Minnesota Fringe Day 2: This, Death! A Musical, Clown Funeral, Hamluke (The Stages of MN Fringe of the Day Award winner)

Day two was another Fringetacular evening of entertainment! I’m 8 shows in now and haven’t seen a show yet that I wouldn’t recommend. Here are my quick reviews of Day two.

This is Tim Uren’s autobiographical solo show that touches on his tendency to believe almost anything, he believes in Bigfoot and that aliens built the Pyramids. Who knew we had so much in common? Tim is a member of The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society (MORLS) and it’s pretty much a guarantee that I’m going to see anything anyone associated with the MORLS is in. I seem to vibe with all of their sensibilities, and This only deepens that belief. Uren covers a lot of ground, maybe too much. I only say that because for the first time ever I witnessed a show get cut off because their time was up. I spoke with Uren later and I missed about 3 minutes. I can’t miss another show to see it again for the last three minutes but I may try and corner him at some point and see if I can get him to finish the performance. Maybe it’s because I’m interested in how people come together and their journey’s but I loved getting a lot of Uren’s background filled in for me, and I thought his writing and performance was filled with humor and reality. To purchase tickets go to the shows page at The Minnesota Fringe Site here https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2025/this

Death! A Musical is sort of amazing, it’s a large scale production featuring a full orchestra some very legit equipment, and it’s all written and Directed by a seventh grader named Gabriel Shen. Is it perfect? No. There are issues not with the songs but at times with hearing the lyrics. Some performers were either mic’d better or projected better, but some of the songs were pretty darn good and the lead Vivienne Steele who plays Alana is really quite good. I generally make it a point nowadays not review the performances of young Actors unless they are in a professional production, and then really only if they are very good, but Steele, is really quite good. What makes this show worth your time, and it is worth your time, is to see what this 7th grader has accomplished. It’s really impressive, everything from the songs themselves, the script which has lots of strong moments and a few genuine laughs, which is pretty good for a show about death. Even the program contained ads and I don’t think I’ve ever seen that at a Fringe show before. Shen must be a very creative, focused, and motivated teenager, and this is an accomplishment to be very proud of. To purchase tickets go to the shows page at The Minnesota Fringe Site here https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2025/death-a-musical

Clown Funeral. The title kind of says it all. We the audience are mourners at the funeral for Bongo J. Sprinkles. As we file in to the theater we are encouraged to sign the guest book and next to it on the floor is a box filled with red clown noses, with a note saying take a nose, leave a nose. We are handed a program with the order of the service including congregation replies at certain points. It all seems very straightforward and then the clowns in charge enter the space and it’s the funniest funeral since Mary Richards attended the funeral of Chuckles the clown on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. The cast of clowns is played by Mark Benzel, Chris Rodriguez, Jen Scott, and Levi Weinhagen, with a special appearance by Reverand Matt Kessen as a banana version of his Monster Science Lecturer. Thank God for that as it wouldn’t feel like Fringe to me without a little Monster Science. This show is very silly, there’s lots of laughs and ingenious gags. If you enjoy laughing and/or funerals, this is the show for you! To purchase tickets go to the shows page at The Minnesota Fringe Site here https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2025/clown-funeral-

Hamluke reminded me a lot of what is still probably the best Fringe show I’ve ever seen since Clevername’s Who’s Afraid of Winnie the Pooh? in the way it mashes up two completely different sources, that don’t seem to belong together and surprise us by how completely compatible they are. I know Hamlet probably better than any other play and I was the perfect age when Star Wars came out in 1977 and thus know most of the original trilogy by heart. Combining them, works really well. The script is ingenious in finding where and when to supplant Shakespeares prose with Star Wars jargon, Famous lines fit into the basic story of Hamlet perfectly. I loved the script, the costumes, the music, the sound effects, the performances. I realize I could write a full review on this show, but it’s 2:36 AM so I think I say it all when I say that Hamluke is the winner of todays The Stages of MN Fringe of the Day Award, and it wasn’t even a close race, in a day that was filled with great shows. This is the one to beat for best of the fringe festival for me. It hits all my sweet spots and It’s the kind of show that tempts me to give up a precious show slot to see it again. To purchase tickets go to the shows page at The Minnesota Fringe Site here https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2025/hamluke

That’s it for day two of the Minnesota Fringe Festival 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 for mini episodes all week long from The MN Fringe Festival https://www.youtube.com/@TheStagesofMN

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Minnesota Fringe Festival Day 11: “Looking for Justice”, “Two Bowls of Cereal and Some Bacon”, “The Princess Strikes Back”, “Dream of Me”, “Juliet & Juliet: Improvised Shakespeare” The Stages of MN Fringe of the Day Award Winner, and “The Greenhouse”.

Here we are at the final day’s reviews of the 31st Minnesota Fringe Festival. Thanks for reading along and I hope it led you to some of the better shows of the festival. I saw more shows this year than last, but I’ll save all of that for a final Fringe post later in the week. For now here are the final six reviews, enjoy!

