Eleemosynary the Premiere Offering From Spacetime Theatre

August Chaffin, Tara Borman, and Katie Tuminelly Photo by Rich Fleischman

Eleemosynary is the first offering from a new theatre company Spacetime Theatre and it is an auspicious beginning to be sure. Written by Lee Blessing in 1985 nearly 40 years ago, it was new to me and felt as timely and relevant as anything I’ve seen written in the last five years. The big question is whether this is a comedy or a drama or the all encompassing “dramedy”? I laughed quite a bit, but there were also moments that were very powerful and not meant to be laughed about. It’s a story told across decades in the life of three women in the Wesbrook family, the grandmother Dorothea, her daughter Artie, and Artie’s daughter Echo. Dorothea is intentionally eccentric, so much so that her daughter Artie wants nothing to do with her, she is however raising Artie’s daughter Echo who has won the National Spelling Bee and is something of a genius. The truth is all of these women are very intelligent though some lack an emotional intelligence to rather their intellect. It’s a story about the relationships between mothers, daughters, and grandmothers and the ways in which they can sometimes hurt each other deeper than they could every have guessed. Their intelligence, part of which is reflected in they way in which Artie and Echo’s memories work account for why the wounds of past injuries never heal. It’s a very well written script that leaps forwards and backwards in time without ever leaving the audience untethered to the characters timeline. It reveals itself at the perfect pace always giving us the next piece of their story, the next explanation just when we are ready to receive it.

Directed by Spacetime Theatre’s Executive Artistic Director Christopher Kehoe against a scenic design by M Curtis Grittner which is abstract and gives us a sense of flowing in and out of the narrative stream. Kehoe has the actors coming on and off stage constantly from all corners of the theater as their characters come in and out of moments from their memories. The cast is really something special and look as if they really were from the same family. As Dorothea, Katie Tuminelly times her more outrageous lines perfectly to catch the audience off guard and forcing spontaneous guffaws. Tara Borman, whom I keep seeing playing young women who have unplanned pregnancies, has the most grounded role, but also the most closed off emotionally, while simultaneously being the most fragile of the three. It’s a tricky role, at times unsympathetic, but by the end she has shown us under the surface of the character and we have come to understand her issues. Last, but by no means least, August Chaffin as Echo proves to be an actor to keep an eye on. I love coming across young actors for the first time knowing that I’ll get to see them take on new roles over the coming years. Chaffin, is fantastic as Echo and I can’t wait to see what they do next.

Eleemosynary runs through June 23rd at the Gremlin Theatre for more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.spacetimetheatre.com/shows/eleemosynary/

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The Servant of Two Masters Dishes Out the Absurdity to a Dizzying Degree at Lyric Arts

Katrina Stelk, Kyle Marks, Alex Stokes, and Brandon Osero. Photo by Molly Weibel

The Servant of Two Masters adapted by local favorite Jeffrey Hatcher and Paolo Emilio Landi from the original 1789 commedia dell’arte classic by Carlo Goldoni, is a joyfully funny and self aware production. There is no attempt at selling this as realism, in fact the play opens with an apology by the patron of the theater company that the troupe is running late. Once the players arrive we are treated to several minutes of behind the scenes silliness as the stage manager and performers work out what they will be doing. The play reads like a Shakespeare Comedy crossed with an episode of Three’s Company directed by Corky St. Clair. It involves a pair of twins, one of which the male, is dead and the other a female who has taken on the identity of her brother posing as a man. There are multiple pairs of lovers who all seem on the brink of losing their true loves, and at the center is a quick thinking but not terribly bright servant who tries to serve two Masters at the same time in order to get paid and fed by both. This adaptation premiered in 2004, if it sounds familiar, you may have seen a later adaptation from 2011 that starred James Corden titled One Man, Two Guvnors which updated the play from 1700’s Italy to 1960’s England.

