Kevin's Minnesota Theatre Adventures - THE MOUSETRAP, FUN HOME, THE NACIREMA SOCIETY, and THE BIRDS- Page 3

[THDavis]

Posted: 3/10/25 at 4:28pm

I’m a Twin Cities native (LA now) and Guthrie fan - SUPER excited to see their Come From Away! 

[KevinKlawitter]

Posted: 3/23/25 at 9:16pm

ELEEMOSYNARY is the second show produced by a local-ish group called Kitchen Sink Productions - their first  was a production of Two Rooms a few months ago - I don't know if the producers have a thing for Lee Blessing plays or if this was just a coincidence, but I guess we'll see what happens when they announce their next show.  At any rate, Eleemosynary is a much different play, somewhat more light-hearted, and with a more personal scope,  It tells the story of three generations of women, all of whom varying degrees of intellectual and eccentric, and how their relationships became strained as they react to each others' sometimes abrasive personalities,  Three actors play the women at varying ages as the play wheels through time, sliding back and forth between the various characters' POV.  Echo is the youngest, a spelling whiz who near the start of the play encounters an existential crisis when she realizes that after winning the national Spelling Bee, there's no adult equivalent way to apply those skills.  Her grandmother is Dorothea, a self-styled eccentric who tries to find ways to make humans fly and communicate with the dead, among other thing, and in between the two generations is Artemis, a brilliant scientific mind who felt alienated from her mother and ended up alienating herself from her daughter.  The actors playing Echo and Artemis gave fantastic performances... the actor playing Dorothea was fine, but felt a litte muted and stiff in comparison to her co-stars.  The production was fairly simple - like Two Rooms the venue was a showroom in a thrift store, this time made up into a rudimentary prosencium rather than the previous production which was a rudimentary theatre-in-the-round, and I have to give them credit for some really precise and effective lighting in their makeshift location.  Overall, this was a really moving and well-acted drama and a terrific sophomore effort by the company.

The Guthrie's A Midsummer Night's Dream was a delight.  Not quite as slick as the previous productions of Hamlet or The History Plays, but working with one of Shakespeare's messier and more complicated comedies brings its own scrappy charm.  It starts out a little slow with a lot of set up before the characters run off to the woods, but once it gets there the show finds its groove and the energy level reaches a fever pitch.  This is a very music-heavy production, with songs and live accompaniment by Jack Herrick that helps at time turn Shakespeare's verse into lovely lyrics.The core foursome are Ari Derambakhsh (Hermia), Jonathan Luke Stevens (Lysander), Justin Withers (Demetrius) and Royer Bockus (Helena), who all show wonderful chemistry, with Bockus in particular showing truly delightful comedic chops.  John Catron and Regina Marie Williams do double duty as the human and fairy royals, adding a sense of continuity to the worlds inside and outside of the woods, with Williams displaying her trademark magnetism during her seduction of Bottom.  William Sturdiant, so good as Henry IV, is a bit underused here.  As Egeus he mostly seems to yell his lines... he's better as Peter Quince ,bouncing off the other actors in the company with good comic timing.  Remy Auberjonois as Bottom is absolutely hilarious, taking on the classic character of the actors whose ego is as big as his talent is limited with aplomb.  The scene-stealer of the cast, however, is Jimmy Kieffer as Puck.  Seeming to operate in his own little world, he sometimes sings his lines like Elvis or cackles with delight at the chaos he has unwittingly unleashed.  He lights up the show whenever he's on stage. The choreography is also really fun - this is the most funny involcation of "She be little, but she be fierce!" I have ever seen, to say nothing of the hilarious way the show recaps the first act following intermission.  I also have to mention the incredibly cute gimmick of the show composing an original song based on the love story of a couple from the audience - this performance's song was about a woman and her wife who met while camping and have been together for 40 years - it was genuinely very sweet and moving.  

I'm currently in the last week or so of rehearsals of a community theatre production of The Play That Goes Wrong, and I'm having a lot of fun.  There's a bit of meta-amusement that our production has had its share of mishaps already, including parts having to be recast and various issues involving a a door sticking in place or falling on actors, but everything is coming together the way community theatre always does in the home stretch.  I can't be sure what else I'll be seeing soon (i've had to give away several tickets to shows due to time conflicts with my own performances) but I'll definitely do my best to see a nearby production of Rent.

Updated On: 3/24/25 at 09:16 PM

[KevinKlawitter]

Posted: 4/19/25 at 11:39pm

I admittedly was never all that familiar with Rent as a musical except by reputation, so when I saw the new production from one of the local theatre groups I've enjoyed watching and also working with, I wasn't sure what I was in for. This is a show that sneaks up on you, starting out small by introducing its characters, their passions, and their problems. This made the early scenes feel a little bit messy and disorganized - a lot of characters and setup with not a lot of plot to move them foward. But as the play progressed, I saw eventually the show was about how the world these characters have built up for themselves, small and insular as it sometimes may be, still matters. It matters because they live in it, and many have nowhere else to go. This show has a wonderful cast. - my favorites were the actors playing Angel, Mimi, and Collins, but the director found ways for even the individual ensemble performaners to be given chances to shine. The actor playing Roger was a bit one note at first, but once Mimi entered the show to give him someone to bounce off of he became much more engaging. There were some technical issues - the mics worn by the actord didn't always work and the use of projections for the documentary at the end felt uninspired, but what felt truly inspiring was the obvious love for the story and material that radiated from all of the performers. 

