Playwright Frank Higgins does two very smart things with his vivid Black Pearl Sings! (at Penumbra, 270 N. Kent Street, St. Paul, through March 14, penumbratheatre.org). First, he shoehorns an amazingly wide range of Depression-era America into his story: the humid…
Author: John Olive
According to Coyote at The Children’s Theatre Company
The Trickster pops up everywhere. Reynard the Fox, Prometheus, Eshu (in the Yorba culture), the Monkey King (in Chinese mythology). In western literature, the quintessential Trickster is probably Shakespeare’s Puck. The character appears most vividly, though, in the vast and varied Native…
Expecting Isabel at Lowry Lab Theatre
At the outset I have to declare a prejudice: my wife (my play-going companion last night) and I are adoptive parents. We underwent, 13 years ago, the infertility/adoption tribulations of the hapless couple in Lisa Loomer‘s Expecting Isabel (Theatre Unbound, Lowry…
Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice at Twin Cities Friends Meetinghouse
Last night I had the pleasure to attend the first performance of the first production of the Prospero Theatre Company, a group composed, so far as I can tell, of three “founding members”, actors Rebekah Henrickson and MaryLynn Mennicke, along…
Yellow Face, a Theatre Mu Production at The Guthrie Theater
David Henry Hwang calls the question very early in Yellow Face (produced by the always worthwhile Theatre Mu in the Guthrie’s Dowling Studio, through Feb 21, guthrietheater.org): “Is race a meaningless construct?” Who, the play asks, is more authentically Chinese? The successful…
Macbeth at The Guthrie Theater
As my companion pointed out, one of the enduring pleasures of Macbeth (on the Guthrie’s Wurtele Stage, through April 3, guthrietheater.org) is that it’s so much fun. A tragedy to be sure, and stern academicians will parse the deep meaning of…
Dreamgirls at Orpheum Theatre
Wow,” said my young companion, “she’s amazing,” and it’s true: as Effie White, Moya Angela turns in a knockout performance, one that lifts Dreamgirls (at the Orpheum, 910 Hennepin Ave., through Jan 17, hennepintheatretrust.org) and turns a solid Broadway production…
We Gotta Bingo! at The Hennepin Stages
Environmental/audience participation musicals are a jam-packed field and it gets more crowded all the time: Tony ‘N Tina’s Wedding, The Church Basement Ladies, A Deer Camp Christmas, Dixie’s Tupperware Party, et al. Audiences love them, though, and if We Gotta Bingo!…