An Alleged Theatre Company Production The Doctor Wee-Woo Show opened Friday at Open Eye Theatre for a two week run. A show filled with humor, puppets, and lessons about moving on and following your dreams. I was invested in the characters in a way I hadn’t expected. The show is written by the co Artistic Directors of the company Jake Mierva & Danylo Loutchko and appears to be a children’s show called The Doctor Wee-Woo Show. Everything goes along and slowly a few little things happen that seem kind of not quite right for a kids show. Once the program ends more is revealed through Dr. Wee-Woo’s interaction with his creations: Sedrick the Sasquatch, Mailbag, Mrs. Apple Tree, Rob the Blob, and Broom & Dustpan. Sedrick is Doctor Wee-Woo’s primary co-star on the show and as we transition from the children’s show to behind the scenes, the roles begin to reverse between Sedrick and the Doctor. In the beginning Wee-Woo is guiding Sedrick through the resolution of a problem, by the end it’s clear that Sedrick is trying to lead Wee-Woo towards a new beginning. The script is clever in the way it creates tropes that seem familiar for a kids show and then goes to some darker and more adult places with them. At the heart is a really interesting relationship between Doctor Wee-Woo and Sedrick, which becomes almost like a patient and therapist dynamic. Praise has to go out right from the start for the puppets created by Robert McGrady with consultation from Yvonne Freese and the set and props designed by Danylo Loutchko. Thanks to all of their talents the show has an authentic, though slightly off, Children’s show feel.

J. McIntyre Godwin plays Doctor Wee-Woo who is a Doctor of learning (accompanied by a sound effect), physician heal thyself. Godwin does a nice job of putting on the face of a children’s show host, it feels like an actual Show. As the show ends and he prepares to shoot another episode he starts to unravel a little bit. His puppets keep trying to get him to stop making another episode for reason that will become apparent. Goodwin is masterful at Playing the frustration with his puppets at just the right level so we see it, but also recognize the character is trying to control himself and move the show along. The Stages of MN favorite Jeffrey Nolan plays Sedrick the Sasquatch, who is a puppet controlled and voiced by Nolan. Nolan keeps the legend alive with another strong performance, he has a way of getting inside a puppet character unlike anyone I’ve ever seen. Watching the performance one feels like the puppet and the human performances merge and you see it as one single character. Nolans manipulation of the puppet give it a very real presence, while his facial expressions and body language add immeasurably to the character. It was nice to see another fun turn from Thomas M Baun (Pooh Bear in Who’s Afraid of Winnie the Pooh) here he plays Rob the Blob and Dustpan. Dustpan is married to Broom who is played by Sarah Halverson. The simmering resentment between those two inanimate objects feels very real, both Halverson and Buan play it just right, you can almost interchange them with that couple friend of yours that don’t know how to keep their interpersonal issues to themselves around others. The cast is rounded out by Yvonne Freese as Mrs. Apple Tree, she wears a large cardboard tree with a cutout for her face. Even with very little to utilize but her face and voice she does a nice job, both within the children’s show and after when things get a little darker.

The Doctor Wee-Woo Show runs through March 24th at Open Eye Theatre in Minneapolis for more information and to purchase tickets go to https://allegedtheatre.com/on-stage/

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