Speechless by The Moving Company Left Me Speechless at the Jungle Theater

Speechless accurately describes both the show and my reaction to it. A remount of The Moving Company’s 2017 production that aimed to reflect our collective despair following the 2016 election of Donald Trump. This latest production is either forecasting a return to despair or reflecting our dread of what may happen. Whichever it is, the message of the piece, if I read it correctly, is that through community we can comfort each other and work to brighten our future. The show which runs about 75 minutes doesn’t contain a single spoken word. There is music and the actors make sounds like sneezing, but otherwise it all plays out like a silent movie. It’s not a comedy or a drama but it hits both veins of theatre throughout. It contains elements of Chaplin at his most pathosie with touches of Keaton’s surrealism but the movement is always graceful and purposeful. Opening with the death of Hope ,the five performers, Kenzi Allen, Steven Epp, Helen Hatch, Nathan Keepers, and Randy Reyes go through the motions of a funeral. The greive, they enjoy some refreshment and companionship, they clean up, they move on. From the ashes of the cremated hope will finally rise the possibility of a brighter world, if they can just get through the grief.

There is hardly anything more I can say without trying to describe the actions they perform, which I will not attempt. I think the information above will give you a road map through which to navigate the show. But, we all bring to something like this our own perception, so don’t feel inhibited by my reading, allow yourself to interpret what you see in your own way. I was more or less speechless after the show, unsure how to process or interpret it, I needed time to sit with it a bit. It’s obviously a sad show at the beginning, but I encourage you to laugh when something touches you as funny. I think one of the lessons is that, even in the darkest times we should find humor when and wherever we can. Speechless runs through November 10th at the Jungle Theater in Uptown. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.themovingco.org/

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The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane Charms at Stages Theater Company

Leah Rimstad and Asher Rilen Photo by Amy Rondeau Photography

Based upon the novel The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by celebrated Newbery Award winning Minnesota author Kate Dicamillo this production at Stages Theatre Company is warm, emotional, and utterly Charming. I’ve not read the novel but I am familiar with the story from attending the Minnesota Opera’s Edward Tulane in 2022 during its world premiere. The highlight of that show was the extravagant production design while in this version Scenic Designer Sarah Brandner seems to benefit from going the opposite direction. Not that there is no design, it’s that rather than being lavious and detailed here Brandner is subtle, simple, and all the more entrancing for it. Rather than being wowed by spectacle we are drawn in by a design that pulls us into the characters. With moments as simple as the sky lighting up with stars, which the audience I attended the show with, made up of a few hundred grade schoolers were audibly wowed by. They loved it and old as I am, I confess I did as well.

The story follows the journey of Edward Tulane a rabbit made of China. Edward is given at first by a grandmother to her granddaughter Abilene. The Rabbit is represented on stage by a Rabbit doll but also by a young actor named Asher Rilen who gives voice to Edwards inner thoughts. When we first meet him Edward is very vain and only cares about how he looks and himself. The girl dearly loves him and makes everyone in her family include him, but whatever they say is just noise to him, he’s only interested in himself. One day when the family goes on a vacation on a large ship Edward is lost overboard, he spends months and months at the bottom of the ocean until a storm comes a long and churns up the sea. A fisherman catches Edward in his net and brings him home to his wife, who makes him a dress and names him Suzanna, he is happy there until fate steps in again and he is separated from them. The plot continues on in episodic fashion with Edward being taken in by various people with their own stories to share and their own names to give him. The constant is that everyone he goes to loves him and by the time he has been smashed and then repaired and placed in a doll shop, he has learned to love and is no longer concerned with just his appearance.

There are separations and there are deaths in the story, there is cruelty, but there is also kindness. Director Anna Crace handles the darker aspects with skill, presenting them as the tragedies or injustices that they are, so that the younger members register them. Then she moves on, because a play like life has to move forward. Asher Rilen is very good as Edward, it’s a difficult role for a young actor to be the main character but also not be aloud to act out their role physically, relying almost entirely on a vocal performance, while appearing on stage and not fidgeting. Asher finds the stillness that is needed and accomplishes way more through his performance than had he been able to act out the role of Edward physically. The young cast all do a great job, there is none of the awkwardness or self conscious hand movements that you sometimes encounter with younger performers. The two adult cast members, Grant Hooyer and Charlene Hong White, both of whom play multiple characters throughout Edwards journey are both excellent in every persona they take on. They are great examples to the young cast of how to create multiple distinct characters within a play.