What I loved about this production is the constant awareness that these are actors performing in a very stylized manner. They pose, they ham it up for the audience, and they are not above earning a little on the side by participating in some product placement. There is something freeing about a comedy that lets you know up front it’s not to be taken seriously. In some way it loosens the audience up and the laughs flow freely unabated by any sense of self consciousness. The production is directed by Scott Ford who has directed some of the best shows at Lyric Arts since The Stages of MN came into being and before. Here, his playful approach to the staging, the controlled chaos perfectly watch the style of the script. The use of onstage musical accompaniment, which though providing some background music composed by Melissa Bergstrom, mainly serves to provide comedic sounds to emphasize the buffoonery of the characters actions. Nice to see Callie Aho as the Intimacy Director as the show has a fair amount of risque business, and it’s good to know that there is someone making sure everyone on stage is being cared for so we can enjoy the humorous nature of these moments guilt free. Wonderfully adaptive set design by Michaela Lochen and costumes by Samantha Fromm Haddow make for a nice looking and inventive look to the show. Special praise though to Katie Kaufmann’s Mask Design work which is a hallmark of the commedia dell’arte style, they are beautifully realized and amazingly expressive (see the photo at the top for an example).

On stage the entire cast is terrific, with special shout outs to those performing through masks, which results in the loss of an actors eyes, which they say are the windows to the soul. This acting requires a different set of skills an exaggerated movement of the head in order to compliment the masks and make the face seem alive. Kyle Marks and Brendan Veerman excelled in acting through the masks, to the point I almost lost sight of the masks. Loved seeing Nykeigh Larson and Kyler Chase again, both of whom I first discovered on the Lyric Arts stage, they wonderfully played the the Masters of the Servant who are so hysterically hot for each other they can’t barely see the other without trembling all over. And fantastic to finally see what Alex Stokes can do with a good sized role, and it’s as I suspected, comic gold. My advice is for Theater’s to keep finding larger and larger roles for Stokes, he’s proven he’s capable of being much more than the one liner comic relief ensemble player.

The Servant of Two Masters runs through June 22nd at Lyric Arts in Anoka for more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.lyricarts.org/servant/#servant-tickets

The Brontide From Nimbus Theatre at the Crane Theater Tackles Very Relevant Creative Themes

The Brontide the latest work from Nimbus Theatre is packed full of ideas, to the point where at intermission you’re wondering if it’s been over stuffed. But Playwright Josh Cragun brings everything home, answering all the questions you find yourself discussing during the interval. That’s not to say that the play couldn’t do with a little pruning, at 130 minutes it feels slightly long. I liked the story, I liked all of the themes it was exploring, I liked all of the characters. If there is one criticism I have is that it feels like the material wants to be a Limited Television series rather than a play. Cragun does a great job of packing everything into a thoughtful and satisfying story, don’t get me wrong, but there are signs of what this wanted to be. One is the amount of scene changes, it wants to change scenes every two to five minutes. Also there are multiple storylines and characters going on that are unrelated until towards the end when they intersect. One character, that of Raveena, could be cut from the play entirely, but if expanded into a TV series could be really interesting. The role is played well by Wasima Farah, it’s not about the performance it’s about the sense that the characters function is all potential, but when you think about her function plotwise, it could easily be covered by other characters.

Here’s where I’m supposed to give you a plot synopsis, but I’m not going to. Instead, I’ll tell you about the themes the work explores. It’s about the nature of storytelling, the dangers of A.I., the creative stifling caused by corporate greed, and the dangers of over reliance on I.P.’s. These are some really interesting topics which they do a nice job of exploring without beating them to death. It’s shows us examples of some of these concepts with explaining them trusting the audience to carry the thoughts through. One of the concepts that has conflicted with the creative process in the last century or so is that of the copyright. Now obviously, the creator of something should have the right to protect it and earn from their art. But somewhere along the way those protections kept getting extended to the benefit of corporations as opposed to individuals. As the play points out in it’s opening scene there are a finite amount of stories. The creative process isn’t just about creating something entirely new, more often then not it’s about innovating or adapting that which has come before. Shakespeare, arguably the greatest writer in the English language, adapted many of his works from existing tales, and plays by others. But he didn’t just rewrite them he used his talents to make them better, to adapt and innovate. Corporate greed tries to prevent artists from doing the same and that is a major plot point of this play. If these are ideas you think about or discuss with friends, I think you’ll find a lot of interesting talking points in The Brontide.

This is truly an ensemble production, no one has the lead or steals the show, everyone is good even if no one especially stands out. Which works well in a piece like this, everyone does their part and seems like they are performance wise on the same level. In a true ensemble production the worst thing you can have is one or two people in the cast who are either way better or way worse than everyone else. The discrepancy is jarring, and will take the audience out of the show. The Co-Directors Mitchell Frazier and Ernest Briggs do a good job of keeping the show flowing despite the heavy number of scene changes. I do think they could tighten things up by having lights dim on one scene and come up on another, allowing for some minimal scene changing to be done silently in one area of the stage while the play moves forward in another. The set design by Erin Gustafson certainly allows for that approach, it’s very versatile and segmented allowing for all the changes of location. I really enjoyed the costumes designed by Rubble&Ash, there are two characters that morph into a sort of human insect hybrid , with very simple but effect costume and movement.

