by SOPHIE KERMAN For a play inspired by an ethnographic study, Four Destinies has a whole lot of heart and a surprising amount of humor. Playwright Katie Hae Leo was drawn to write the play – which opens Mu Performing Arts‘s 2011-12 season in its world premiere – after reading a study by Kim Park Nelson on adopted children,…
by SOPHIE KERMAN There are some plays that are so heartfelt that you root for their success before the actors even open their mouths. This is even more true when there are important political and ideological reasons for the play to be written and produced – in this case, creating theater that represents gender identities…
by SOPHIE KERMAN “I got one! I got one!” For all of the many reasons we might say we go to the theater, at the heart of it, we all just want a good story. At least that is the argument behind The K of D, a play which takes us back to our very earliest…
By ANNA ROSENSWEIG Adaptations of old plays for modern audiences too often miss the mark because they seek merely to update, and end up doing so cosmetically. A contemporary setting, fashion-forward costumes, or the newest gadgets all shoulder the work of making a play current, with little concern for what makes the play currently meaningful.…
by SOPHIE KERMAN Cshhh. Cshhh. Cshhh. From the very first moments of Two Trains Running, the pace of the action is metered out by the slow scuff of diner waitress Risa’s shoes as she crosses from the kitchen to the tables and back again. Risa (Crystal Fox) walks as though she is burdened by much…
by SOPHIE KERMAN With Così Fan Tutte, opening on Saturday for a five-day run, the Minnesota Opera throws down a gauntlet to anyone who thinks opera is stodgy, irrelevant or boring. Can you sit through Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart‘s 1790 opera without cracking a smile – or bursting out in an explosion of giggles as two grown men roll…
by SOPHIE KERMAN “Provocative” is too cliché a word to describe Neighbors, the Mixed Blood‘s season opener. Although the publicity materials for this recent play by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins use words like “subversive,” “real,” and “scathing,” the Mixed Blood has earned the right to tell it like it is: this ensemble will sneak up behind you, rip you…
by SOPHIE KERMAN Whether you want to spend two hours at the Walking Shadow Theatre Company‘s production of reasons to be pretty depends entirely on the company you keep. As one would expect from a Neil LaBute play, reasons is centered on four unpleasant people and the unpleasant things they do to one another. If…
by SOPHIE KERMAN A good director knows his or her audience, and although the Guthrie Theater‘s latest Shakespearean adaptation failed for me on several levels, I have to give director Joe Dowling credit where credit is due. As far as I could tell, the audience at the opening night of Much Ado About Nothing mostly consisted of…
by SOPHIE KERMAN and ANNA ROSENSWEIG Theatre Pro Rata made an interesting choice by producing Cat’s Paw, a play about domestic eco-terrorism, in the midst of our nation-wide remembrances on the tenth anniversary of September 11, 2001. The play, updated in 2010 by playwright William Mastrosimone from the 1985 original, turns out to be quite…
Aisle Say - Twin Cities 