Month: November 2021

Theatre Pro Rata Presents “Top Girls”a Stripped Down Production of a Thought Provoking Play

Pictured: Maggie Cramer, Nissa Nordland Morgan, Emily Rosenberg, Kelsey Cramer, Sarah Broude
Credit: Alex Wohlhueter

Theatre Pro Rata’s latest play is a marvel of construction and ideas. I’ve found myself thinking about the subject matter long after I would normally have started writing. Top Girls is a play written by Caryl Churchill and set in Great Britain in the early 80’s. It examines the roles available to women in our society at that time and what the cost of success can be. It looks at the subject matter by comparing and contrasting it with women from the past and by showing us various women interacting with each other. All characters that appear in the play are female but the male perspective is not entirely absent. It is felt in the way the characters behave and react to their circumstances. Sometimes they are showing us what they have to do in order to make it in a still heavily Patriarchal society, at others we see them model the same patronizing attitudes they hate from men towards each other. It is a play full of complex characters that showcase the ambiguities of humanity – an important work that challenges the audience to keep up. Unfortunately, this production of an amazing script stumbles at times to translate the ideas beyond the stage to those of us in the theater seats. It’s not a bad production, there is a lot to like here and it’s a rare opportunity to see this classic of modern theatre performed. I urge you to attend and I’ll try and give you some pointers on how to get the most out of it.

The play opens in a restaurant. We see Marlene who is here to celebrate her promotion as head of the Top Girls Employment Agency. She is joined by women from the past both historical and fictional. They proceed to converse and eat, each of the women relating their experiences, the scene written and performed in such a way that the dialogue overlaps. We might not catch everything that’s said, as is often the case at a larger dinner party, with conversations happening at opposite ends of the table. Although all this isn’t occurring in the real world of the play, but is a representation of an idea being played out: “What if you could have dinner with anyone from history?” This is an interesting way to begin the play, showing us the roles and experiences of women through time. I like this idea of creating the atmosphere of the dinner party, and it seems to me by the end that in many ways these various women were different aspects of Marlene and the other characters, but unfortunately this opening scene is also where the production falters.

Firstly, the stage is set in the middle of the theatre and there are chairs on both sides for the audience. The problem with Director Carin Bratlie Wethern’s staging the production like this is that if you are not micing your actors, much of the dialogue is inaudible. I got there a little later than I like to and so was seated to the side, but I was still in the second row and it isn’t a large theatre. The character of Pope Joan for instance was seated with her back to me for most of the scene and even though she was the closest to me I rarely could make out her dialogue because she is talking in concert with other characters and speaking away from me. This happened with multiple characters. The second issue with the scene is that it isn’t clear what is happening here.
Partly due to lost dialogue, this concept of a fantasy dinner takes much too long to really become clear. There needed to be some way to convey that this was not reality up front. An example perhaps of the value a Director’s note in a program can add. The costuming also would have been a way to make clearer who these women were from the start. While the costumes by Eleanor Schanilec convey the idea of who these people are, this is an area where more would have sold the idea to the audience a lot faster. Thankfully, after this scene and a short one right after it that features two young friends talking, the staging and audibility issues were largely eliminated. The play is told nonlinearly with the final scene being the earliest chronologically, it’s revelations affecting how we view Marlene and the earlier scenes. After the opening scene rest of the play is set in the real world and involves Marlene and the other employees at Top Girls, as well as clients, Marlene’s sister Joyce, her niece Angie and her friend Kit.

Aside from needing to project more to compensate for the staging, the entire cast does a great job, most of them essaying multiple roles, with the exception of Maggie Cramer in the lead. The stand out for me was Emily Rosenberg, who played Dull Gret in the opening dinner scene. Rosenberg spends most of the scene delivering one word answers, so when they climb up on the table and talk about marching into hell, the entire audience took note. It is a speech delivered with power and backed by the surprise of it’s unlikely source. Rosenberg also plays the niece Angie who, in some ways, is an extension of Dull Gret. In both roles they find a way to surprise us, and in a play very focused on ideas, they provide the emotional in for the audience. Maggie Cramer as Marlene and Kelsey Laurel Cramer as her sister Joyce have a brilliant interaction in the final scenes where our sympathies change. It really is a brilliant script. The cast is rounded out by Megan Kim and Nissa Nordland Morgan as the employees of Top Girls, with Sarah Broude and Ninchai Nok-Chiclana as clients in little vignettes illustrating the complexities of these women: their roles, their strengths and their weaknesses – at times supportive of each other, at times cruel and petty. Kelsey Laurel Cramer has a scene as the wife of the colleague that Marlene beat out for head of Top Girls. We see her try to help her husband, certainly a kind gesture, but without realizing that in doing so she is making the argument that women don’t matter as much as men. It’s such a pleasure to see a play where even a five minute role has nuances and shades of character that some main characters don’t have in other plays.

Top Girls is worth your time. It will make you think and make you questions things, including, by the end, what you thought of the first half. Top Girls runs through November 21st at the Crane Theatre in northeast Minneapolis. For more information and to purchase tickets click here https://www.theatreprorata.org/. I recommend getting there early, seating is General Admission. I’d suggest sitting front row dead center if you can manage it. Hopefully with that placement and a heads up of what is happening in that first scene you will really be able to key in from the beginning.

(Updated) A Shoe I Can’t Get Out of My Head, The Red Shoes at Open Eye Three Shows Left, But Sadly One is Sold Out Already!!

