day: 6

Show: 20

Title: Tapeze - a la seconde

Category: Dance / Physical / Theater / Kid friendly / Non-verbal

By: Twin Cities Trapeze

Created by: Katie Kimball and Cathy Wind

Location: Southern Theater

Summary: A combination of tap dance (as well as some ballet and contemporary dance) and trapeze.

Highlights: I heard about Tapeze at last year's festival but wasn't able to see it, so I'm glad they're back. I needed a dance fix halfway through the festival and this was it, and served as a great palate cleanser. This show is a delightful combination of multiple artforms, performed by a huge cast of varying ages and body shapes and sizes, all sharing the joy of movement. The Southern Theater is probably the only venue that would work for a trapeze show, but it was empty at the beginning and I kept wondering where the trapeze would come in. After a few dance numbers, the company assembles the trapeze out of many metal pipes lying around the space. They could have set it up before the show, but it's thrilling (and a little scary) to watch them set it up in front of us. The dance numbers alternate with the trapeze numbers, and sometimes both artforms combine and play off of each other. These are seriously talented artists, but they don't take themselves or the show too seriously, there's a lot of humor and playfulness in it. The large and talented and enthusiastic company is led by tap dancer Cathy Wind of Keane Sense of Rhythm Tap Company and trapeze artist Katie Kimball of Twin Cities Trapeze. Both of these organizations also offer classes so you can join the fun! But until then you can watch them do it in their final two performances.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here. 

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2026: "BE NOT AFRAID"

Day: 6

Show: 19

Title: BE NOT AFRAID

Category: Comedy / Drama / Horror / Mystery / Original Music / Physical Theater / Storytelling

By: Third Space Theater

Created by: Mariabella Sorini & Alex Church

Location: Southern Theatre

Summary: A struggling North Dakota farm family is threatened by the construction of nearby oil rigs, as they're visited by angels and devils.

Highlights: This is the only dramatic play I've seen at Fringe so far, and feels much more like a one-act play than a Fringe show, not surprising for Third Space Theater. It's an original play written by Mariabella Sorini (who also stars in it) and Alex Church (who also directs, with Stephanie Kahle), and everything about is thoughtful and polished and gorgeous. The story is centered around Micah (Mariabella) and Jordan (Ben Qualley), living on and trying to save his father's farm despite the nearby fracking and the usual environmental issues. Jordan's cousin and his friend are crashing on air mattresses in their living room, Peter (Logan Lang) trying to work and make money for his daughter, Mason (Sebastian Grim) only out for momentary "fun." Neighbor Sam (Tamira Rashid) is desperate after her horses are lost, and beset by strange occurrences that are killing livestock. There's a sense of familiarity among this group of people, like they've known each other forever and we're just getting a peek into their lives. Once Micah is visited by a scary angel (Em Adam Rosenberg) she starts to prepare for a fire and/or some other catastrophe, removing pesticides and gas for the generator despite Jordan's insistence that they're needed. The catastrophe does eventually come, and it tests everyone. The Southern is the perfect backdrop for this story, with its weathered brick walls full of history. A couple of ladders, sawhorses, wooden poles, and lines of laundry hung between them create the stark farm landscape. Lighting changes from full blackout to a red glow to bright lights, and the sound design is haunting, with music and effects. All of this helps to tell this earthy and otherworldly story about a community, the land, and the dangers of industrialization. The movement and physical theater pieces are beautiful, particularly the silent wounded deer (embodies by Mary Lofreddo), perhaps representing our wounded earth. This is definitely one of the most polished and professional shows you'll see at Fringe.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here. 

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2026: "Small Minded"

Day: 5

Show: 18

Title: Small Minded

Category: Clowning / Comedy / Magic / Physical Theater / Solo Show / Storytelling / Audience participation / Shakespearian elements

By: Tyler West

Created by: Tyler West and Cleo DeOrio

Location: Southern Theater

Summary: A solo storytelling show by an actor with dwarfism, about his career, the roles he's forced to play, and how it intersects with disability.