The Brontide runs through June 9th at the Crane Theater in NE Minneapolis. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://nimbustheatre.com/productions/the-brontide

Machinal From Clevername Theatre Is a Successful Return to an Earlier Time in Many Ways

Machinal the new production by Clevername Theatre has the style and tone of a silent film. The set and prop designs by Connor McEvoy are a series of wooden furniture pieces that shift and fit together in new configurations like some bizarre jigsaw puzzle from the world of Dr. Caligari. Combined with the stylized performances of the cast the entire production seems based in a world of expressionism rather than reality which I absolutely loved about this show. The opening scene takes place in an office where the sound design by Alexander Gerchak combined with overlapping chatter of the workers creates an environment that is cacophonous. This places the audience in the position to empathize with the main characters state of mind. The play set in the 1920’s tells the story of a young woman who feels stifled by the world and trapped by the limited choices she has in life. In fact, she feels like there are no choices to be made when her boss proposes marriage, she wants to say no, but tells herself that all woman have to get married, and her Mother informs her love doesn’t enter into it. So she agrees, and the only ones more uncomfortable on her wedding night than her might just be the audience. It’s a masterfully performed and directed scene that plays upon our societal and personal experiences to a heartbreaking effect.

Front and center is the at times fragile and other times wondrous performance of Victoria Jones as the young woman. Jones manages to own the stage even as she appears to shrink from the light and tremble and every touch from the characters around her. Director Grace Barnstead has the entire cast on the same tonal discord, their performances don’t hold a mirror up to reality they hold a funhouse mirror up to a dream. Bruce Abas plays the husband as the type of man who assumes his wife only wants to hear about him and his same old jokes and turns of phrase. Kjer Whiting is wonderfully obtuse as the mother, only concerned with the day to day tasks and unable to comprehend or discuss anything emotional. Caulden Parkel is quite amusing playing, among other characters, the Doctor that delivered the young woman’s baby with a aspect of Groucho Marx. Boo Segersin is the nurse, who seems incapable of understanding what the young woman is feeling or to correct or disagree with the Doctor. It’s as if every character in the play were written by a stereotypical man but that of the young woman who is written by a woman who sees the way in which society, particularly in the early part of the twentieth century, stifled woman.

The play was written by Sophie Treadwell and was first produced in 1928 but it’s easy to see why Clevername Theatre chose to produce it. Under Barnstead’s direction in place, similar to their recent Minnesota Fringe Festival productions, in that it views a world we recognize but through a warped and surreal lens. Understand going in that this is a somewhat absurdist approach and you’ll get swept up in the chaos and over stimulation but find your anchor in the beautifully controlled performance of Victoria Jones. Machinal runs through June 2nd at the Center For Performing Arts in South Minneapolis. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://tix.gobo.show/events/event/bgxWGxsJuZKMAa7ScsxB

Men On Boats at Theatre in the Round Players

* Disclaimer: On March 28th I suffered a rupture in my right bicep muscle, which has left me without the use of my right arm. I will endeavor to continue seeing and reviewing shows however the reality is that the reviews will need to be significantly shorter. For now I will attempt to provide you, faithful readers, with a few sentences that will make clear whether a show is worth your time and money. My apologies to all of the artists in front of the curtain as well as behind whose work I may not be able to comment on. Hopefully this will be a short-term accommodation, I will do everything in my power to get back to writing full reviews as soon as is humanly possible.

Men on Boats somehow reminded me off Valley Fair, the amusement park in Shakopee, specifically the Thunder Canyon and Flume rides. Are those still attractions at the park? It’s been at least a decade since I’ve been out there. The set design, by MJ Leffler, no doubt has something to do with this flashback effect. It’s a rather remarkable build complete with cave, river, and western vistas. Every available bit of real estate is utilized to tell the story of a 1869 expedition by 10 men down the Green and Colorado Rivers from Wyoming to Big Canyon (now known as the Grand Canyon). Technically the show is on par with the higher standard we have come to expect under Executive Director Larisa Netterlund’s tenure. Director Sophie Peyton and Movement Director Kelly Nelson find effective ways to bring this tale of exploration and adventure to life in the arena. Honoring Jaclyn Backhaus, the playwright’s intentions, the cast is made up of non-cisgender white males.