Photo by Ron Ravensborg and Graphic by Holmes Design

So This has never happened to me before, I’m taking another stab at this review. Normally time simply doesn’t allow for it. But due to time constraints and a desire to get my review up ASAP so people had time to catch this amazing show before it closed I posted even though I wasn’t entirely happy with it. When you see one of the best shows you’ve seen since you began reviewing you want that review to be one of the best as well. Well I’m not going to put that pressure on myself but I do want to get it to a point where It isn’t gnawing at me that I could have done better.

Thank God this show was held over for another week or I would have missed it and so would’ve you. The Red Shoes still has these added shows; Thurs, Nov. 4, 7:30pm, Fri, Nov. 5, 7:30pm, Sat, Nov. 6, 7:30pm. Sadly Thursday has sold out, making it the 9th consecutive performance to have sold out. Thankfully not before I snagged three more tickets so my wife and I could seeit and take my eldest son. Go to https://www.openeyetheatre.org/the-red-shoes for more information and to buy tickets. I’ll wait while you go buy tickets, do it now, they may be gone before you finish reading this. Done? OK let’s get started. First of all when you go, keep all hands and arms inside your chair at all times, at least that’s what they should have said. From the second the house lights went down and the show experience began, I felt like I was on a theme park ride. There are certain shows that function as testimonials to what a magical thing theatre can be, that highlight creativity and fully immerse you in their own unique reality. The Red Shoes is just such a show. This is artists working at the highest level in Production design, Lighting, Sound, Costume, Puppetry, not to mention Direction and Performance. This is the reason I do this. Shows like this that you immediately want everyone you know to see as well. The Red Shoes is not only firing on all cylinders, the people behind it actually built the cylinders from scratch.

The plot reminds me of the Bogart classic The Big Sleep, in that you are not sure it all adds up at the end but you don’t care because the journey to the end of the line was so good. To give you an idea, the main character is a mousy woman who never leaves her apartment, she seems to be trying to figure out who she is by reconstructing memories or perhaps dreams using a miniature design of locations and puppets. She is terrified of the phone and of anyone coming to the door. She is badgered by her relentless Landlady, sympathized with by the local Newsboy, and stalked by a mysterious figure in a trenchcoat. There is something very interesting about all of these other characters but one hopes to leave that as a surprise. The wonder of this show is the surprises and the execution of them.

Kimberly Richardson plays the main character, assisted by Sabrin Diehl, Noah Sommers Haas, and Kalen Rainbow Kier, but it is Richardson’s show all the way. It’s a tour de force of physical and vocal dexterity. We wholly buy her timidity as the play opens, terrified of the ringing phone and her landlady who’s comments come through a very unexpected source. But she equally sells other characters as she acts out the nightmares with her puppets. The fairy tale on which the show draws its inspiration tells the story of a vain girl who after choosing to dance rather than attend her mother’s funeral is cursed to dance even after she dies. This version does not follow that plot but there are clues within it that might help us understand what we have seen. There is some dance, just enough to show us that Richardson is someone in complete control of her body. As fascinating as Richardson is in the central role, it’s not her only job, she also co-wrote the play and choreographed it.

As talented and engaging as Richardson is, the true star of the show may just be the Productions technical crew. As I sat preparing for the evening’s performance to start I was impressed with the sets design by Joel Sass and the lead Scenic Artist Michael Sommers. It has the look of a set but in all the right ways, there is a storybook quality to the 40’s era apartment that feels heightened. There are set designs that look like real locations and then there are set designs that look like sets, both have there place depending on what the production is going for. This was perfect for the nightmarish world we are witnessing. It has the feel of a film noir movie set as designed by Dr. Seuss. The set construction by Brandon Sisneroz and Sommers Haas is a marvel, when the show starts, it comes alive in truly original ways. Unlike some shows which amaze you at the start by spilling all their secrets up front, this one continues to surprise right up until the end. But it isn’t just the set. The play opens with a combination of lighting, sound, and smoke effect that announced right from the start that this was going to be a rollercoaster of an evening. Thrilling and visceral work from Bill Healey in Lighting Design assisted by Ellie Simonett. Sean Healey’s Sound Design puts you inside the play in a way I’ve never experienced before. I was filled with wonder and amazement at what I was seeing and with what these artists came up with to express their vision.

There is nothing more inspiring than seeing creativity brought to life in such a palpable way. One leaves the theatre wanting to create something to express the joy you feel inside at the marvel you have just witnessed. This production is in the top ten in person theatrical experiences I have ever had. It reminded me of the thrill I had in the spring of 2019 when two productions led me to repeat attendances, bringing new people with me each time. That is what gave me the idea to become a theater reviewer, that desire to share something that knocked my socks off with others. The Red Shoes brought me right back to spring 2019 and I started urging everyone to get tickets, see it! And that is the reason I had to take another pass at this review. Because it felt like this show represented why I have dedicated so many hours in theatre seats and twice as many at a keyboard writing about them. Because it inspired me to share. I still don’t think I’ve done the show justice, but it’s unfair to hold myself up to the standard of this production. If I’ve inspired a few people to see this show, and I know I have, that is enough to have made the ride worthwhile. The Red Shoes is everything theatre can be while at the same time being uniquely its own. What a beautiful thing that is to behold. I urge you not to miss your chance to experience The Red Shoes.