Looking for Justice (in all the wrong places) is an exploration of the grey areas in the justice system. Examining this idea through creator Amy Oppenheimer’s personal relationship and involvement in the rape trial of a friend in 1970. Her solo show while not dynamic in delivery is well constructed and reasoned. Her legal mind clearly influencing her desire to examine events from multiple perspectives. There is humor but it is well measured and helps to keep the serious content from becoming emotionally overwhelming. Which allows us to process Oppenheimer’s arguments and, while not quite conclusions, her questions.

https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2024/looking-for-justice-in-all-the-wrong-places-

Two Bowls of Cereal and Some Bacon, Mahmoud Hakima’s show about growing up with an abusive stepfather is powerfully and bravely told. Scenes of familial trauma are intercut with the story of a mystery girl who befriended him in the 3rd grade. The unresolved aspects of that character reminds us that we never know what is happening in anyone else’s life at anytime. The title is used to draw a comparison between himself and the mystery girl, but her eventual disappearance begs the question, are their home lives more similar than either could know? The story of abuse is often the story of silence, this show explores some of what the silence may be hiding.

https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2024/two-bowls-of-cereal-and-some-bacon

The Princess Strikes Back: One Woman’s Search for the Space Cowboy of her Dreams is traveling artist Victoria Montalbano solo show that walks us through her relationship history and search for her own Han Solo. Seeing herself as Princes Leia she covers the ups and downs of her love live from her first stirrings of sexual desire, seeing The Empire Strikes Back‘s kiss between Han and Leia to online dating. Everything is filtered humorously through the lens of Star Wars like her second serious relationship in which she was R2D2 to his C3PO. The humor isn’t the deflective kind we sometimes see in solo shows where the performer is confronting their lack of romantic success but used to put things in perspective and to entertain in an honest and yes, brave way.

https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2024/the-princess-strikes-back-one-woman-s-search-for-the-space-cowboy-of-her-dreams

Dream of Me is a sci-fi story about the extremes we will go to in order to hold onto those we love. Catherine Hansen plays Mia a woman whose husband Nick, played by Eric B Jacobson, has died while out running an errand. Natalie Rae Wass, who is also really good in Yo-Ho-Hum: A Pirate’s Midlife Crisis, here plays Mia’s friend Tanna who is working on a new invention that will allow the wearer to control their dreams. Mia is unable to process her grief and asks Tanna to let her test her invention so that she can dream about Nick and say her goodbyes. But once isn’t enough and as things progress we begin to wonder if these are dreams or if the AI behind the tech is up to something else. The three actors give wonderful performances in a story that turns from romantic fantasy into a cautionary horror story. Well written, designed, directed, and even choreographed.

https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2024/dream-of-me

Juliet & Juliet: Improvised Shakespeare is The Stages of MN Fringe of the Day Award winner for Day 11. The two Shakespearean Improvisors Meghan Wolff & Sami Haeli spend 50 minutes using a few suggestions from the audience to create a play in the style of William Shakespeare. Obviously as with other improv shows this will be different each time you see it. What I don’t imagine changes that much is the hilarity with which Wolff and Haeli execute their specific form of comedy. They have the vocabulary down as they must in order to so eloquently execute the heightened style of speech. They clearly have some sort of psychic link between them as there is never once, one of those moments that most all improv shows have, where you can tell one performer is not getting across where they want a scene to go to their scene partner. An impressive high wire act of comedy that I’d love to experience again.

https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2024/juliet-juliet-improvised-shakespeare

The Greenhouse is kind of a weird show, which made it a great ending to my 2024 Fringe. What is the Fringe festival but a way to embrace and explore weirdness in all it’s artistic variables. The story concerns a cult set in a not too distant future. A young woman arrives just as an elder of the cult has decided it is time for them to pass away. The Cult is based around the protection and nurturing of plants they strive to maintain a balance within their community. As such a new person cannot join until some else has died. This sounds like it will go to a dark place, but it doesn’t. The cult is not portrayed as bad, but there is a complication with the passing of the elder and the newcomer, she is pregnant and one cannot be replaced by two. The cast does a nice job of performing so that the cult members are recognized as well intentioned and the new comer is the one acting suspiciously. Standouts in the cast include Georgia Doolittle as “Mother” and Vivian Kampschroer as Poppy the cult’s talented and committed botanist.

https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2024/the-greenhouse

That’s the reviews from Day 11 of the Minnesota Fringe Festival. Be sure to check back later in the week for my 2024 Minnesota Fringe wrap up! Also be sure to follow M’ Colleagues, Jill Schafer at http://www.cherryandspoon.com/ for show reviews and for other Fringe writings checkout our friend and fellow Twin Cities Theater Blogger Kendra Plant’s blog Artfully Engaging at https://www.kendraplant.com/blog-artfully-engaging.

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Minnesota Fringe Festival Day 10: “The MacScottish Play”, The Camp Out”, “We Were Only Henchmen”, “Show Me Your Wings” The Stages of MN Fringe of the Day Award Winner, “The Dumb Waiter”, and “What You Need To Do Is!”

While I only have six reviews today I did actually see seven shows. The seventh was a repeat of previous The Stages of MN Fringe of the Day Award winner Emily Bryajian’s Transition: A Story of Two Trans People Becoming Themselves. All the other shows are lucky I don’t give the award to a show twice.

