Like all of Dark & Stormy Productions plays, Jean Genet‘s The Maids is done in a small, empty office space in the old Grain Belt Brewery (77 13th Ave NE, Minneapolis, through Feb 17). The space is intimate. The actors…
Review | A Steady Rain: solid
Of all the horrific things that have happened over the past fifty years the Jeffrey Dahmer story stands out. What makes it especially distressing is that a fourteen-year-old boy escaped from Dahmer’s basement apartment, ran naked to two Milwaukee police…
Review | Ishmael: a monolog based on Moby Dick
For most people… Well, for many people… Okay, for me, Moby Dick = Gregory Peck. The image is indelible: Peck-as-Ahab lashed to the great albino whale’s side, stabbing at him ineffectually with a broken harpoon, as Dick, having handily turned…
Article | HWTS’s Top Plays Of 2017
Our second year-end wrap-up. Most of the shows were reviewed, but some were not. For those for which reviews exist, helpful links are included. We’re lucky to live in such a good theater town. MARI WITTENBREER Full disclosure: I…
Review | Dot: glitter, with tarnished gold
Christmas time mingles past, present and future as families gather to celebrate and share common traditions and memories. So it’s no surprise to discover a play about a family’s struggle with Alzheimer’s during the holiday season when the loss of…
Review | Hatchet Lady: doesn’t cut it
Carry Nation is an odd footnote of American history; a woman so impassioned to halt the scourge of alcohol in pre-prohibition times that she took it as a call from God to do physical damage to saloons and bars with…
Review | A Christmas Carole Petersen: a Minnesota Nice holiday
There’s an emotionally raw quality to A Christmas Carole Petersen (Theater Latté Da, through Dec 30) that imparts to the material real substance, true Christmas spirit. Without this the play might could be glib, pat, and predictable. For example: Tod Petersen…
Review | Blithe Spirit: sparking sophistication
Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit, now at the Guthrie, begins as the upper-class English couple Charles and Ruth Condomine are about to host a dinner party. He’s an established writer. She manages the household which includes a maid of uncommon exuberance.…
Review | The Unscripted Minnesota Holiday: improvised fun
Looking for a little alternative holiday entertainment? Something that doesn’t require dressing up or pondering the financial commitment for the tickets? Well, here it is: Dangerboat Productions “The Unscripted Minnesota Holiday†at the Bryant-Lake Bowl Theater – and it’s family-friendly…
Review | Black Nativity: pure delight
Great balls of Gospel fire! Toe tapping tuneage! Satan-busting religiosity! Take me now, Lord! If Black Nativity (Penumbra Theatre, through, appropriately, Dec 24) doesn’t utterly transport you into an exquisite world of Gospel-fueled Christmas passion, well then, you have deep…
Review | Miss Bennet: Christmas At Pemberley: a delight
At the end of Miss Bennet: Christmas At Pemberley (at the Jungle) director Christina Baldwin brings the cast together for a final smiling pose. Playing underneath, appropriately, is Beethoven‘s Ode To Joy. That’s what Miss Bennet: Christmas At Pemberley is about:…
Roller Derby Queen: overlong, yes, but still effective
The central conceit of Michele Lepsche‘s affecting (and challenging) Roller Derby Queen (SOS Theater, performing in the wonderful Gremlin space – 550 Vandalia in St. Paul – through Nov 26) is terrific: Florence has ensconced herself in a junk-choked house…