Fringe Festival 2015: "Couple Fight"

Day: 9

Show: 43

Title: Couple Fight

Category: Comedy

By: Weggel-Reed Productions

Created by: Anna Weggel-Reed and Tom Reed

Location: Theatre in the Round

Summary: Six funny real-life couples reenact a funny real-life fight.

Highlights: What happens when two funny people get married, and then they fight? Judging by Couple Fight, it's hilarious, at least it is to those of us watching, and probably also to the couple once they move beyond the moment. Such is the simple premise of this show that features five married couples and one pair of BFFs. John and Lacey Zeiler fight about him faking a stroke in Vegas to help him win at poker, and not telling her about it beforehand so she could play along. On one of their first dates, Maggie and Marissa Sotos argue about whether a book is a hamburger or a hot dog (first of all, it's a book, second of all, it's obviously a hot dog). Emily Schmidt and Maureen Tubbs' disagreement about the rules of Pictionary turn a fun girls' night into a dramatic scene (I'm with Maureen on this one, you gotta have rules). Laura Zabel and Levi Weinhagen fight about whether Laura's suggestion for a sketch is funny (for the record - it is!). Lizzie Gardner gets mad at Bobby when he farts in the middle of a deep conversation. And finally, Anna Weggel-Reed gets upset that husband Tom (played convincingly by Adam Hummel because Tom was too busy directing) doesn't properly celebrate her on her birthday. The rest of us non-comedians only wish we could fight this funny!

Fringe Festival 2015: "The Famous Haydell Sisters Comeback Tour"

Day: 9

Show: 42

Title: The Famous Haydell Sisters Comeback Tour

Category: Musical Theater

By: The Famous Haydell Sisters

Created by: The Famous Haydell Sisters

Location: Nomad World Pub

Summary: Country music sister duet team Mattie and Maybelle Haydell reunite after 20 years.

Highlights: I love country music (or at least what country music used to be), so this comedy/music show about two country singing sisters is right up my alley. Plus it's in a bar - just what I needed for my 42nd Fringe show! Mattie and Maybelle (I'm having a hard time finding their real names, or maybe these are their real names?) are funny and sing great harmony on these campy country standards - the patriotically pandering song, the bitter break-up song, the broken-hearted love song. There's not much of a plot, although the sisters do work through some issues in their relationship, mostly just funny songs that sound sweet despite the double entendres, with some silly banter in between. How can you not love songs like "Your Broken Heart is No Excuse for Being an Asshole," "Seven Seconds is Too Short a Ride," "Wrangler Butt," and the spiritual "YOLO." And these ladies know their country music, with jokes about Chris Gaines and Lyle Lovett's sudden marriage to Julia Roberts. I found the Haydell Sisters to be thoroughly entertaining, and hanging out in a bar with them was just what I needed on the final afternoon of Fringe.

Fringe Festival 2015: "Brother Ulysses"

Day: 9

Show: 41

Title: Brother Ulysses

Category: Something Different

By: Rhombus Theatre

Written by: Christian Gaylord

Location: U of M Rarig Center Arena

Summary: Two brothers weave a captivating story about history, literature, myth, science, and family.

Highlights: This is one of those Fringe shows that's so uniquely wonderful, I cannot possibly describe it. You just have to see it to know what it is, and if you didn't, I'm sorry for you. I don't know where these guys came from, or why I had this show on my schedule (I guess the combination of history and a capella intrigued me). But it was a delightful surprise on my last day of Fringe-ing. Brothers Christian (writer) and Andrew (director) Gaylord tell us that this show was inspired by James Joyce's novel Ulysses, but not in the straight-forward adaptation kind of way. They talk about Napoleon, and Alexander the Great, and various other figures from history, myth, and literature. They sing in beautiful a capella harmony, sometimes making use of one of those recorder/looper thingies. They climb on and over a single tall block in the center of the stage in strange and interesting ways. At times Andrew reads passages from the book, which all of a sudden morph into Fringe commentary. Christian passionately portrays Napoleon, and Andrew juggles audience members' shoes for no reason in particular other than it's amusing. This show is so creative and odd and charming and unexpected. I think my post-show tweet sums it up best: "I'm not sure what just happened but it was beautiful."

Fringe Festival 2015: "Comedy Suitcase Presents The Averagers"

Day: 9

Show: 40

Title: Comedy Suitcase Presents The Averagers

Category: Comedy

By: Comedy Suitcase

Created by: Schrimshaw and Weinhagen

Location: Theatre in the Round

Summary: A bunch of average people become superheroes that save the day.

