Wade A. Vaughn in “Cul-de-Sac.” Photo by Justin D. Gallo Photography.

by SOPHIE KERMAN
It’s official: the success of the Loudmouth Collective is not a fluke. Following on her deep and funny January production of Will Eno’s “Thom Pain: Based on Nothing”, director Natalie Novacek opens the Loudmouth’s second season with another one-man show, no less well-acted or thought-provoking than “Thom Pain”. This time, we are treated to an unstoppable performance by Wade A. Vaughn in Daniel MacIvor‘s Cul-de-Sac.

The premise is simple: it is a few minutes after 2 AM, and Leonard is dying. As his final sound slides through the windows along Leonard’s dead end street, we slip into living rooms and bedrooms to hear what everyone really thinks about their long-time neighbor. Of course, once everyone starts talking, they have much more to say about themselves than about Leonard, leaving Leonard’s character in semi-obscurity while painting a vivid portrait of this small community.

And did I mention this is a one-man show? Like Leonard’s last noise as it drifts across lawns and pools on windowsills, Vaughn morphs his entire physicality until you can almost see each of his nine different characters staring out through his eyes. From a teenage girl to a retired veterinarian to a frustrated housewife, each character is distinct and nuanced. That Vaughn can keep his characters straight deserves praise; that he can do that and shape a full range of hilarious, sharp, and beautifully morbid moments deserves an award.

At several points in the play, Leonard muses about transformation and wonders how anyone knows what (or whose) story they are supposed to tell. The solution MacIvor seems to propose in Cul-de-Sac is that an individual’s ability to transform is not bounded by their own body, and they can tell an endless number of stories as they take on another person’s form. Deep? Yes, but not so heavy you won’t find yourself doubled over laughing for at least half of the play’s 90 minute run time.

For yet another balanced, relevant, and outstandingly-acted look at what it means to be alive, the Loudmouth Collective is making its mark as a strong and clever new company to watch.

Cul-de-Sac, by Daniel MacIvor, produced by the Loudmouth Collective at the Open Eye Figure Theatre, 506 East 24th St, Minneapolis, MN 55404. May 17-20 and 23-26. All performances at 8pm.  All seats are $15 or $10 with a Fringe button. For more information or to reserve tickets, call (612) 643-1231 or visit www.loudmouthcollective.com.

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As a critic, I’m honour-bound to point out that, despite my encouragements above, the rock musical has its flaws. There were a couple of microphone glitches, and one character was either not enunciating clearly, too shrill, or poorly miked (Megan McHugh as a hilariously energetic Regina).

An obvious flaw: the plot. Well, the “plot” only barely earns its name; against the background of attempts to replace the seedy rocker atmosphere on “the strip” with shiny new bos stores, a love story takes place. Boy comes to L.A. to be a rocker, girl comes to L.A. to be an actress, boy meets girl, they fall in love, but they’re young and awkward and they flub it; girl becomes stripper, boy becomes boy-band sell-out, but then they find each other again. Have you heard this a thousand times over? Of course you have; it’s the least original plot ever. Does that make it any less entertaining? It really doesn’t.

The story is helped along by Lonny (Justin Colombo), manager of The Bourbon Room, a dingy club where rock stars get their start. Lonny also works as the show’s narrator; breaking the fourth wall and talking to the audience, referring to the play as a play, and causing laughs with his over-over-the-top attitude every time he pops up. Shannon Mullen is Sherrie, the small town girl with dreams of Hollywood, and she can pull off the wide-eyed innocent, the cynical stripper, and the rock star vocals. She is perhaps overshadowed by her male counterpart, Drew – he’d rather be known as Wolfgang von Colt, please and thank you – who is awkward in love but awesome in rock. Played by real-life rocker Dominique Scott, Drew is the guy everybody is cheering for from the get-go.

Jam-packed full of hits like “Anyway You Want It”, “I Hate Myself for Loving you”, “Wanted Dead or Alive”, “We’re Not Gonna Take It” to name only a few of an impressive list, Rock of Ages will have you grooving in your seat, clapping along, maybe even screaming in approval. The music is great, and Kelly Devine’s choreography keeps the energy flowing at maximum rate. The show comes with a suggested age limit of 14+ and parents should take this to heart: the show features scantily-clad women making more-than-suggestive moves, mature language, and.. well, it’s about rock and roll in the 80s. It’s not suitable for kids, just trust me on this.

