Toil & Trouble a Millennial Retelling of the Scottish Play at Yellow Tree Theatre in Osseo

I’m not an expert of shakespeare but I am a fan so I try to and engage with his work whenever I can. I’m not a purist either, I love a good retelling or modern take, everything from Branagh’s Love’s Labours Lost to Strange Brew has a place in my film collection. Toil & Trouble by acclaimed playwright Lauren Gunderson is a modern riff on Macbeth set during the 2008 recession featuring thee thirtysomething friends who, inspired by a fortune cookie, conspire to take over a small island country off the coast of Chile. You know, instead of getting real jobs. Adam and Matt sit around their apartment as Adam comes up with one hairbrained idea after another for inventions to make money, while Matt shoots them down. Their friend Beth is a junior Sportscaster for Action 6 News whom they both “like” like. The characters have morals on par with the characters on Seinfeld, Adam hatches the plan, Matt follows along thanks to a fortune cookie message that says “Matt will be King hereafter”, and Beth is ruthless ambition incarnate. What starts as a strong comedic play about slacker roommates and the friend they both want to get with takes some very strange turns as it attempts to tell it’s story while loosely following some aspects of Shakespeare’s Scottish play. What is recognizable at the start as our world peopled by characters we can recognize, if not relate too, by the end has become a complete fantasy with the characters frequently interspersing their dialogue with snippets from Shakespeare. It’s an odd approach that doesn’t entirely add up to much and the fault dear readers is not with the production but in the script. I loved everything about the production, the performances, the design, but the sum of its parts left me wishing these elements were in service of a better script.

Jason Ballweber who usually is to be found behind the scenes plays Matt in a performance that goes a long way to making this near miss still worth checking out. His Matt and Alex Galick’s Adam end up complete opposites by the end of the play from where they started. As it opens, Ballweber plays Matt as the realistic, intelligent, and more mature seeming of the two, has an air of authority over the flighty Adam who thinks anything that Rhymes is an innovation. By the end he’s a pug snorting follower who passes out at the sight of hot sauce whereas Adam has become confident and holds the upper hand. Both actors handle the transition well and make the reversal seem plausible. Olivia Kemp plays Beth as someone who knows what they want and how to get it, masterfully playing off the men’s desire for her to manipulate them into doing exactly what she wants. Well directed by Brandon Raghu who along with Lighting Designer Alex Clark stages a dramatic looking play to be sure. I also enjoyed the set design by Sarah Brandner which has a depth that is well utilized particularly in a scene when Adam comes home late at night and leaves the refrigerator door open after heading to bed in the pitch black apartment.

Ultimately, I enjoyed much of the production but found the script absurd and out there but in an unfulfilling or engaging way. Gunderson’s idea of filling the final scene with Shakespearean dialogue is less effective that the modern rewordings or nods used earlier in the play. She needed to go one way or the other. The plot is insane but not in a ‘this is wild’ way, but more I can’t find any sort of grounding for this story so that it lands with some sort of impact. It’s a rare for a script by Gunderson not to work completely but this just comes up short. That said, there’s enough good stuff on offer with the play to make it a fun excursion to the theatre. Having a decent knowledge of Macbeth will increase your appreciation of the piece, some humor really does work only if you know the play. Also, it feels like my fellow bloggers and I have been saying this a lot lately but if your play can be done in 100 minutes or less, you don’t need an intermission. Toil & Trouble runs through March 3rd at Yellow Tree Theatre in Osseo, for more information and to purchase tickets go to https://yellowtreetheatre.com/toilandtrouble

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