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane runs through October 27th at Stages Theatre Company in Hopkins. It’s the sort of children’s show that will also enchant the adults in the audience, making it a great show for the whole family. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.stagestheatre.org/the-miraculous-journey-of-edward-tulane/

But that’s not all! Think I may have steered you wrong on a show? Well, I am also a member of the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers (TCTB), where you can read roundups of shows by m’colleagues and I when you follow us on facebook @TwinCitiesTheaterBloggers. We also produce the podcast Twin Cities Theater Chat!! which you can access through this link or wherever you enjoy podcasts https://twincitiestheaterchat.buzzsprout.com/ . Now you too can be in the know about all the fabulous theater happening in and around the Twin Cities.

Measure For Measure is Must See Shakespeare From the Birth Play Project at A-Mill Artists Loft

Measure for Measure is one of Shakespeare’s lesser known plays. I’ve never seen it performed before and have no recollection of skipping it if it has been performed locally in recent years. The play is usually given a pass as one of Shakespeare’s problem plays. Is it a comedy or is it a tragedy, what happens exactly at the end and as the cast performing this production acknowledges, there are some twists and convolutions that nobody understands why they are included. Based on this one exposure to Measure for Measure I think this may be Shakespeare inventing the black comedy. The great thing about Shakespeare is that all the plays are around 400 years old, they’re in the public domain baby! You can do whatever you want with them, that’s how we get a Hamlet adaptation entitled Strange Brew and Henry IV as My Own Private Idaho. You can cut, rearrange, add to, completely modernize, and even set it on a Forbidden Planet. The Birth Play Project’s adaptation by Madeline Wall & William Edson embraces that freedom and comes up with a captivating production that feels like a Ten Thousand Things Shakespeare production. That is some very nice company to be in and The Birth Play Project earns their place at the table.

The play opens with Vienna’s Duke Vincentio placing Angelo in charge when she has to leave the city. She doesn’t actually leave though but disguises herself as a nun in order to observe Angelo and the citizens without their knowledge. Angelo, mad with power, decrees that anyone having sex out of wedlock will be put to death. The first offender is Claudio and his lover Juliet, who he is in the process of marrying and is pregnant. Claudio’s sister Isabella comes to plead with Angelo for Claudio’s life. This scene is where the show really clicked for me. Isabella Dunsieth who plays Isabella and Madeline Wall who plays Angelo debate back and forth like a slightly more serious Benedict and Beatrice. Angelo falls for Isabella, who is in the process of taking her vows to become a nun. All comparisons to that “will they or won’t they” couple end abruptly when Angelo agrees to let Claudio live if Isabella will sleep with her (Did I mention there is a lot of gender swapping in this production?). Isabella relays the information to Claudio who expresses his feelings that dying is worse than losing your virginity. Isabella is assisted by a nun, really the Duke in disguise, and it is arranged that Angelo will have sex with someone else thinking it is Isabella. After having her way with Isabella’s stand in, Angelo changes her mind and orders Claudios head to be cut off immediately. Again the Duke in disguise intervenes and another prisoners head is cut off instead. Can you kind of see why this is a Problem play? The twists and turns and convolutions are right out of his comedies, except instead of pretending to be a servant and wooing a princess, they are swapping people to be beheaded. It’s absurd and also very very dark. I didn’t even mention the live birth, that you almost sort of witness.

I absolutely loved what Wall and Edson who also co-directed the play did with this adaptation. Likewise the cast is excellent and embraces the weirdness of the play and all its twists and odd turns. They do two things that are crucial in a good Shakespeare performance. The first is you need actors who can speak the language so that it makes sense to the audience, everyone does so here. Secondly they need to not only make it understood but breathe fresh air into it, which they also accomplish admirably. The big surprise for me was Isabella Dunsieth, who I feel I know primarily for her work in the Brave New Workshop shows such as No Country For Two Old which she is currently also appearing in. Here she speaks shakespeare’s language as if it were her first, which being english I guess it probably was… but you know what I mean, she’s a natural. Edson and Wall both do triple duty not only adapting and directing but also acting in the show. Wall is Angelo and the sparks that fly as Isabella and Angelo debate are electric. Edson plays Claudio and makes a good argument himself when pleading for his life. There are too many cast members to go through them all, but trust me there is no weak link in this chain of performers.

This is a great opportunity to see a little produced play from Shakespeare. One can see why it’s not often staged, because it takes a very special theater company like The Birth Play Project to make it come alive like this. I suspect I will never see a better production of Measure for Measure and as such I highly recommend you see it while you can. Measure for Measure has three more performances at various location for tickets go to https://linktr.ee/birthplayproject.