Per the Director’s note, the play seems designed to be a commentary on Colonialism and White supremacy. I’m not sure that subtext comes through as strongly as they may have desired. There are moments in the script that certainly address these issues, and the casting definitely changed the way the audience reacts to the characters and what they are doing. It’s an interesting and effective way of forcing an audience on an almost subconscious level to view the world of the play through a different lense. The 10 actor cast are all solid, no one stands out from the others performance wise but they all stand apart from each other in terms of creating distinct characters that we remember and feel consistent. They work as a true ensemble, which is exactly what is required for this play. While the play doesn’t wow in any single aspect, it’s entertaining throughout, there are moments that of humor, drama, adventure, and social commentary. It also leaves you wanting to find out more about the history of the actual expedition led by John Wesley Powell on which the play is based. There’s nothing wrong with just being entertained, but I think anytime theater leaves you thirsty to learn more about something is a plus.

Men on Boats runs through June 2nd at Theatre in the Round Players in Minneapolis. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.theatreintheround.org/home/season-placeholder/72nd-season/boats/

Skeleton Crew at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis.

Jennifer Fouché, Darius Dotch, Stephanie Everett, and Mikell Sapp Photo by Dan Norman

Under the direction of Austene Van, the hardest working woman in theater, Dominique Morisseau’s Skeleton Crew comes vividly to life on the Guthrie Theater’s McGuire Proscenium Stage. The play follows four characters at a Detroit, Michigan, Stamping Plant that is facing the possibility of shutdown. While the plot follows the tensions that surround who knows if the plant’s closing vs who doesn’t, and at times the characters try and make it into a workers vs management battle, but it’s really about the characters. Morisseau’s characters are richly drawn, no one can be reduced to a simple description like Foreman, thief, Shop Steward, single mother. No one ends up being defined by their first impression, no one is a hero nor villain, they’re all just individuals doing the best they can for themselves and each other. The undeniable authenticity of the characters comes from Morisseau’s well crafted script. The fact that we come to care strongly for all four characters is due to the remarkable talents of the four-person cast.

Faye, who seems to live in the break room, is played by Jennifer Fouché, she’s the Union rep who’s been at the plant for 29 years, at 30 years her retirement benefits are greatly increased. Darius Dotch, plays Reggie the Foreman under enormous pressure to keep productivity up and discover who’s been stealing materials from the factory. Stephanie Everett, plays Shanita a single woman who is the best on the assembly line and is also pregnant, she needs her job and her benefits. The final character Dez normally played by Mikell Sapp, was performed by the understudy Domino D’Lorion at the performance I attended. Dez is a young man who has dreams of opening his own auto shop and only six months away from having enough money saved. I won’t go into further details of their characters but to say that we care about all of them and that they defy any attempt to categorize or stereotype them. Fouché and Everett were brought in from out of town so they are both new to me as performers and are excellent in their roles. Both Dotch and Sapp are performers I’ve seen before and while I can’t comment on Sapp’s performance not having seen it, I’m familiar with his work and am confident it will be at the same high level as the rest of the cast. Dotch is the role I most identified with and he does an excellent job playing the reality of being the boss, but one who has come up with workers. He’s trying to serve the needs of two different groups that in some ways have opposing goals, Dotch skillfully finds the way to communicate that internal struggle and the stress it puts on the human being in that role. I do want to mention that I thought Domino D’Lorion’s performance as Dez was flawless with a winning combination of charm and toughness that served the character well.

The drama and humor is played out on a wonderfully detailed set designed by Regina Garcia. Built into the set are some tinted windows which when lights are shown through backstage allows the performers to be seen in silhouette dancing, which is used during the scene changes. It’s a neat effect, though I’m not entirely sure what it’s purpose is, I took it to represent the assembly line, the workers doing their choreographed moves down on the factory floor. I liked Samantha Fromm Haddow’s costumes as well, especially the one’s for Reggie several of which I wouldn’t mind having in my own closet. It’s a fantastic production that does what all great art does, help us see the world through eyes other than our own. It’s refreshing to see a drama that feels real, engaging, and doesn’t feature an antagonist. No one is the bad guy, no one is the savior, we are all just at the mercy of life, and it’s how we navigate it which decides whether we are victims or not. None of these characters are, they are all fighters, and working for the best possible outcome they can get from life.