The entire cast is strong, and full of crazy, quirky characters that are all fun to watch: Stephen Michael Kane as the flamboyant young man who isn’t gay, he’s “just German”! Danny McHugh is a member of the chorus but also badass rocker Joey Primo. Universo Pereira is a wildly over-the-top superstar Stacee Jaxx, and Jacob L. Smith plays the owner of the Bourbon Room, former legend and epic-beard-wearer Dennis. With such a strong cast, the stage is never a dull place.

So, get out from the rain and give yourself a treat. Rock of Ages puts all of its energy into entertaining the audience, and it is energy well-spent. The result is a high-energy show that doesn’t take itself seriously at all, which makes it hilarious and fun, and will leave you singing your 80s hit of choice on the way out.

Rock of Ages at the Hennpin Theatre Trust’s Orpheum Theatre, 910 Hennepin Ave, Minneapolis. May 17-19. Tickets $34-94 at www.hennepintheatretrust.com or 1-800-982-2787.

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At the entrance to the theater hangs a sign warning that the Tesla coil to be fired during the performance is loud, but not dangerous. This caveat is a compelling prelude to an ambitious production.  Assembling the peculiar narrative and bracing eccentricities of Nikola Tesla’s life into a coherent play is no picayune endeavor.  Tesla, who has posthumously developed a cult following, appeared to his contemporaries and to us now as a man out of his time.  His ideas, which included things like neon light, alternating current, wireless power transmission and radio remote control, seem impossibly advanced and imaginative to an extent that strains credibility. He predicted mobile phones and robotics and compiled nearly 300 patents.  Tesla was also a strange and obsessive man with an aversion to overweight people and pearls who believed that chastity was key to his scientific innovation.

The research work of Josh Cragun (and the “Text Team” of Jesse Corder, Brian O’Neal, Anna Sutheim, and Brian Watson-Jones) is evident in every scene of Tesla. The attempt to both capture the essence of an individual and the milieu of a time echoes the structure of texts like E.L. Doctorow’s Ragtime. In addition to following Tesla’s arrival from Croatia (by way of Paris) through the inventor’s inconsistent career and destitute death, Cragun works to present a picture of fin de siècle America.

Zach Morgan’s Tesla unfolds himself off a ship onto the docks of New York City during the first scene of the play.  A rear lit screen provides a late 19th Century skyline of the city as other immigrants disembark. Morgan embodies an appealing and enigmatic mix of charisma and misanthropy. His Tesla is assured and stable, a constant throughout the production. In addition to Morgan who appears only as Tesla; the cast includes Corder, O’Neal, Heidi Berg, Nissa Nordland, and Heather Stone who portray innumerable characters.

The scenes change rapidly, head over heel snapshots of Tesla’s life. The pace is aggressive and challenges the actors to move quickly between characters and develop differentiated affectations and voices. Tesla’s life is an embarrassment of riches for a writer; the incidents of inspiration and invention, and interactions with luminaries including Edison, Mark Twain, Sarah Bernhardt, J.P. Morgan, Grover Cleveland beg to be included in a depiction of the ‘mad scientist’s’ story.  The result sometimes feels frenetic, breakneck. Since there are no costume changes and only minor adjustments to Ursula K. Bowden’s versatile set, there are moments of confusion determining if a character is new or recurring. The talent and discipline of the ensemble cast is impressive in bringing it all to life.

And of course there is a demonstration of a working Tesla coil.  After inviting Mark Twain and Sarah Bernhardt (among others) back to his laboratory, Tesla stands at the top of a short flight of stairs, two neon tubes in his hands. The coil is activated and, wirelessly, the tube are illuminated. That this is captivating even in the 21st Century is a testament to Tesla’s genius.

Tesla by Josh Cragun. Presented by nimbus, May 11-June 9. Information at http://www.nimbustheatre.com/discover/production/tesla.