I was able to catch one of the final performances of Secret Warriors at the History Theatre, which was yet another engaging and thought-provoking play that illuminates a provocative piece of history that might otherwise be forgotten. The show tells the story of four Japanese-American soldiers who were recruited to serve as translators and interpreters in the Pacific Theater during World War II - a time when most of their families were being held in internment camps. What does it mean to serve a country that doesn't see you as a real citizen? How do you trust a government that doesn't trust you? This play by R.A. Shomi (whose noir pastiche Fire in the New World I very much enjoyed at Park Square Theatre a few years ago) deftly directed by Lily Tung Crystal, directly confronts those and other issues. Erik Ohno Dagoberg gave an incredibly charismatic performance alongside the more sensitive and interior Clay Man Soo as a pair of recruits whose ambivalence about their place in a country that's actively discriminating against them doesn't hamper their devotion to their duty. Their performances help make some of the more heavy-handed and on-the-nose elements of Shiomi's script work. The first act showcases the soldiers going through their training, communicating with their interred families, and even finding time for romance (an element of the story I was fully prepared to roll my eyes at, but the relationships ended up being genuinely sweet, and I soon found myself fully invested in them). The second act shows the men on duty in the Pacific, leading to some excellently directed scenes of suspense as the soldiers engage in combat both physical (on the front lines in Burma) and psychic (through interrogation). The Japanese soldiers are wisely portrayed as just as complicated, human, and devoted to their country as our Japanese-American protagonists, which was a touch I really appreciated. All of this culminated in an epilogue that is moving and poignant that brought genuine tears to my eyes.

For my part, I just finished a run of The Play That Goes Wrong that despite some early misgivings and worries ended up being an incredibly satisfying show to be part of, one that the audiences clearly loved. I had a ticket to see the tour of Mean Girls, but I had to give it away to a friend, and they told me they had a really fun time.

[KevinKlawitter]

Posted: 4/28/25 at 5:18pm

The Guthrie Theatre's production of The Mousetrap is so impeccably mounted that in trying to find things to criticize about it, it's tough to think of anything beyond the well-worn nature of the material itself.  However, whether you're aware of the story or not - I knew the final twist going in because of a joke in (of all things) Ian McKellen's Acting Shakespeare - This Tracy Brigden-directed murder mystery is a funny and suspenseful piece of entertainment that may be pound-for-pound one of the most satisfying theatergoing experiences I've had this year. There's not a weak link in the cast, and the layers in Agatha Christie's script ensure that even the actors who initially seem underserved by the material (such as Monette Magrath and Peter Christian Hansen as Mollie and Giles Ralston, the "straight man" couple who own the boarding house at which the mystery unfolds) later find moments to shine as secrets are unveiled and loyalties are tested. Surrounding them are the usual assortment of colorful supporting characters, such as Greg Cuellar as the hilariously flamboyant Christopher Wren, Mo Perry as the perfectly snotty Mrs. Boyle, Emjoy Gavino as the irresistibly opaque Miss Casewell, and Matthew Amendt as the nervy Detective Sergeant Trotter. Pearce Bunting is nearly unrecognizable as Major Metcalf (whose makeup and costuming make him look uncannily like Colonel Mustard), while Matthew Saldivar smartly underplays the role of Paravicini. These actors are clearly having fun bouncing off one another in  Walt Spangler's meticulously detailed set during both the largely comedic first act as well as in an Act Two that becomes so suspenseful by the end that you can hear a pin drop from the audience. Also worth noting is the excellent sound design and musuic by John Gromada, which utilizes "Three Blind Mice" to a chilling end.  This is the sort of show that just makes you feel glad to be able to go out to the theatre, and any fan of murder mysteries should see it if they can.

