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.

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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

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.

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/

The Reunion a Wildly Entertaining Whodunnit From Trademark Theater at Gremlin Theatre

The Cast of The Reunion Photo by Dan Norman

Trademark Theater launches it’s theater season with The Reunion which is a show I attended a read through of a few years ago. Unlike most Agatha Christie based plays I attend I didn’t remember half way through who done did it, which always makes the experience more enjoyable. The Reunion, the brainchild of Trademark Theater’s co-founders Tyler Michaels King and Tyler Mills, is not only an engrossing mystery but also wickedly funny. The setup is a Reunion of friends from high school who used to gather together to to play murder mystery games. It’s been years since they have played and they have no idea when they arrive at the home of their wealthy friend Sam, that tonight the murder will be real! With old traumas and secret plans the script has the audience off balance and in the dark revealing information at just the right moment. It kept me guessing, but as I’ve said before I love a mystery because I can never solve them, so the reveal is always like a magic trick. I wish I was a Sherlock, but in reality I’m a Watson.

What makes the show a success aside from the delightful script is the performances of the cast. With material like this, the cast can be the difference between a success and a failure. We have to care about the characters and we have to find them funny. I’m happy to say this group of performers handily achieved both criteria. I loved everyone, I really did, there isn’t a member of this cast that I would trade. Michael Terrell Brown is perfect as the wealthy Sam who you almost suspect from the start will be the murder victim after his first awkward interaction with friend and employee Peter, played by Chris Hayhurst. Especially sweet is the unacted upon crush between Clive, played by the MJ Matheson and Susan played by Katy Kessler. Mathesons entire performance is brilliantly hilarious, and he and Kessler’s chemistry is the heart of the play. Sasha Andreev plays Susan’s husband Richard, I’m so used to seeing Andreev using his beautiful singing voice that it was quite a surprise to find him so gifted comedically as well. Janely Rodriguez plays Clive’s sister Laura, who also had an unrequited crush from high school on Elizabeth played by Emma Schuld. Laura seems very down to earth while Elizabeth is an extreme environmentalist, which she plays to great comic effect.

The Reunion is well staged with a very creative set design by Sarah Bahr, with some surprisingly effective ways of creating new locations. Dan Dukich’s sound design and Tony Stoeri’s lighting design help set the atmosphere with the perfect thriller vibe. The Reunion runs through October 12th at the Gremlin Theatre in St. Paul. For more information and to purchase tickets go to https://www.trademarktheater.org/thereunion

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.

Minnesota Fringe Festival Day 9: “Love Lies a Bleeding” The Stages on MN Fringe of the Day Award Winner! and “The Ghost of Frankensteins Bride”

Only a two show night as I had to review a non Fringe show as well this evening. But don’t let that fool you, the Fringe of the day Winner is very deserving.

Love Lies a Bleeding is The Stages of MN Fringe of the Day Award winner for Day 9. An adaptation of a play from the 17th century by playwrights Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher who were contemporaries of William Shakespeare. The program describes Beaumont and Fletchers intentions as “What if we made Twelfth Night gayer and hornier”. That perfectly describes this comically bloody, but not in a gross out way, play. The original 3ish hour play was adapted down to 1 hour by Vee Signorelli and love to compare scripts sometime, it has a little bit of antiquated speech but nothing on a level with Shakespeare. A great ensemble cast with the highlights being the actors involved in a love triangle between a man, a woman, and their servant, played to hilarious effect by Matthew Smith, Valerie Wick, and Isabella Spiess. I wish I had seen this show earlier so I could get the word out more, but the house I saw it with was fairly full, so hopefully word has gotten out.

https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2024/love-lies-a-bleeding

The Ghost of Frankenstein’s Bride runs a little under 45 minutes and that seemed a little too long. There seems to be a lot of shuffling of props and restating the same information. I think this was a show with a solid 25 minutes of script padded to a lean 45. I liked the look of the production by Scenic Designer Jordan Leeper. There was something like a magic trick at one point involving jars that was very impressive and I thought the cast was good. But I know what it’s like trying to decide which of the 105 shows to see and the reality is there are other shows that deserve that slot more. I think this team has an interesting idea that they could flesh out for a future run, maybe at TCHF.

https://minnesotafringe.org/shows/2024/the-ghost-of-frankenstein-s-bride

That’s the reviews from Day Seven 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.