Highlights: Currently on a break from touring with Water for Elephants (which stopped in Minneapolis earlier this year), touring artist Tyler West brings his funny and moving show to the Minnesota Fringe. It's an eye-opening story about an actor with dwarfism. With the exception of the actor referred to in the show as Deter Pinklage, actors with dwarfism often play the clown, the fool, the entertainment. Tyler talks about his personal journey through life and performing, finding comfort on the stage where people are supposed to be looking at him and laughing, as opposed to the stares and cruel comments on the street. In his BFA program, he wanted to play serious roles, but was only offered the role of the fool or the jester. He moved to NYC and found work in cabarets and variety shows, playing into the comic role, and studied clowning, which he utilizes in this show to great effect, with physical comedy, pratfalls, juggling, and a delightful entirely silent sequence as a cop who playfully terrorizes the audience. But through the writing of Dr. Erin Pritchard, "a leading academic expert in the field of dwarfism and a passionate advocate for disability awareness and inclusion," he comes to realized that "midget entertainment" is not unlike minstrel shows - Black people performing in blackface for White people's amusement, little people performing comedy for able-bodied people's enjoyment. He descends into a fever dream, where he is confronted with Oompa-Loompas, Munchkins, Ewoks, Yoda, and the Seven Dwarves, but ends the show by noting little people with serious accomplishments, doctors and lawyers and scholars, whom most of us have never heard of. Small Minded is funny, moving, educational, and well-constructed with a great use of props and costumes (directed and co-written by Cleo DeOrio). This is the reason that Fringe Festivals exists, for artists who are pigeon-holed into one thing to have an opportunity make their own art, play the roles they want, and tell their own stories in their own voices.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here. 

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2026: "Bury The Leads"

Day: 5

Show: 17

Title: Bury The Leads

Category: Comedy / Drama / Improv / Audience participation

By: Special When Lit

Created by: Sam Landman & Nissa Nordland

Location: Mixed Blood Theatre

Summary: An improvised show about two character actors Faye and Clyde as they go through their life of auditions and rehearsals and other theatery things.

Highlights: Fringe vets Nissa and Sam have been performing this show about two character actors, perhaps inspired by real life, at Bryant Lake Bowl and other venues, but this is my first time seeing it. Their experience with these characters shows, as it feels like we're picking up with them in the middle of their lives. The show is improvised around a structure of various scenes - self-tapes, auditions, rehearsing an intimacy scene (based on audience suggestions), life outside of the theater at the office or the mall, and Fringe specific scenes of Fringe Central (the after-hours hangout) and attending a Fringe show, when they come out into the audience and take a seat. But Sam and Nissa don't just play Clyde and Faye, they also morph into other characters in the stories - actors, coworkers, casting directors - sometimes going back and forth within a scene. They're both great and natural improvisors, and work well together to create a picture of these two people and their theater lives, with a sweet friendship between them. Each scene is noted with words projected on a screen so we know where we are, and the interstitial music (recorded by Sam and Nissa) is delightfully silly. This is improv at its best, by two experienced performers.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here. 

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2026: "the statue of liberty is nora in a doll's house by henrik ibsen"

Day: 5

Show: 16

Title: the statue of liberty is nora in a doll's house by henrik ibsen

Category: Comedy / Drama / Musical Theater / Physical Theater

By: Supermoon

Created by: Supermoon

Location: Rarig Stoll Thrust

Summary: Henrik Ibsen's ground-breaking 1879 play A Doll's House, in which a housewife leaves her family to find herself, with Nora played by the Statue of Liberty.

Highlights: On one level, this is a great and fun and very Fringey version of a classic play, using live film projected onto a screen, and actual dolls acting out some of the scenes. On another level it's a startling and disturbing commentary on the state of our country, as we watch Lady Liberty literally dismantled before our eyes. I'm not entirely certain how those two things fit together, but I will be ruminating on it for a while. Mads Plonski plays Liberty/Nora, beginning the show standing on a platform clutching a copy of A Doll's House, her raised arm holding a corded light. Then she descends from her pedestal (much as Nora metaphorically does in the play), and the story begins, with all of the major plot points of the story playing out in abbreviated form (Nora forged her father's signature to take out a loan to save her husband's life, and is now facing scandal because a woman is not allowed to take out a loan), with Michael Torsch as her husband Torvald and Caleb Byers as the banker about to explode the scandal. A camera is trained on the stage, with the live feed projected on a screen, including close-ups of dolls that enact some of the scenes, the actors speaking in exaggerated doll voices. We also occasionally see images of the Statue of Liberty in pieces and behind scaffolding during installation, which curiously was less than ten years after A Doll's House premiered. In addition to the use of lighting and live film, there's also an interesting use of music and sound, with Josh Leininger providing a live score on electric guitar, and Mads singing the Lana Del Ray song "Arcadia." As usual from this team, this is a thoughtful, thorny, weird, funny, absurd, engrossing piece of theater.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here. 