Skeleton Crew runs through June 9th at the Guthrie Theater in Downtown Minneapolis for more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.guthrietheater.org/shows-and-tickets/2023-2024-season/skeleton-crew/

The Spitfire Grill From Ten Thousand Things is Wonderfully Intimate and Beautifully Done

Michelle Barber, Katherine Fried, George Keller, and Dominic Schiro. Photo by Tom Wallace

Ten Thousand Things Theater is rapidly becoming my favorite theater company. This production of The Spitfire Grill in their trademark stripped down, theater in the round, lights on, and minimal sets style is simply a revelation. This is going to be one of those boring reviews because everything’s great and I won’t be able to find words expressive enough to praise the show. Based on the 1996 film of the same title it tells the story of Percy Talbott, a young woman just released from prison who looks for a fresh start in a dying small town named Gilead. Percy’s bus is met by the local Sheriff Joe Sutter who will serve as her parole officer. Sheriff Sutter takes her to the Spitfire Grill a rundown old Diner and convinces the owner Hannah Ferguson to take Percy on as a waitress and give her a room. At breakfast on her first morning, the town begins to wonder about Percy led by the town gossip and Postmistress Effy Krayneck. We also meet Hannah’s nephew Caleb and his wife Shelby, Caleb has been trying to sell the Spitfire Grill for the last 10 years. Just when Percy is questioning her decision to live in Gilead, Hannah falls and breaks her leg. Percy is enlisted to run the Spitfire with help from Shelby. Running the diner together Percy and Shelby bond and hatch an idea to raffle off the Spitfire Grill. Hannah gradually warms to the idea and they post the contest in newspapers. To enter, contestants need to send $100 and an essay on why they want the diner. The musical isn’t really about contest and a diner it’s about making connections and laying down roots, it’s about the concept of second chances in the re-emergence of hope.

I’ve written before about my preference for the front row in any theater, my desire to remove as many barriers between myself and the performers as possible. Wonderful thing about a Ten Thousand Things performance is that even if you’re in the back row you’re about as close to the performers as you are in the front row at any other theater. When Katherine Fried who plays Percy begins to sing “A Ring Around the Moon” from her prison cell at the opening of the play, you know you’re in for something special. Fried’s voice is stunning as is every aspect of her performance. There is something about the intimacy and immediacy of being so close to such talent, and that includes the entire cast, that cannot be outdone by the most elaborate touring production at the Orpheum. Michelle Barber as Hannah perfectly balances the gruff and hardened widow with the gradual thawing of her character as hope returns to Gilead. Katie Bradley as Shelby also handles her character’s transition from a timid wife to someone who is ready to embrace her own destiny with confidence. George Keller’s Effy is wonderfully played, Keller knows how to play the part to nail every moment of comic relief. Tom Reed reminds us that there isn’t anything he can’t do, playing Caleb who tries to be in charge but sees the town’s failure to thrive as his own failure. Well known for his comedic chops, Reed’s performance on the song “Digging Stone” displays his powerful singing voice. Making his professional debut is Dominic Schiro, as Sheriff Sutter, Schiro positions himself as a performer with a bright future and one to watch. The cast is rounded out by Tyson Forbes in the role of the a mysterious visitor, as well as one of the musicians. It’s a small but critical role that Forbes handles just right making the characters skittishness and solitude palpable.

The production is co-directed by Michelle O’Neill and outgoing Artistic Director Marcela Lorca who are more than up to the challenge creating so much with so little. Stripping the show down to its bare essentials rather than creating a more artificial feel strengthens the connection between performer and audience. Credited with movement is Jim Lichtscheidl who creates some ingenious ways to help set the locales using wooden poles which held by the actors become everything from prison bars to a bus. This production of The Spitfire Grill it’s a very embodiment of why I love live theater, the talent on display, the creativity, and the emotional connection to the work being performed all contribute to giving this my highest recommendation. It’s the type of performance that reminds you why the Arts not only matter but are of vital importance to our souls as human beings.

The Spitfire Grill runs through June 9th, at various locations and at affordable prices for more information and to purchase tickets go to https://tenthousandthings.org/

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