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Briana Zora Libby, Heather Spear, and Chris Little in “Changes in Time”. Photo by Rebecca Jean Lawrence Photography.

by SOPHIE KERMAN
For both political and theatrical reasons, the story of gender transition is not told enough. Changing one’s gender presentation is by definition a form of theater; a dress can become a costume, and facial hair can transform a bearer of XX chromosomes into someone who is confident walking into the men’s bathroom. In addition to the uniqueness of each individual experience of feeling trapped in the wrong body, there are also the high interpersonal stakes of telling friends and family that the awkward girl they knew is gone, replaced by a much more self-assured but somewhat unfamiliar man.

In this world premiere of Changes in Time (actually three short plays about the same character), playwright EB Boatner takes a look at three different stages in the transitioning process, each about 20 years apart. Wishes portrays an uncomfortable moment between two friends at summer camp; Dresses follows the main character Lorraine, now in her mid-30s, as her mother tries to force her into a bridesmaid’s dress; and Changes takes places after Laurence has been living as a man for six years.

One of the strongest parts of Boatner’s writing is in the way he captures the language and the cultural norms of the 1950′s, 1970′s, and 1990′s; the characters are distinct citizens of their own times. The 20% Theatre Company, under Claire Avitabile‘s direction, also does an excellent job with the details – everything from the characters’ mannerisms to the handling of an old car is carefully thought out to provide a vivid historical setting with minimal scenery.

The three plays, however, are uneven. The standout of the trio was Dresses, both for its crisp writing and for the fine-tuned and nuanced performances by Heather Spear as Lorraine and Muriel Bonertz as Margaret, Lorraine’s mother. As Margaret struggles with her child’s gender identity, we see generational differences being played out with compassion for both characters’ individual points of reference. It is the kind of play where each gesture and glance speaks volumes; more is said in that 30 minutes of theater than in many full-length shows I have seen.

The other two plays fall prey to different flaws. Wishes is cute and has an interesting twist, but doesn’t mine its subject matter (gender identity vs sexual orientation) quite enough to achieve real emotional depth. On the other hand, Changes falls prey to a more conventional problem in GLBT theater: as Laurence (in a solid performance by first-time actor Chris Little) confronts his father with his new name and gender presentation, the script gets mired in explanations that, at this point in Twin Cities theater, many viewers might feel they no longer need. (The fact that it is set in a funeral home is particularly unfortunate; Laurence’s poor mother seems entirely forgotten in the father-son clash of wills.)

Despite some shortcomings, however, Changes in Time is an interesting and well-executed primer on transgender issues. Those familiar with the trans community may not find the revelations they hope for, but they will find some top-notch theater in Dresses. It makes me hopeful that GLBT theater is, after decades of needing to justify its existence, moving beyond explanations and into the real drama of fashioning an authentic identity in a sometimes hostile environment.

Changes in Time, by EB Boatner, at the Minneapolis Theatre Garage, 711 W Franklin Avenue, Minneapolis, 55405. May 11-25, 2013.  Tickets $5-25 sliding scale at www.tctwentypercent.org or 612-227-1188.

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Stephen Yoakam (The Poet) in the Guthrie Theater’s production of An Iliad. Photo by Aaron Fenster.

by CHRISTINE SARKES SASSEVILLE

Homer’s the Iliad is among the oldest works of Western literature and its illumination of the heroism and horrors of war has resonated with listeners and readers throughout history. One of the most moving segments of An Iliad, now at the Guthrie Theater through May 26, was actor Stephen Yoakam’s minutes-long listing of every war in human history since the Trojan War. Based on Homer, the play merges the human and mythological events surrounding the siege of Troy, while weaving in modern references and vernacular. As The Poet, Yoakam delivers a virtuosic and powerful 90-minute performance, as the play’s single character. At the Dowling Studio, An Iliad makes use of the intimate space with an evocative ancient Greece-inspired set design by Michael Hoover. 