Highlights: The Averagers is one of the funniest shows I saw at the Fringe this year. The premise is pretty ridiculous - a ragtag group of superheroes including Captain Average (Eric Webster), the spoiled boy-god Paul Bunyan (Joshua Scrimshaw), the single mom Black Woodtick (Laura Zabel), office supply billionaire Iron Range Man (Levi Weinhagen), and the super sensitive Bulk (Matthew Kessen) travel through time and save the world from Nazis and a blue ox (Amy Schweickhardt, who wins the award for greatest range in the Fringe by also appearing in the excellent and completely different show Getting to Ellen), as told by a guy named Stanley (Daniel Hetzel). There are Minnesota references aplenty (including a "too soon?" joke about the Lindbergh kidnapping), and tons of physical comedy as the group fights and shoots things at each other. The show is incredibly loose and playful (perhaps because I saw the final scheduled performance) - everyone was ad libbing and toying with the audience and having fun, which makes it impossible for the audience not to have fun with them. And this show definitely wins the prize for best interaction with the ASL interpreter, as she (unknowingly but not unwillingly) became part of the show. The Averagers sold out all but their first show, and received the encore, and it lives up to the hype. Moral of the story: if you see "Comedy Suitcase" attached to a Fringe show, reserve tickets early and go see it, and prepare to laugh.

Fringe Festival 2015: "The Mrs."

Day: 9

Show: 39

Title: The Mrs.

Category: Comedy

By: Schmidtshow Productions

Written by: Emily Schmidt

Location: Theatre in the Round

Summary: A new reality show called PolyGIMME A Break features four very different women married to the same man, who mysteriously goes missing.

Highlights: I really enjoyed this show that centered on these four fabulous women - Samantha Baker Harris (as the new wife), Rita Boersma (the child-bearing wife), Shanan Custer (the working wife), and Maureen Tubbs (the first wife). Polygamy is something that's so foreign to most of us, it's ripe for comedy, and Emily Schmidt's script delivers. When the husband (Nate Morse), the center of their spokes, disappears, the truth comes out about who these women are, why they chose to enter this family, and what they want in life. Not only is it funny, but it's touching too, and I found myself empathizing with these very different women and wanting things to work out for them. On a related note, I think I need to watch Big Love again.

Fringe Festival 2015: "Hope You Guess My Name"

Day: 8

Show: 38

Title: Hope You Guess My Name

Category: Comedy

By: Ante-Deluvian Productions

Written by: Ari Hoptman

Location: Theatre in the Round

Summary: Two people sell their souls to the devil and then sue him on a technicality.

Highlights: I had high hopes for this one based on the playwright (Ari Hoptman, see also the excellent The Consolation) and cast (Eric Webster, Shanan Custer, Joshua Scrimshaw), and while there are plenty of funny lines and physical comedy bits, the whole thing didn't quite seem to hang together. Or maybe I was just too fringesausted at the end of a long, hot, stressful day to appreciate it. The good news is Eric makes for a devilishly charming Satan, Ari and Shanan are great as the people who sell their souls in exchange for a better life as a rock star and country hick (respectively), and Joshua is as delightfully goofy as always. So it's fun and amusing, if not great.

Fringe Festival 2015: "The Sound of Footloose: The Not Musical"

Day: 8

Show: 37

Title: The Sound of Footloose: The Not Musical

Category: Comedy

By: Snickt! Bamf! Thwip!

Written by: Tim Wick

Location: U of M Rarig Center Thrust

Summary: A silly and fun mash-up of two classic movies - The Sound of Music and Footloose.

Highlights: This one is totally frivolous but kinda fun too, even if the premise is a bit confusing (how is it the '80s and yet still someone pre-WWII?). I can't resist a SoM reference, and this show has them aplenty, from lonely goatherds to packages with strings. Several of the songs are worked into the dialogue and the '80s song parodies played during the fun dance sequences (choreographed by Windy Bowlsby). The story finds novice Maria a rock-and-roll loving (in the '30s?) nun sent back to high school to keep on eye on the Mother Superior's rebellious son (she wasn't always a nun), and pleads with the Nazis to allow them to hold a dance that will save Austria... or something. It's pretty goofy and mindless, but the cast is totally committed to the camp of it all. But I'm not so sure about the "not musical" declaration; anything that includes a dream ballet is a musical in my book.

Fringe Festival 2015: "One in Two Million"

Day: 8

Show: 36

Title: One in Two Million

Category: Drama

By: Seasons of Dreams

Written by: Nicole M. Lewis

Location: U of M Rarig Center Xperimental

Summary: The life and relationship of a young couple in love takes a turn when one of them is diagnosed with a rare and fatal disease.

Highlights: People use the phrase "one in a million" all the time to describe the uniqueness of someone they love, but in Lexi's case, she is literally one in two million when she's diagnosed with a disease that only affects one in two million people. As she struggles with the painful and debilitating effects of FOP, which causes her body to grow bone, Henry never leaves her side. They're determined to go through this together. As the young lovers, Cage Sebastian Pierre and Emily Rose Duea are both strong and appealing actors (and might I say, it's refreshing to see an inter-racial couple in which race is not an issue), and Eric Arthur Dreier provides strong support as the doctor who's equal parts fascinated by the rare disease and horrified by how it's affecting Lexi. This show was another last minute replacement for a sold out show, and I'm glad I got to witness this rare, beautiful, and heart-breaking love story.