The MacScottish Play is about of group of college students who are mounting a production on Macbeth that seems to be cursed. Cast members keep dropping out and then the Director gets sucked into the play itself. There are side stories for the cast members and lessons about not outing people and none of it matters because you don’t believe a word of the dialogue. The problem with the show is two fold. The script and the performances and it’s hard to say for certain if the failure of one isn’t contributing to the other. Are the performances so mannered and wooden because of the script or is the script better than it appears but is just being hobbled by unprepared actors? I lean towards the script being the bigger culprit. When dialogue exists just to take up time or to try and give an appearance of naturalism without adding anything to what we are seeing, even solid actors can struggle to give them meaning. There are about a half dozen good lines and I’m not saying the idea isn’t good. But the dialogue is illogical and feels like the verbal equivalent of treading water.

https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2024/the-macscottish-play

The Camp Out this is an Improv show which means every performance will be different. If you’ve ever wondered how true that is M’Colleague Jill, of Cherry and Spoon, took this show in twice and said aside from the set and putting up a tent it was completely different each time. One assumes from the title and the surprisingly elaborate set design that the story they weave will somehow involve a camping trip. I’ve seen good and bad improv, but I’ve never seen bad improv that Mike Fotis, who created, directed, and performs in The Camp Out. Fotis leads a cast filled with Twin Cities best improvisational actors including Rita Boersma, Tim Hellendrung, Nels Lennes, Heather Meyer, and Danna Sheridan.

https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2024/the-camp-out

We Were Only Henchmen is about two working class Henchmen who, out for a night of Booze and drugs, get talking about their current and past employers. Between them they have worked for many of the cities supervillains, and have opinions on which ones are better to work for. We hear the pros and cons of working for different baddies, there’s talk about benefits, horror stories of what has happened to friends under various employers. The performances are super strong and the show is filled with the sort of real world issues that never come up in comic books. When the two friends witness a superhero doing something horrible, what was a fun night out between friends gets very real. I really enjoyed the humor and performances and the skewed reality of the plays world. And hats off to Costume Designer Leo Green for Mr. Superior’s Superhero threads.

https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2024/we-were-only-henchmen

Show Me Your Wings is The Stages of MN Fringe of the Day Award winner for Day 10. Show Me Your Wings stands out in the sea of Fringe shows for it’s unique location at Squirrel Haus Arts. But even more unique is the combination of artistic disciplines utilized to convey creator Rhiannon Fiskradatz’s vision. Very much an autobiographical show it uses among other things, interactive art, video, puppetry, watching a painting created before your eyes, dance, and curated artwork. I was hitting a wall when I arrived at Squirrel Haus Arts for this show. This was my 45th show over 10 days, I was curious about the show but also struggling to connect with the aspects of the show that we explored on our own. But I found my way through that when Fiskradatz began to sing. As she talks and sings about different aspects of her life and journey, I found myself rejuvenated and ready by the end to rush out and make it to the final two shows of the day. It turned out to be a beautiful change of pace, a very memorable and special show.

https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2024/show-me-your-wings

The Dumb Waiter is a one act play by Harold Pinter performed wonderfully by Dominic Schiro and Robert Wood Frank. It’s about two hitmen who are waiting in a room for their next assignment. The Dumb Waiter of the title begins to deliver food orders to them, which they don’t know how to respond too. It’s a play that ends kind of ambiguous, that leaves you a little unsatisfied. But, that when you think back, you were enjoying every moment of the show. Like The Zoo Story, it’s nice to see thrown into the melting pot that is a Fringe Festival, a solid traditional one act play produced. I enjoyed this one as I have everything I’ve seen from Jackdonkey Productions, the company behind The Dumb Waiter.

https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2024/the-dumb-waiter

What You Need to Do Is! If I had known going in to this show, what it was I’d have never gone in. That said, I’m glad I accidentally attended this one, and now that it’s over, I realize I had a good time. If you like audience participation or those team building get to know you exercises at work, then this is the show for you! If you can’t wait to tell some stranger 3 fun facts about yourself, this is the show for you. Or, Are you like me an introvert, though one who tries really hard to break out of that? If so, this is the show you do not want to find yourself seated at when the house lights are supposed to go down and then don’t. So with all that, why am I glad I ended up at What You Need to Do Is! ? It has everything to do with Coach Clemons and Assistant Coach Low Jack played by Eric Simons and Alsa Bruno. These guys make it as painless as possible, we had laughs but we also actually kinda learned a few things and worked through some issues.

https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2024/what-you-need-to-do-is-

That’s the reviews from Day ten of the Minnesota Fringe Festival. Be sure to check back daily for new reviews and if you are Fringing and you see me, be sure to stop and say hi! Also for reviews of shows I might not see or for another opinion on ones I have, follow M’ Colleague Jill Schafer at http://www.cherryandspoon.com/ and for other Fringe writings checkout our friend and fellow Twin Cities Theater Blogger Kendra Plant’s blog Artfully Engaging at https://www.kendraplant.com/blog-artfully-engaging.