The play begins with Yoakam using the studio’s open lobby acoustics to sing an ancient Greek battle hymn: ”Every time I sing this song, I hope it’s the last  time.” Yoakam acts as both commentator and character: playing the Greek leader Agamemnon and the great warrior Achilles; narrating the death in battle of Achilles’ great friend Patroclus; describing the combat between Achilles and the Trojan hero Hector; and the final scene of redemption between Achilles and Hector’s grieving father. Throughout the play, The Poet addresses the audience, challenging us to acknowledge our own rage and complicity in creating wars and allowing us to mourn as innocent bystanders.

The playwrights’ complex and ambitious merging of ancient and modern narratives hampers the clarity of the storyline and muddles its thematic exposition. Nor did they draw upon lessons learned from modern conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan as much as I expected after reading the Guthrie’s synopsis. I also wondered why the director did not fully engage the music, sound effects and the set’s scaffolding  until near the end of the play.  Having a single actor carry such a heavy monologue without these devices might be asking too much.  Yoakam delivers a spectacular performance despite these flaws.

An Iliad, by Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare, adapted from Homer, directed by Benjamin McGovern, translation by Robert Fagles at the Guthrie Theater, 818 South 2nd Street, Minneapolis, MN 55415. May 4-26, 2013.  Tickets $29-39 at http://www.guthrietheater.org/.

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The play opens on Alice in a tutoring session. But while Alice’s tutor expects her to pay attention to history for hours at a time, the Children’s Theater Company doesn’t take a second of its audience’s attention for granted. The opening scene before Alice’s wacky dream is as brief as possible, and director Peter Brosius has the audience in Wonderland within about ninety seconds. Once there, Brosius uses every resource at his disposal to engage the audience, including a range of flashing lights and a cacophony of sound effects that, while wondrous at first, left me feeling a bit woozy by the end. He could have gone without some of the flash because the best moments in this production are the simplest ones. To reveal their details would ruin the wonder of it all, but the direction is both playful and precise, well complemented by Brian Sostek’s choreography, which includes several ingenious sight gags that pull the audience’s attention only to surprise us somewhere else.

You should see the production for the adult actors alone, as they give some of the best performances I’ve seen in Twin Cities theater. Dean Holt’s Mad Hatter and Humpty Dumpty are the highlights of this production, and Autumn Ness left us trembling after her scenes as the Queen of Hearts. Many of the children are also impressive in their ensemble roles. Of course, I could grumble–the second act went on too long, Anna Evans as Alice is left with little to do but gawk, and the inclusion of Carroll’s Jabberwocky felt out of place–but this production left me grinning for days, so those quibbles really aren’t worth your time.

Overall, Brosius could have more clearly connected the nonsense of Wonderland to the senselessness of everyday life. While he mentions that resonance in the program note, the parallel doesn’t go much further. But maybe I’m looking for something this adaptation simply wasn’t meant to deliver. After all, it’s impossible to stay grumpy during this production, and– on a day in May when summer weather seems impossibly far away– I can’t give a much better endorsement than that.

Alice in Wonderland by by Lewis Carroll, adapted for the stage by Sharon Holland, produced by the Children’s Theater Company, 2400 3rd Avenue South in Minneapolis. April 30 – June 15th, tickets $35-$45. Childrenstheatre.org

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Brennan Blickhan (Demetrius), Victoria Pyan (Puck), Abby DeSanto (Helena), Matt Ouren (Lysander), Michael Kelley (Oberon), and Anneliese Stuht (Hermia). Photo by Shadowfox Media.

If you aren’t familiar with the Bard’s work, Mission Theater describes the plot of A Midsummer Night’s Dream: “Boy loves Girl. Girl is engaged to another. Boy meets Girl’s friend. Girl’s friend has the hots for Boy’s friend, who is engaged to Girl. Everyone runs away into a fairy-infested wood. Antics with an ass ensue.” Does this sound complicated and silly? It is; wonderfully so. It is a delight to watch – Mission’s production makes the plot particularly comprehensible and the multi-talented Penelope Parson-Lord’s costumes are lush and bright, making this production a real treat for the eyes.