Rosette From New Arab American Theater Works Has World Premiere at Mixed Blood

Leor Benjamin and Laila Sahir Photo by Bruce Silcox

Rosette by William Nour and developed through New Arab American Works’ Inaugural Playwright Incubator Program holds its world Premiere at Mixed Blood Theater in Minneapolis. It is a play designed to remind us that we are all ultimately the same. To remind us that whether we are Christian, Jew or Muslim, Israeli, Palestinian or American we are all the same inside. I am not a very political creature but I do understand that there is a political element to this play. I’m not interested when reviewing this play about the larger current political environment I’m concerned with the characters and the story it is telling. Which is of two Palestinian families living in the city of Haifa in 1966. Rosette a teenage girl living with her parents, Yusef and Ida, who are Christians and their neighbors and best friends, Jameel and Maryam and their son Omar, who are Muslim. The two families were both exiled from the same West Bank village in 1948. The play is more character study than plot driven. There isn’t really a goal that the characters are trying to achieve, there is conflict to be sure, but it is of the everyday variety. It is really about presenting these characters, so different from mine in the details of their life. But, so similar in their emotions, hopes, and desires. Through showing us these characters with all their traits good and bad, playwright Nour shows us ourselves. Rosette reminds us that behind headlines there are people just like you and me who are not creating the headlines but living through them.

The cast is uniformly good particularly in the group scenes where the dialogue during disagreements flies fast and overlaps. Laila Sahir as Rosette and Claudia Veronica Garcia as her mother Ida are particularly effective when they battle in the ways that mothers and daughters have across races, cultures, and history. It is in these interpersonal exchanges between parents and children, between the children, between husbands and wives, and between old friends and neighbors that we see ourselves our families and friends reflected back at us. Nour’s gift is in writing these moments which all ring true. Also in finding the way to illustrate again, without being too on the nose, how each generation has to find it’s own path and how difficult that can be for the older generation who watches their way of life vanishing. In this case that fear of loss in complicated by having lost so much in their lives. Change can be good and is almost always inevitable, but it can also be hard. Even in things as small as woman wearing pants or as large as marrying outside of your own faith.

Rosette is an engaging and effective showcase of the universality of the human condition. It is well written and acted, the only criticism I have is in the scene changes. There are pieces of set design that are reconfigured and plants that are moved about the stage during way too frequent of scene changes. The show runs about 70 minutes at least five of which are scene changes. The addition of a few additional set pieces could have allowed for simply staging different scenes on different portions of the stage. Mixed Blood Theater has an unusually wide stage and this solution could easily have been utilized and allowed for a more fluid narrative. Rosette runs through October 6th at Mixed Blood Theater. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.newarabamericantheaterworks.org/upcoming-events-/rosette–by-william-nour

Behind the Sun a Fascinating Story Let Down by Strangely Lifeless Production at History Theatre

Charla Marie Bailey, Darius Dotch, Scott Witebsky, and Jane Froiland Photo by Rick Spaulding

I’m not sure how to explain the monotone performances I just witnessed in History Theatre’s Behind the Sun tonight. Most of these actors I’ve seen perform many times and I assure you they are talented performers. So why does 70% of the dialogue sound like a fifth grade teacher reading from a novel to students? Is it Richard D. Thompson’s Direction? Is it the script by Stanley Kipper and Laura Drake? If it was one performance or two I’d assume it was the performer, but it’s everyone with the possible exception of Darius Dotch who does everything he can to breathe life into the production. Perhaps Thompson was making some sort of artistic statement with this performance style like Yorgos Lanthimos? If so it’s point escapes me. In another bizarre choice, he has Joshaviah Kawala who plays the main characters son Tyler, shout every line, which understandably makes it hard to put any feeling behind the lines. There are certainly script issues including a denouement that seems too pat. Maybe the scripts dialogue just defies a dramatic reading? I don’t know, because the story and the details of the it are full of drama and potential.