Fringe Festival 2015: "Ferguson, USA"

Day: 8

Show: 35

Title: Ferguson, USA

Category: Drama

By: Random Walk Theatre Company

Written by: Maxwell Collyard

Location: U of M Rarig Center Arena

Summary: An intensely powerful play about the shooting of black teenager Michael Brown by a white cop in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014.

Highlights: Maxwell Collyard has written a powerful and thought-provoking play, weaving together scenes of the shooting and its aftermath with spoken word poetry, tied together with the recitation of what everyone agrees on: "who, what, when, where." The harder one to grasp is "why." The strong four-person cast (Andrew Erskine Wheeler, Ashe Jaafaru, Brid Henry, and Talief Bennet) plays multiple people involved, including a brother and sister who knew Michael, the cop who shot him, and FBI agents who may or may not be trying to get to the truth. I ended up seeing this show because the one I intended to see was sold out, and I'm glad I got the opportunity to witness this well-executed piece that tackles some important and difficult questions, without ever preaching to the audience or providing pat answers.

Fringe Festival 2015: "Stuff That Reminds Me of Other Things"

Day: 8

Show: 34

Title: Stuff That Reminds Me of Other Things

Category: Something Different

By: Keely Wolter

Created by: Keely Wolter

Location: walking tour starting at U of M Rarig Center

Summary: Two bright and spirited guides lead a small group of participants on a tour around the U of M West Bank neighborhood telling delightful stories.

Highlights: This charmingly original show, one of nine site-specific shows at the Fringe this year, is just as the title describes. Creator Keely Wolter is a disarming and engaging guide not just through the neighborhood but also her life, telling seemingly random and disconnected stories from her past. The stories range from silly to profound as she tells of anxiety, friendship, and dreams. Just when she gets to a particularly poignant point in a story, she lightly says "OK, let's go!" and it's on to the next memory. The soundtrack for this tour is a series of walking songs, from The Brady Bunch's "Sunshine Day" to "Walk Like A Man" and "These Boots Were Made for Walking." Director Rachel Petrie is an able and willing assistant (and I'm going to hold her to her promise to do her own memory tour next year). Each participant is given an official guidebook with photos related to the stories, in which they are encouraged to write down things that the stuff reminds them of, for the next holder of the guidebook to read. The tour is charming and engaging, encouraging participants to notice the beauty that's all around them, and is a nice chance to stretch the legs and enjoy the fresh air after a long week of Fringe-ing. I hope they continue this lovely tradition of the walking tour (see also last year's Into the Unreal City).

Fringe Festival 2015: "The Falling Up of Shel Silverstein"

Day: 8

Show: 33

Title: The Falling Up of Shel Silverstein

Category: Something Different

By: Jelly Bean Sheldon

Created by: Jelly Bean Sheldon

Location: U of M Rarig Center Xperimental

Summary: An absurdist dive into the world of poet/cartoonist Shel Silverstein.

Highlights: This show is a little like following Alice into Wonderland. But in this case we're following Shel Silverstein into the world of his imagination, which includes a backwards cowboy, a man peddling heads on the street, and a skin-stealer. The young eight-person cast is so enthusiastic and committed to telling this story that you can't help be swept away on the journey. The story is non-linear and imaginative, told in a series of odd little vignettes, with great use of music (blues guitar, fiddle, drum, etc.). I don't know much about Silverstein other than vague memories of his books Where the Sidewalk Ends and A Light in the Attic, but this piece, while it doesn't tell a clear story of his life, conveys a sense of who he is that makes me curious to know more about his life.

Fringe Festival 2015: "Breakneck Hamlet"

Day: 7

Show: 32

Title: Breakneck Hamlet

Category: Something Different

By: Timothy Mooney Repertory Theatre

Created by: Timothy Mooney

Location: Minneapolis Theatre Garage

Summary: A one-man show of Shakespeare's most famous play that includes every scene and comes in at under an hour.

Highlights: Timothy Mooney delivers an engaging, amusing, and respectful version of Hamlet that doesn't miss a thing, despite being less than an hour long. I've seen Hamlet many times (more than any other Shakespeare play), and yet I feel like I've gained new insights through this production. Timothy is a charming host as he leads us through every scene in the five-act play, sometimes describing the action, sometimes offering historical context, and sometimes reciting lines or monologues from the play. It's super fast but feels like a complete story, and Timothy delivers his adaptation with much energy, excitement, physicality, and a great use of the space at the Theatre Garage. You've probably seen Hamlet before, but you've never seen Hamlet quite like this.