I really enjoyed this play, but it definitely has its flaws. There were a few flubbed lines, a couple of prop malfunctions, and a missed music cue, but on opening night, these can be forgiven. The setting of the opening scenes, however, is not easily overlooked. Shakespeare set his play after the mythical war between Athens and the Amazons; conquered Amazon queen Hippolyta is forced to marry Athenian leader Theseus. Being myth, it would be hard to assign this to a particular date, but Mission Theater’s production seems to be set right after World War II. Now, perhaps this is because WWII is the modern war most recognizable to us today, and perhaps this is because someone wanted to put that distinctive 40s wave into all the women’s hair, but it confused me. Considering how vague Shakespeare’s text is about when it is set, placing it in a specific time suggests a very deliberate choice, and the reasoning behind this choice is unclear.

Another other qualm with this production was the insertion of some new dialogue without an attempt to blend it in; after scenes full of “wouldst thou” and “I knowest thee”, it is incredibly jarring to hear phrases like, “Some party last night, hey?” This only happens a couple times, but when it does, it feels wildly out of place. Finally, there is a timing problem when it comes to scene and act endings; sometimes lights fade and it isn’t clear whether you ought to applaud and get up, or stay seated and silent, waiting for more. This is particularly true at the end of the play; characters exit the stage one at a time in a very final way, and if you don’t know that Puck has a few more lines to deliver, you couldn’t be faulted for assuming the play was over.

Ilana Henckel, Lindsey Hunter, Amanda Johnson, Maria Signorelli, and Amy Vickroy (fairies), and Victoria Pyan (Puck). Photo by Shadowfox Media.

Mission Theater’s production is supplemented by an original score by local musicians Joe Gamble (Enemy Planes) and Al Church (Clustercuss & Al Church and State), which helps transform the theatre into a whole other world. The set (by Craig Fernholz, John Sylvester and Cory Fox) is clever; plain until the fairy forest appears, at which point I actually gasped at how beautiful it was.

The play’s greatest strength lies in its cast. Each and every one is fascinating to watch, and I commend the casting choices. Michael Kelly as both Theseus and Oberon is lustful and seductive, and Andrea Rose Tonsfeldt as Hippolyta and Titania is wonderfully sensuous and imperious. The male lovers (Brennan Blickhan as Demetrius and Matt Ouren as Lysander) are comical, and the female lovers (Abby DeSanto as Helena and Anneliese Stuht as Hermia) change seamlessly from lustful to angry to confused. Victoria Pyan as Puck is pure genius; constantly moving, sometimes playful, sometimes angry. The fairies are lovely, light, delicate, and quick – just as you imagine fairies to be, and the players of the play-within-a-play are hilarious, particularly Craig Fernholz as the pompous Bottom and Alec Barniskis as the awkward Snug/Lion. There are some twists in the casting: Hermea’s father Egeus is actually her mother (a strict, detestable Amanda Johnson) and Puck is a woman; characters come in different shapes and sizes – and none of these choices seem ill-made, because each actor plays their part wonderfully.

Mission Theater’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is not without its problems, but overall it is beautiful to watch, hilariously delivered, and true to Shakespeare’s text without being one of the stuffy productions that so many people imagine when they hear the Bard’s name. That said, to those of you who are on the larger side (if you struggle with the seatbelt in an airplane), beware: the seating in the Gremlin Theater in St Paul is cozy; as a big woman, I felt a little squished into my seat and had very limited leg room. But it was absolutely worth being a little squished. This production made me laugh more than any Blockbuster movie in recent memory.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare, produced by Mission Theater Company, Gremlin Theater 2400 University Ave, St Paul. May 3-11, tickets $15-30 (sliding scale), $5 off with Fringe Festival button or on certain performances. Box office: 612-234-7168 or www.missiontheatrecompany.com

Garry Geiken as James Beard, the culinary maestro
PHOTO CREDIT: Lauren B. Photography

by CHRISTINE SARKES SASSEVILLE

Early in the play, I Love to Eat: A Love Story with Food,  James Beard (Garry Geiken) declares to the audience, “Moderation. I’m against it!”  This line captured to me the true essence of James Beard: America’s original foodie, TV’s first cooking show host, confidante of Julia Child and author of over 20 cookbooks.  An award bearing his name pays tribute to the America’s food traditions and honors yearly the best regional and national chefs.  Minneapolis foodies addicted to James Beard award-winner Lynne Rossetto Kasper and “The Splendid Table” will find a kindred spirit in James Beard as written by James Still, whose love of fresh ingredients, passion and joy in the art of cooking and general joie de vivre won my heart.