The show follows Obie Kipper played by Darius Dotch and his wife Mary played by Charla Marie Bailey as they deal with life as a black family in 1956 Minneapolis. Obie wants to get out of the neighborhood they live in which is becoming more and more dangerous. Their son Tyler, played by Joshaviah Kawala, attends a Catholic school where the prejudice of the nuns almost cost him his life. Obie hatches a plan with his Jewish friend Abe, played by Scott Witebsky, to buy a house in an all white neighborhood. The first act of the show is basically laying the groundwork for why the family needs to move. The second act begins with the Kippers taking possession of the house and the atrocious things they have to endure in their first days there. By this point in the play I was amazed at the courage and perseverance of the Kipper family. I was wondering if I would have been able to stay or if what they were dealing with would have forced me to move. We then cut to some unstated amount of time later, it feels like maybe a few weeks to a month, and seemingly all the harassment has stopped and everything is great. The show runs a little under two hours including the 15 minute intermission, so adding a little time to the show wouldn’t be pushing anyone’s endurance. I’d have liked to have had a few more scenes to walk us through that transition of night of terror to everything’s fine.

It’s a great story and an okay script which has been produced before, but it needs another draft. For instance, there is an incident that happens offstage, a friend of Mary’s from the bus gets abducted after work. It’s a moment that pushes the family into implementing their scheme to buy the house. But I don’t know what happened to the friend. I didn’t know that was something that did happen. I’d like that to have been better explained. One element that did work beautifully was the set design by Rick Polenek. Changes made during intermission, which I failed to even notice were happening, that convert the Kipper home from their original to the new house very effectively. Look I don’t know whether to recommend this or not. I got a lot out of the story and Dotch gives a good performance as does Bailey when she is allowed to get worked up and show some emotion. But with a story this good, the production should be much better. Still, I learned stuff, and that goes in the plus column. Behind the Sun runs through October 13th at History Theatre in St. Paul. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.historytheatre.com/2024-2025/behind-sun

Dial M for Murder Thrills at Yellow Tree Theatre

Dial M for Murder with a script adapted by local favorite Jeffrey Hatcher from the original play by Frederick Knott is making its way to the stage for the second time in a year. Last year I gave a very favorable review to the Guthrie’s production. Knott also wrote the screenplay for the Famous Alfred Hitchcock 3D film. Hatcher keeps the basics of the original work but adds several twists that make the play feel more modern though it retains the original 1950’s period setting and London locale. Normally with a thriller I’d be hesitant to give anything away, and I still intend to keep most things under wraps. But, unlike an Agatha Christie story, this isn’t really a whodunnit, it’s more like a Columbo episode. You know who the criminal is very early on, the thrills come from seeing how his plan comes off and how he adapts when things don’t go according to plan. The piece I won’t spoil is a sequence that Hatcher inserts during the commission of the crime, it doesn’t change Knotts basic plot but it adds another layer of suspicions, and it’s a ingenious little twist.

The plot revolves around Tony Wendices plan to have an old acquaintance named Lesgate murder his wife Margot after having discovered she had an affair with a writer that ended a year previous. One major change is a gender swap of the former lover from Max to Maxine. He also changes the professions of Tony and Maxine which adds another dimension to Tony’s motivations. Probably Hatchers greatest contribution is an injection of humor into the script, not so much as to feel out of place but just the perfect amount to add to the overall enjoyment of the piece. Since we know who the villain is, the thrills come from whether or not Tony will be found out. He is a perfect improvisor and when life throws him a twist, such as his wife killing Lesgate instead of the other way round, he uses it to his advantage. Inspector Hubbard makes piecing together the clues feel like effective reasoning even when it’s wrong, you can see why it seems correct to him.

Yellow Tree’s cast is a man down from the Guthrie version having actor Edwin Strout play both Lesgate and Inspector Hubbard. Strout does a great job in both roles and makes a clear case for doubling the roles in future productions. I particularly enjoyed his turn as the Inspector. Charles Fraser whose been doing a lot of fun work at Yellow Tree recently, plays Tony with slightly more desperation and less humor. It’s always interesting to see how different actors approach the same roles. Fraser’s Tony is a little less entertaining but maybe a little more realistic, which is also a valid choice that works well. Adelin Phelps plays Margot as straitlaced and trusting, making all of her decisions make sense while being exactly the opposite of what her character should do to extricate herself from danger. Finally Erika Soukup plays Maxine with a brashness that reflects her American roots, she’s the girl Friday of the show and we don’t know exactly where she stands at times, which allows one of Hatchers twists at the end to work in ways they wouldn’t if her character wasn’t so inscrutable.

