By LIZ BYRON. Precious Little is an ambitious play; it explores the manner in which languages grow, evolve, and die, and the ways in which people communicate across languages, within the same language, and without language at all. It deals with single parenthood, the prospect of raising a developmentally challenged child, and the realities of caring for…
by CHRISTINE SARKES SASSEVILLE Cyrano, at the Park Square Theatre, offers swoon-inducing romance and swashbuckling action in this modern adaptation by Michael Hollinger. J C Cutler in the title role and Emily Gunyou Halaas, as Cyrano’s love interest Roxane, deliver poignant and tender performances that had many audience members sniffling during several romantic exchanges. The small cast takes on…
by SOPHIE KERMAN Our language has changed quite a bit since 1613, but our sense of humor clearly has not. Sure, there are a whole lot of “forsooth”s in Thomas Middleton‘s A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, but the characters it mocks are still alive and well today: the incessantly chattering gossips, the pretentious scholar spouting verbiage no…
By LIZ BYRON As a self-identified pacifist and feminist, I was interested in the prospect of hearing women soldier’s perspectives on the war in Iraq. And as I’ll admit that my knowledge of life in the US armed forces is very much limited to major news headlines and Hollywood blockbusters, I was hoping that History Theatre‘s…
by SOPHIE KERMAN Political theater has a fine line to walk between didacticism, partisanship, and voyeurism into trauma. This is something that co-creators Michael Opperman and Nathan Tylutki were deeply aware of when constructing Red, White, [Black & Blue]: Uncharged at Guantánamo, a performance piece about the detainees currently remaining uncharged at Guantánamo. The term “performance piece” (my…
By TAMAR NEUMANN: I often forget that theatre can be magical. That was theatre’s original purpose—creating an enchanting world where you could escape your everyday problems. Now, theatre is often used for a different purpose, because movies provide escape and theatricality, but when I see a show at The Children’s Theatre Company (CTC) I am reminded…
by CHRISTINE SARKES SASSEVILLE Peter and the Starcatcher at the Orpheum Theatre, through this weekend only, is a high-octane and hilarious voyage to Neverland, with wildly innovative staging and scene-chewing acting that will have you laughing out loud and marveling at the inventiveness of it all. The five-time Tony Award winning adaptation by Rick Elice is based…
by SOPHIE KERMAN How many ping pong balls can you pick up in 30 seconds? In 15 seconds, can you come up with 5 different things that you’d like to put in a mailbox but probably shouldn’t, because you’re pretty sure it’s a felony? Game shows are weird, unpredictable, and completely arbitrary, and this might…
By TAMAR NEUMANN: When you walk into the mainstage area for Mixed Blood Theatre’s new production The Sun Serpent, you might be immediately struck by the simple, yet elaborate set design. It looks like a jungle. It sounds like a jungle, and if you hadn’t just walked in from the Minnesota tundra, it might even…
by JAMES JOHNS, guest reviewer* Described as a play of “what if” by director Rob Melrose, Freud’s Last Session imagines a conversation, bordering on debate, between Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis as they struggle to understand each other’s positions on logic, faith, and the existence of God. An older atheistic Freud, suffering from late stage oral cancer, requests a…
Aisle Say - Twin Cities 