Playwright Still has created a fascinating one-man show and portrait of a man, a year before his death in 1984, whose life belied moderation in every way:  from his distinctive laugh to his insistence that food was not “cuisine” and its preparation should always be fun. Still and Geiken present Beard as a man who lived life and loved to the fullest, even if he suffered for his many unrequited passions. Beard’s life and career are filled with false starts:  early attempts to become an opera singer failed, his cooking show on television was hampered by cheesy sponsor gimmicks and was cancelled, an epic love story never materialized and, finally, his body became overburdened by his love of food. Geiken carries the show admirably with obvious affection for his character. He captures Beard’s larger-than-life persona and idiosyncrasies with small movements and expressions while avoiding creating a caricature. The stream of consciousness monologue would be improved with some editing and better pacing, particularly when Beard is reminiscing about his TV show sponsor and childhood influences. An audience participation segment was clever but appeared to confuse the chosen members, who didn’t seem to know if they were handed props or real food to taste.

The 80s kitchen set design (Dean Holzman) and the choice of opera classics (Michael Keck) represented well Beard’s hospitality and over-the-top personality.  Illusion Theater has planned a series of cool special events focused on food, including an evening with well-known local chefs, like Seth Bixby Daugherty and food writer Sue Zelickson.  For more details, visit their website at www.illusiontheater.org.

I LOVE TO EAT: A Love Story With Food by James Still, directed by Michael Robins, starring Garry Geiken. April 26-May 18, 2013, Illusion Theater at the Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts, 8th Floor, 528 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis.  April 26-May 18, 2013. Tickets $15-28 reserved by calling the box office 612-339-4944 or www.illusiontheater.org.

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Morton (Mark Benzel) and Haley (Susanna Stahlmann) rock out with Guitar Hero. Photo by Liz Josheff.

by SOPHIE KERMAN
Dreamless Land is a slippery bit of theater. Characters grow up unexpectedly, the genre shifts from “realism” to dream to science fiction to spy movie, and the viewer is never quite sure whether the actors are playing different sides of the same character or different characters altogether. A glowing cube (designed by Liz Josheff with Gary Johnson) changes color in mesmerizing ways that may or may not have anything to do with the narrative shape-shifting going on around it.

If the play were structured a little more like poetry, it might be easier to find a thematic thread that would allow all these disparate elements to hang together. As it is, Julia Jarcho‘s script has just enough narrative that we want to look for cohesion where, it seems, there isn’t meant to be any. 15-year-old Haley’s friend Morton is heading to Las Vegas to meet his father Carver; Haley’s boss Joyce sends her on some sort of spy mission to intercept Carver before Morton – or is it Martin now? –  gets there; she fails in her mission, but suffers no consequences. Within this loose framework, we see bits and pieces of several different characters who seem tethered to nothing more than that fascinating colored box.

Some really fine performances come through, despite being limited by their fragmentary characters. As Haley, Susanne Stahlmann plays each one of her roles with intense commitment, and Bruce Abas‘s Carver is a terrifying case study in the many different degrees of creepiness. Mark Benzel and Miriam Must are given less interesting material to work with in their roles as Morton/Martin and Joyce, but also play their parts well.

What keeps the play from hanging together is a combination of its loose-knit structure and a line delivery that is just plain odd. The actors hardly ever actually speak their lines to each other; the lack of eye contact makes each character into an island, dissolving any sense of relationship or connection. (Similar reviews of the play’s 2011 production in New York suggest that this direction was given by the playwright, not by Red Eye director Steve Busa.) The strange diagonal sight lines are nowhere more noticeable than during a scene in which Carver hits on a cocktail waitress at a Vegas bar. Full of double entendres and innuendo, the dialogue nevertheless comes across as flat and off-putting when the two flirtatious characters never look at or touch one another.