Sarah Brandner’s Set Design makes good use of the Yellow Tree Theatre’s intimate space, it’s got a nice cozy British mystery feel to it. The Lighting Design by Alex Clark and the Sound Design by Jeff Bailey add some nice touches to the atmosphere as well. The costumes by Samantha Fromm Haddow, were a little hit or miss, I really got the impression that Frasers tuxedo on the night of the murder didn’t fit him very well and the outfit Margot wears in the final scene is rather ugly, but everything Maxine is put in looks absolutely fabulous. All in all, Director Brandon Raghu has mounted a very enjoyable production. It’s a little smaller in scale than the Guthrie but at about half the price, it’s just as thrilling.

Dial M for Murder runs through October 13th at Yellow Tree Theatre in Osseo. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://yellowtreetheatre.com/dial-m

The Lehman Trilogy a Saga of Epic Scope is Completely Captivating at the Guthrie Theater

William Sturdivant, Edward Gero, and Mark Nelson Photo by Dan Norman

The Lehman Trilogy the Tony Award winning play that at three and a half hours never comes close to wearing out its welcome. Originally conceived as a nine hour Italian radio play and later a novel by Stefano Massini, it was first translated and adapted to the French stage as a five hour play by Pietro Pizzuti featuring a cast of 12. The English adaptation is by Ben Powers and was conceived with theater and film Director Sam Mendes for the National Theatre with only three actors. This version which is the one the Guthrie is presenting leaves you with one question, what was cut from the five hour and 9 hour versions? I think it a wise choice commercially to have gotten it down to three and a half hours, which includes two 15 minute intermissions. But personally, if the cut material was as good as this, I could have done another hour and a half. I never once looked at my watch, and that’s not just because I don’t wear one, I honestly never had a moment where I was conscious of the length, it flew by. I write a lot about the shows that are just entertaining. I believe in the current climate of the world and given the state of theater audiences in the last few years, that it’s vital we put on shows like Back to the Future (Hennepin Arts, National Tour), Peter and the Starcatcher (Lyric Arts), and Dial M for Murder (Yellow Tree Theatre) that are more or less purely there to entertain us. I also believe in the power of theater to explore deeper issues, and important that those plays are also produced.

That is the type of play The Lehman Trilogy is. It explores the rise of a financial institution, but that’s just the tip of what it’s about. We follow three immigrant brothers who have come to America to make their fortune. As it begins, there’s a strong familial bond between the brothers, and their Jewish faith plays a central role in their endeavors. We like them, in fact to some extent I think we like all of the Lehmans we meet throughout the play. While the arc of the play shows us the growth of Lehman Brothers from a small, fabrics and suits store to a financial institution, the way in which the business grows and changes. At first the growth and evolution of Lehman Brothers is admirable and the reverence the three founding brothers Henry, Emanuel, and Mayer have for their religion and community plays a key role. Even up through the great depression when Bobby Lehman, the last Lehman to run the company, is strategizing how to save the company he is also trying to save the country. But that will change as Bobby ages, we see throughout the play that as capitalism rises, the role of religion not only recedes, but is entirely replaced by the worship of the dollar. The whole play barrels forward like a rock gaining speed as it rolls downhill. What was thoughtful and deliberate in the beginning is overcome by greed and speed. There’s a moment when Bobby hears the pitch of what will become Credit Cards, and the birth of consumerism as a way of life, when you feel the scale finally tip and what began as a family business has lost all of it’s remaining humanity. What was fascinating about the The Lehman Trilogy was the way it looks at history and the birth of financial practices in such a way that we come to understand it all from a different perspective.

The cast features two performers from out of town, which I’d complain about but they are so good that I can’t quite bring myself to, and one local actor. The local actor is Will Sturdivant, last seen at the Guthrie in last springs the History Plays. This is a year in which Sturdivant seems to be testing his stamina. Between the three performers they play over 70 characters over the course of 80 years. All three are versatile and bring intelligence and humor to the roles. Director Arin Arbus keeps the story moving, but perfectly anticipates the moments when we are so completely enthralled in what is happening and need that extra beat to process what is transpiring. Marsha Ginsberg’s set design is simple but symbolic and capable of surprising the audience right out of the gate with the appearance of the three original Lehman Brothers. The set works wonderfully in conjunction with Hannah Wasileski’s projection designs through which we get backdrops but also visual manifestations of the dreams that often dog the members of the Lehman family. In fact the entire production team Anita Yavish’s Costumes, Yi Zhao’s lighting, and Michael Costagliola sound design all work to create a cohesive look, almost a black and white or sepia tone film look.

The Lehman Trilogy runs through October 13th at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.guthrietheater.org/shows-and-tickets/2024-2025-season/the-lehman-trilogy/