by SOPHIE KERMAN Any attempt at writing a play about genocide is immediately plagued by a host of ethical problems. In representing an individual’s testimony on stage, the playwright risks co-opting the voice of the victim or trivializing a traumatic experience in order to gain an emotional response from the audience. And yet taking too…
by SOPHIE KERMAN You can always rely on the Sandbox Theatre, with its years-long play development process, to present something new, challenging, and seamlessly executed. Beatnik Giselle, performed for just one weekend at the Southern Theater, tackles heavy questions of sexuality and self-expression through a framework of dance, music, and Beat poetry: not a traditional piece of…
by MICHAEL J. OPPERMAN The funny I expected, the poignancy I didn’t. 2 Sugars, Room for Cream is a surprisingly moving collection of comic vignettes draped over incidental meetings with coffee, and some harder stuff here and there (“I keep a spare in the trunk” does not refer to a tire). Written and performed by…
by REBECCA HALAT, Guest Reviewer Starting out with a football throwing sequence, History Theatre’s Lombardi got a “pass” for those cheesy moves, as it felt appropriate to have some element of cheese in a play about a football team from Wisconsin. Although there were a few problems with the production, in all this is a truly charming show.…
by SOPHIE KERMAN Memory is a complicated organism, particularly when endless streams of information (both memorable and not) are available at the touch of a button. Rachel Jendrzejewski, more a theater artist than a playwright, may be right in choosing to explore memory through looser forms of movement and linguistic collage, rather than through the stricter structures…
by MICHAEL J. OPPERMAN The Children’s Theatre productions are so masterful, so pleasurable, so dynamic and so consistently great that it can be easy to take the constant excellence for granted. Adapted for the stage by Katie Mitchell for Britain’s Royal National Theatre, The Cat in the Hat premieres in the United States here. There…
by SOPHIE KERMAN Every weekend in the fall, there seems to be an endless stream of shows opening around the Twin Cities, and despite the best efforts our tireless band of volunteer reviewers, we can never manage to see everything. October feels like a record high for opening weekends this year: although Anna Rosensweig and…
by CHRISTINE SARKES SASSEVILLE Next to Normal, winner of three Tony Awards and the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, is a rousing rock musical that explores mental illness, bipolar disorder, teenage angst, grief and suburban family dysfunction. Set to powerful lyrics and music, the musical balances these difficult and often uncomfortable topics with humor, humanity and raw honesty. Standout vocals…
by EMILY MEISLER, guest reviewer Appomattox, a new play by Christopher Hampton and commissioned by the Guthrie Theater, presents two distinct snapshots of American history: April 1865, the end of the Civil War; and April 1965, after the death of Jimmie Lee Jackson and just before the passage of President Johnson’s Voting Rights Act. While these…
by SOPHIE KERMAN Despite knowing and loving Kurt Vonnegut, Jr for novels like Slaughterhouse Five and Cat’s Cradle, fans should not be surprised that he was also a playwright. After all, his witty, cutting dialogue is precisely what makes his novels so readable and so incisive. In Happy Birthday, Wanda June, Vonnegut’s trademark style leaps off the page;…
Aisle Say - Twin Cities 