Dreamless Land is a highly conceptual piece that won’t be everyone’s cup of tea – it is the sort of play that throws words like “obstreperous” and “rapacious” in the middle of a casual dialogue and turns on the house lights for no apparent reason. It aims to be random and free-flowing in the way that dreams often are, but it has forgotten that what makes dreams so interesting is their heightened sense of reality and great emotional stakes. These unfortunate dream characters move together through the ether, but lack a dreamer’s vision to guide them in their travels.

Dreamless Land, by Julia Jarcho, at the Red Eye Theater, 15 West 14th Street, Minneapolis. April12-28, 2013.  Tickets $8-20 at www.redeyetheater.org or reserved by calling 612.870.0309.

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Katia Cardenas (Cecy), Amanda Kay Thomm (Ruby), Becka Linder (Flo), and Laura Mahler (Winnie). Photo by Scott Pakudaitis.

Carol Critchley‘s play recounts the story of The Furies, a girl band with a difference — these girls play rock and roll, not bubblegum pop; they write their own songs and they play their own instruments. But the music industry of 1965 is not a friendly place for serious female musicians, and the producer who signs them views them as a novelty act, in which they are the interchangeable, pretty faces to put on the record sleeve, while the “real” (male) musicians do the real work. Each of the four Furies has a different idea of what it means to be successful, from fame to artistic integrity to having fun, and their separate ambitions pull them in different directions.

Reminiscent of a grittier, more rock’n'roll version of Dreamgirls, girl group is a well-produced piece. Ursula Bowden‘s set design makes particularly good use of The Lowry Lab‘s small stage. Her use of projected images on screens on either side of the stage allow the space to be transformed without set changes, which makes for smooth scene transitions. The story is brought to bright, musical life by a cast of seven, in which there are no weak spots. Lead ‘Fury’ Flo (Becka Linder) is brittle, defensive, and increasingly bitter as time goes by; her younger sister Ruby (Amanda Kay Thomm) is sweetly naive and optimistic. Laura Mahler gives a convincing performance as party-girl Winnie who just wants to have fun, until the fun takes over her entire life, and Katia Cardenas makes a compelling Cecy, the “pretty one” who wants fame and fortune above all. The four actors each portray their characters as sympathetic yet flawed, and it is easy to see the situation from any of their perspectives; the one you root for will have everything to do with your own views on the world.

girl group has much to say about the situation of women. They are clearly being dismissed by the music industry, personified by the aseptic hit-maker Renny Cordell (portrayed as a perfect sleazeball by Edward Linder), and on the one hand, the play makes it clear that just because each of the characters is a woman does not mean they has the same goals or interest. On the other hand, watching Renny’s wife Abigail (Tara Lucchino) hang her head silently while her husband rants about why women can’t be “real musicians” suggests that maybe instead of vying for what little power was available to them in the first place, the women ought to have been banding together to stand up to the Man.

Laura Mahler (Winnie) and Amanda Kay Thomm (Ruby). Photo by Scott Pakudaitis.

If the play has any significant flaw, it is probably its pacing. The first act consists essentially of two lengthy conversations in which we get to know the characters in-depth, while the second act is divided into seven scenes spanning 20 years. Although Lisa Mangone‘s costumes do an impressive job of showing the passage of time, these scenes are so rapid that they feel like vignettes; brief glances at what happens. It feels more like a montage of “what happened after that” that may come at the end of a movie than it does the second half of a full story.

girl group is a very effective play. Much like the characters themselves, by the end of the show, the audience finds itself longing for the “early days” when The Furies were bouncy, optimistic dreamers. Their destinies may be cliché, but it is important to remember that these stories are cliché because they are based on the true stories of so many women. Therein lies the heartbreak and the inspiration this play provides: heartbreak that the world was not kinder to these women, and inspiration to remember that it is women like Flo, like Cecy, like Abigail, who pushed back against societal pressure and made it easier for the women who followed them.

girl group by Carol Critchley produced by Theatre Unbound at The Lowry Lab, 350 St. Peter Street in downtown St. Paul. April 13-28, 2013. Tickets $15-25 (including two “pay-what-you-can” performances on April 18 & 25). Box office: 612-721-1186 http://www.theatreunbound.com