Menu

To die or not to die?

The Jungle’s Deathtrap is a Caper with Ketchup on the Side Five characters. Two acts. Three deaths. One script. Countdown to murder commence – Deathtrap, the Jungle’s latest dip into intrigue and laughs, is open. Somewhat reminiscent of the slicked up slasher Scream films, the plot follows a man who

Reviewed in Brief: Red Resurrected

“Whether she leaves or stays in the wild unknown, there’s a place for her.” So closes Red Resurrected, an imaginative new play at Illusion Theater from Transatlantic Love Affair. As happens with so many locally created shows, Red Resurrected began as a popular offering at the Fringe Festival. Weaving in plot snippets from

Two Sugars is Super Sweet; Pool and Custer are the local Fey and Poehler

There is perhaps no better location for a play about coffee than Minnesota, with its legions of Lutheran church basements filled to the brim with bulk-purchased Folgers. Two Sugars, Room for Cream, based off of a massively popular 2009 Fringe Festival show, fits this bill perfectly. The New Century Theater’s

Xany Xanadu: Chanhassen Dinner Theater’s latest effort skates over itself

It seems in musical theater that there are the shows that can, the shows that can’t, and the shows that just don’t give up. Xanadu, a musical farce of the 1980 movie of the same name, is one of the latter. Despite a weak script, an even weaker premise, and

Once Upon a Roman Holiday

In the era of the 1%, who would give up their wealth and fame to join the uncleansed masses? Roman Holiday is essentially the classic fairy tale in reverse. Princess Anne is a young European royal, the darling of her people and an unwilling participant in the trappings of monarchy. Her

Tune out to Noises Off!

Like an overfermented wine, Noises Off! promises all the features of a fantastic show, but leaves the audience coming away with a tinny taste in their mouth. It’s not necessarily a bad flavor, but it’s disappointing compared to what one expected. Noises Off! is the same story retold three times

Fela! displays all of the qualities that a musical should be, featuring gorgeous music, riveting visuals and an explicit and carefully relayed political message to boot.

What does it take to break a person? How much violence, slander and abuse can be taken before one gives up on the goodness of life?  In Fela Kuti’s case, it turns out that it takes quite a lot. Kuti was a Nigerian musician and social activist and the Ordway’s

Guthrie Theater’s “Are You Now or Have You Ever Been?”

A suiting introduction to Langston Hughes and the McCarthy era Sometimes there’s blood in the Georgia duskLeft by a streak of sunA crimson trickle in the Georgia duskWhose Blood? …Everyone’s  No phrase more appropriately describes Are You Now or Have You Ever Been? better than this stanza from Langston Hughes’ poem

Plot Profusion: Nimbus Theater’s “The Gold Ass” delivers a multi-layered story about a man who turns into a donkey, and back again

Liz Neerland’s adaptation of Apuleius’ The Gold Ass, now showing at the Nimbus Theater in Northeast Minneapolis, brings the ancient into today. A story within a story within a story (and so on),The Gold Ass is a bit like a mythological live version of Inception. As the show progresses, viewers are taken into

No Doubt About It: Park Square Theatre’s “Doubt: A Parable” combines strong cast tight writing to create one taut, cohesive whole

You know how sometimes you sit in a restaurant, take one look at a menu, and one whiff from the kitchen, and know you’re in for a truly sublime meal? Doubt, the newest production at Park Square Theatre, is a lot like that. One look at the set and cast, and

The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotype is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. they make one story become the only story.

– chimamanda ngozi adichie

Menu

Copyright Becki Iverson 2024.