Speaking of shows that make you feel glad to be able to go to the theatre. Theatre Latte Da's new production of Fun Home is a very funny and deeply moving show. LIsa Kron and Jeanine Tesori's adaptation of the autobiographical graphic novel by Alison Bechdel tells Bechdel's story as she explores her relationship with her father and how it helped shape her into the person she became ("he was gay and I was gay, he killed himself, and I became a lesbian cartoonist".  Alison is played at three different ages by Sara Masterson, Eve Scharback (whose performance of "Ring of Keys" brings the house down), and Morty Hays.  The three of them all create distinctive characters while also illuminating each others' performances, and none overshadow the others.  Alison Bechdel's father Bruce is played by Shad Hanley in a performance that deftly moves from charming and funny to tragic and at times frightening (between this and last year's production of Beautiful at Chanhassen, Shad Hanley is making a mark for himself playing husbands and fathers who try their hardest but are still beset by personal demons). Addie Gorlin-Han's staging is simple but effective, with the stage's backdrop filled with knickknacks and accoutrements that represent the Bechdel family home, with other props and pieces of furniture moved on and off as needed and augmented by Alice Trent's effective (and at times unexpected) lighting design.  Through 90 minutes of laughter and tears, this is a show will leave you thinking about your own family and how your life was shaped by others.

And speaking of families that are shaped by others, the third show I saw over the weekend was The Nacirema Society Requests Your Peresence at a Celebration of their First One Hundred Years.  This is a comedy by Pearl Cleage set in Alabama in the 1960s, centered on an upper-class Black family who are members of the titular Society, one of those social groups founded by the upper class that seems to serve no purpose other than to remind everybody that its members are upper class.  We follow society Maven Grace Dubose Dunbar(Greta Oglesby, showing an unflappable aristocratic air) as she prepares for the Society's 100th celebration, where her granddaughter Gracie (Nubia Monks, full of energy and verve) will be the Princess.  To this we add enough subplots of scheming, secrets, and conflicts to fill up a month's worth of soap opera episodes.  For instance, Grace wants Gracie to marry her Best Friend Caroline's (Regina Marie Williams, finally being able to cut loose and fully embrace comic character) son Bobby (a charming Darrick Mosley), but he and Gracie, while good friends, don't love each other, and besides, Bobby is already in love with Lillie (Essence Renae), a med school classmate who is *gasp* of a lower class.  In addition, a New York Times reporter (Joy Dolo) admired by aspiring writer Gracie is doing a story on the Society to make up for a previous one that made them look snooty and out of touch (go figure).  And most importantly, Alpha Campbell Power (Aimee K. Bryant, blunt and confident) the daughter of the Dunbar's former maid (and mother of Lillie), is claiming that Grace's late husband was her father and is seeking compensation "for pain and suffering" (really to pay for Lillie's med school bills).  All of these various plotlines are set up and begin to intertwine during Act One and come to a head during a dinner party in Act Two .  Half of the fun of a show like this is seeing just how complicated the story can become before it risks collapsing into an incoherent mess, but director Valerie Curtis-Newton is able to deliver it with good pacing and a light touch, while the impeccable cast makes sure you always know where their characters stand at any given time.  While primarily a comedy, this show also touches on issues related to race and class, sometimes playing them for drama as well as for laughs.  This means that tonally the show never reaches the point of a madcap farce that you might expect, but it also makes the characters all human and understandable.  There are no real villains in this show - even the more unscrupulous characters have sympathetic and empathetic moments.  I had a very good time watching this, and it's always fun to be introduced to a show I was unfamiliar with.

And speaking of shows I was unfamiliar with , Theatre X's production of The Birds at The Hive Collaborative hit the trifecta of organization, ,show, and venue that I had never heard of .  Of course I've seen the Hitchcock movie, but I was curious how it would be adapted to the stage, and even more curious when I saw the venue of The Hive Collaborative in St. Paul was a small Black Box theatre. As I soon discovered, the adaptation by Conor McPherson of Daphne Du Maurier's short story  (directed by Joe Hendren) is uniquely well suited for a Black Box, reducing the story down to its bare elements: a few survivors find themselves in an unfamiliar New England house as they try to escape an Avian onslaught that comes and goes with the tides.  Initially, we have Kari Elizabeth Godfrey as Diane and Tim Reddy as Nat, who are later joined by Ankita Ashrit as Julia, another survivor who stumbles into the house as she escapes from the danger posed by both birds and the humans she was travelling with.  The story follows the familiar arc posed by many disaster/apocalyptic narratives - initial shock from the trauma, trying to recreate some sense of normality amid the peril, and then interpersonal conflict that threatens to tear it all apart. The ever-present danger of the birds is embodied by impeccably good sound design by Forest Godfrey, making the audience feel immersed by nature sounds that once may have felt comforting but now give a sense of mounting doom.  Even the incidental sounds of people shifting in the audience build up the tension.  The rest of the direction, while undeniably tense, and feel one note.  The early scenes especially the actors seem to be constantly speaking with terse delivery and in borderline whispers as they try to embody how scared the characters are.  At other times there are long gaps between lines of dialogue that after a while feel less intended to ratchet up the tension and more to extend the runtime. It gets more engaging once Julia is introduced and the characters have more to alk about rather than just the danger (Jon Stentz also appears in one terrific scene as another survivor whose conversation with Diane is dripping with ambiguity). Overall, this was a fine thriller, but one that might have benefitted from a  slightly more varied tone and tighter direction.

Updated On: 4/28/25 at 05:18 PM