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2026: "Casa Bde-Maka-Ska"

Day: 4

Show: 15

Title: Casa Bde-Maka-Ska

Category: Comedy

By: Snikt! Bamf! Thwip!

Written by: Duck Washington & Tim Wick

Location: Theatre in the Round

Summary: A parody of the 1942 film Casablanca, set in Minnesota during Operation Metro Surge.

Highlights: I've never seen the movie, but it's so pervasive in our culture I have a vague idea of the story. There's a guy named Rick who owns a club, a pair of star-crossed lovers, a piano man named Sam, and a war. Those elements are all present here, but played for comedy. As Gregory Parks, who plays Sam, notes in the post-show speech, what we went through during Operation Surge was not funny, but comedy and parody is one way to process the trauma and be part of the resistance. So in this story we have tons of Minnesota references (because it's not Minnesota Fringe without a lutefisk joke), and we have Rick (Samuel Poppen) who owns a bar and is in love with Ilsa (Bridget Foy, with a '40s movie look and sound), her husband Ole (Pher Sturz), a corrupt cop (Kelvin Hatle), the frustrated piano man (Gregory Parks), and a villain named Noem (Molly Zupon). The plot plays out fairly similar to the movie (I gather), and the allegory works nicely. The costumes are a mix of modern, vintage, and local, with a recurring bit about the (not so) mobile piano, and the "play it again Sam" song being Prince, natch. For a more gritty and realistic look at Operation Metro Surge, see Witness Loudly and Minnesota is the Shire, but it also feels good to process our recent trauma through laughter.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here. 

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2026: "A Confluence of Magical Arseholes"

Day: 4

Show: 14

Title: A Confluence of Magical Arseholes

Category: Comedy / Musical Theater / Original Music / Historical content

By: The Winding Sheet Outfit

Created by: The Winding Sheet Outfit

Location: Rarig Stoll Thrust

Summary: The bizarre true story of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, whose most famous member was the Irish poet William Butler Yeats.

Highlights: Leave it to Winding Sheet to find yet another weird story from history, and turn it into some very clever and inventive theater. Although a little sillier and goofier than their previous work (as on-stage director Amber Bjork says, it's a "boy show"), this show is a delight. The fourth-wall-breaking we're-putting-on-a-show spirit is as charming as ever, with Amber running around, breaking into the action, or watching with glee or frustration. After directing us to "the good seats" before the show, she enlists this troupe to tell the story, a story of "a supper club for dilettantes." They "try their best" at Irish accents to play Yeats (Mark Benzel), his rival the foul poet Aleister Crowley (Michael Rogers at his best rock star), the Irish revolutionary Maud Gonne (Boo Segersin), other members of the order (Dan Linden, Heather Bunch, Kristina Fjellman, and Megan Campbell Lagas), and Yeat's drinking buddies who served as the band (Derek Lee Miller, Sam Landman, and music director Joshua Schwantz). The loose plot involves a fight between Yeats and Crowley, and Yeats trying to get Maud to marry him (which she pleasantly rejects every time), but mostly it's just a whole lot of nonsense exploring this weird and ridiculous thing that really happened. There is original music, cleverly appropriate graphic Ts, and lots of golden things. It's a silly, fun, joyful, meta, hilarious, ridiculous, wonderful show.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here. 

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2026: "Minnesota is the Shire, or Fair & Back Again"

Day: 4

Show: 13

Title: Minnesota is the Shire, or Fair & Back Again

Category: Solo Show / Storytelling / Historical content

By: Seán McArdle / Hero Props

Created by: Seán McArdle

Location: Barker Center

Summary: A solo storytelling show about how Minnesota is like Tolkien's Shire (Hobbit country), specifically in the scouring.

