Minnesota Fringe Day 11 (Final Day): Rat Mass, The Jaws That Bite, The Claws That Catch! The Wickie(The Stages of MN Fringe of the Day Award winner).

We Did it!!! At least those of us who attended the Minnesota Fringe Festival this year did. I Saw 48 shows over 10 days, only missing one day entirely for a Wednesday evening Minnesota United game. On the final day of Fringe I also attended a Minnesota United game, but was able to fit in two shows before the game and then get back for a show in the final slot on Sunday and to attend the closing night party and awards ceremony. August 20th will be our official 2025 Minnesota Fringe Wrap Up episode rather than as originally announced “What the Hell’s a Theater Blogger”, which we’ll save for a future episode. Speaking of Theater Bloggers and awards, I want to give a shout out to my friend and fellow Twin Cities Theater Blogger in good standing Kendra Plant who writes Artfully Engaging which you can read and subscribe to here https://www.kendraplant.com/blog-artfully-engaging. Kendra was a first time producer at this years Minnesota Fringe festival with her show The Kendra Plant Variety Hour: Good Things Edition! -with special guests-, which won a Golden Lanyard Award!!! We’ll have a rundown of all of the award winners on that next episode of The Stages of MN YouTube Show and Podcast. Here are my reviews for the three shows I saw on the final day!

Rat Mass, would probably have gotten my vote for The Spirit of the Fringe Award had I seen it before the last day. This show is full of the type of audience participation I can really get behind. There is never any pressure or coaxing, if you wanted to participate you could, if not you were never threatened with shunning or excommunication. Rat Mass takes the form of a service of the Church of Ratology. Which worships the rat as the ideal form of life. During the sermon communion will be given, three offerings will be taken, with the winner of the best offering being crowned. At the service I attended the winner put in an epipen. There are also hymes led by the rat chorus and you could choose to be baptized into the church at the end by having your face dipped into a bowl of Apple Cider Vinegar. I was not baptized, but I did drink the Apple Cider vinegar that was offered as communion, the taste of which took about 2 hours to fully leave my mouth. The Ministers of the Church of Ratology Joseph Bryant and Perry Letourneau are very charismatic and game for just about anything. https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2025/rat-mass

The Jaws That Bite, the Claws That Catch! is a play by Edwin Strout which begins with a character played by Strout expressing his adoration of the poem “Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll. It then quickly devolves into fragmented conversations with his best friend played by David Denninger and an ex girlfriend played by Anna Olson. We take these conversations, at first, as ones that are taking place in chronological order. But soon, we begin to realize they are memories or perhaps even just delusions occurring within Strout’s mind. The poem, perhaps the most famous nonsense poem in the english language, though originally written and published over a decade earlier appeared in Carroll’s sequel to Alice in Wonderland, Through the Looking-Glass. The nonsensical nature of the poem fits in well with the mirror world into which Alice ventures in the book. But when Strout tries to apply real world meaning and understanding to the work, we feel that it has perhaps shattered his mind. Strouts performance is convincing and one of the strongest of the festival. https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2025/the-jaws-that-bite-the-claws-that-catch-

The Wickie is a solo clowning show by Richie Whitehead. What’s a Wickie you ask? A Wickie is a person who looks after a lighthouse and keeps the light (it’s wick) lit. It opens with the Wickie confronting the Ocean (pronounced Oh Shawn) for stealing his left shoe. We do get some audience participation, but again it’s very consensual. This was a fantastic way to end the festival and I’m glad I decided to rush back after my game and catch one more show. The Wickie is a great show for the whole family, full of laughs, with clever and deceptively simple gags. It’s the type of show where you think “that’s such a simple thing, but it’s so funny”. Its good natured silliness, and Whitehead’s precise physical humor made this the final The Stages of MN Fringe of the Day Award winner. https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2025/the-wickie

That’s it for day Eleven and in fact the Minnesota Fringe Festival itself. You can click on the Fringe website here to get details on all of the shows https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2025. Don’t forget to tune into The Stages of MN YouTube channel or podcast on or around 8/20 for The MN Fringe Festival wrap up episode https://www.youtube.com/@TheStagesofMN

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