Highlights: OK, I went to this show because I've loved The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings for 40 years, but I left again being moved and inspired by my fellow Minnesotans. Prop master Seán McArdle loves LOTR even more than me, and in this well-constructed show, which he primarily reads from a lectern decorated with LOTR and protest memorabilia, he first tells us about his love of all things Tolkien, even painting maps on the walls of his high school classroom for his senior project. He compares the Minnesota State Fair to the Shire, primarily in the prevalence of food and drink and the opportunity to have many meals. But then he comes to the main thesis, that Operation Metro Surge was like "The Scouring of the Shire," a story at the end of The Return of the King in which the Hobbits return home to find that Saruman has turned the Shire into a fascist state (which was omitted from Peter Jackson's adaptation, which Seán says is its biggest flaw). He draws the parallels in a really convincing and moving way, even if you don't know LOTR. He shares social media posts and videos that he made during the time of the Surge, and his contribution of making and distributing many many whistles for people like his friend Kyle Dekker who were out on the streets (see Kyle's show Witness Loudly at Strike). He teaches us a few words of Elvish, and points to the three beacons of hope in LOTR (Aragorn, Gandalf, and Sam) for inspiration. I last read the books in 2020, after returning from my second visit to New Zealand on March 11, to find that the world I knew was completely changed, and found great inspiration in revisiting my favorite story during that difficult year. Tolkien famously hated allegory, as Seán said, but it's hard not to see parallels to our own world when reading these books. This show is a beautiful and moving thesis defense that has 100% convinced me, and a uniquely comforting way to help process our recent collective trauma and find inspiration to keep fighting.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here. 

at Bilbo's house in Hobbiton, Leap Day 2020

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2026: "Vintage Tunes, Modern Gal"

Day: 4

Show: 12

Title: Vintage Tunes, Modern Gal

Category: Comedy / Original Music / Physical Theater / Solo Show / Audience participation

By: Plucky Rosenthal

Created by: Plucky Rosenthal

Location: Rarig Kilburn Arena

Summary: A solo "musical comedy variety act" about a plucky ukulele player looking for a band.

Highlights: Chicago-based touring artist Plucky Rosenthal (a last-minute add to the festival) is obviously a pro at this; she had the relatively small Sunday 4pm audience in the palm of her hand, and singing at the top of our lungs by the end. Plucky is just that, both in the "spirited and brave" definition, and in the fact that she plucks and strums the ukulele, which she tells us is the best instrument (not the first time I've heard that in this festival). And if you think that's a corny joke, wait until you see the show! She enlists us in her silly rhymes, and frequently breaks the fourth wall to comment on or react to the show and the audience, in the most charming and disarming way. The loose plot, between clever and quirky original songs, is that Plucky is a bit of a loner, who wants to find people to be in a band with her. She calls her favorite radio DJ on her vintage phone, whom she listens to on the vintage radio sitting on the vintage side table, only to be told to "not quit her day job." So she finds a book with "six easy steps to start a band," which she does, to unexpected effect. The lesson she learns in the end, culminating in the finale singalong, inspired me to buy my first button of the festival. Because it's true, nobody really knows what they're doing in life, but it's better with music and laughter and friends. This is a clever show by an artist who doesn't take herself too seriously, but is seriously talented, with some gentle audience participation and fun prop work.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here. 

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2026: "Castrati: A Tale of Two"

Day: 4

Show: 11

Title: Castrati: A Tale of Two

Category: Comedy / Musical Theater / Original Music / Puppetry / Historical content / Shakespearian elements

By: True Men Productions

Created by: Cali Garzon, Julia Maskin & Eli Maskin

Location: Barker Center

Summary: A musical set in 1400s Rome, about a castrated boy who is rejected by his family and finds identity and confidence in singing.

Highlights: This might be the Fringiest thing at the festival this year. I'm not quite sure what to make of it, and couldn't quite figure out the tone. Are we supposed to laugh at all of the testicle puns? Are we supposed to feel for the characters? It landed somewhere in between. The 13-person (uncredited) cast is talented, particularly the actor playing the castrato (historically, a boy who is castrated before puberty in order to retain a higher vocal range), who has a great voice and creates a lot of empathy for the character, although they have more of an alto voice and I'm not sure why they're dressed as a woman. The characters speak English with no accent, except for a few that have an Italian accent or inexplicably a Cockney or Scottish (?) accent. They're dressed in black, with a few character-specific pieces added for the main characters. The highlight of the show is the 7-piece band, probably the largest of the festival, and the songs are catchy modern pop songs, with some Italian flavor. After being rejected by his family and struggling with doubt, it was nice to see the castrato come into his own at the end, with confidence and self-assurance.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.