"Murder on the Orient Express" at the Guthrie Theater

One of Agatha Christie's most well-known mysteries, Murder on the Orient Express, was first adapted to the stage just six years ago. Playwright Ken Ludwig brings his usual fun, fast, high-energy style to the adaptation. Previously unfamiliar* with the material, I found the Guthrie's new production to be constantly surprising and delightful. The production design that depicts an elegant art deco European train is stunning, and the ten-person mostly local cast is truly an embarrassment of riches. This Orient Express is pure entertainment from start to finish - a smart adaptation of a classic mystery perfectly executed by the cast and creative team, and even with a bit of depth as the famous detective Hercule Poirot contemplates the nature of justice and his role in it. Hop on board the Orient Express now through July 2. 

American Players Theatre 2022, Spring Green WI

If Middle Earth had a theater, it would look like American Players Theatre. Situated on over 100 acres in the woods of Wisconsin about an hour west of Madison, the sprawling grounds include several picnic areas on rolling hills with artwork and lights hanging from the trees (very Hobbiton), where people set up elaborate picnics complete with baskets, tablecloths, and stemware, and then you walk through tall forests where the Elves might have lived sometime in the past to the "Up-The-Hill" theater, with performances out in the open in a natural amphitheater. The permanent outdoor theater was built in 1980 and renovated a few years ago, and includes about 1000 cushy comfy waterproof seats around a thrust stage, with not a bad seat in the house. The stage is set against the woods, which are lit up at night in rainbow colors. The light of the sun, stars, and moon is amplified by huge sets of stadium lights, specifically directed where they are needed (stage, aisles, audience). The setting couldn't be more magical, but more importantly, the theater that has been produced in that space for over 40 years is fantastic. I don't know how it took this Midwest theater lover so long to discover this national gem of a theater. Their eight-show summer season continues through the first week of October, with a 9th show being presented in their indoor theater from late October through November, so you still have time to make the gorgeous four-hour drive from the Twin Cities to Spring Green (if you can get tickets). Otherwise, start making plans for their 2023 season, opening in June. If you're a theater fan living in the Midwest, APT is an absolute must-see.

"The Song of Summer" at Mixed Blood Theatre

After a pretty intense 2018-2019 season of plays that included Is God Is, the trilogy Prescient Harbingers, Roe, and Autonomy, Mixed Blood Theatre is beginning their 2019-2020 season with something a little lighter. Playwrights' Center Affiliated Writer Lauren Yee (whose work has been seen in #TCTheater most recently in the Guthrie's production of The Great Leap) brings us a sweet and fun play that's almost a rom-com. The Song of Summer is not without substance, dealing with relationships, pop culture, and celebrity, but the story at its heart is one we've seen many times before. But it's told in a unique framework with an appealing cast, so it's a story I'm happy to watch. It's OK for theater to be light and sweet and fun, even at Mixed Blood, especially when this well written, directed, and acted.

"A Midsummer Night's Dream" by Ten Thousand Things at Open Book

A Midsummer Night's Dream is perhaps the wackiest of Shakespeare's romantic comedies. It's the one where lovers chase each other through a forest, a group of actors rehearse and perform a preposterous play, and a woman falls in love with an ass (a literal not figurative ass, the latter is nothing unusual). This makes it a great choice for the superb theater company Ten Thousand Things to bring to their typical venues of prisons, homeless shelters, community centers, and other places and people usually lacking in the joy that theater can bring. TTT's version features an ethnically diverse cast and a few gender changes (Lysander is played by a woman and referred to as she), as well as men playing female characters and women playing male characters. None of this interferes with the story (all you see are eight wonderful actors playing many different characters), and perhaps makes it so that everyone finds someone or something to relate to. I always love seeing Ten Thousand Things shows to witness the true craft of theater without any distractions that a big fancy production can bring. In a fully lit room, the actors look you in the eye and simply say and feel and live the words of the play. It's theater at it's most basic and true.

Highlights of the show include:

• Karen Wiese-Thompson as a very funny and earthy Puck. She shares a wonderful rapport with... 
• Sun Mee Chomet, who digs into the role of Oberon, King of the goblins, with glee and a lusty laugh.
• Elise Langer's hilarious transformation into the aforementioned ass, with the stomping of feet, an overbite, and subtle horse sounds in her speaking.
• The marvelous Gavin Lawrence as the distinguished duke and the lovestruck Titania.
• The delightful and surprisingly moving love story between the four lovers - Anna Sundberg's serious and devoted Lysander, Brittany Bradford as a radiant Hermia, Kurt Kwan's persistent Demetrius, and Mo Perry's hurt and disbelieving Helena. These four also have fun turns as the hapless actors rehearsing and badly performing the silly play-within-a-play.
• Peter Vitale's playful cacophony of sound coming from the corner of the room that never distracts from, but always adds to, the story.
• Fun, simple, and effective costumes by Sonya Berlovitz. Actors start out wearing pajamas, then don robes (color-coded to help remember which couples go together), with dark and fantastical coats and headpieces as goblins in the forest.
• Little ad-libs or side comments that perhaps aren't in the script, but make the story feel more current and relatable.
• During some scene transitions, actors slowly don a new costume, as if sleepwalking and waking up in a new life.

A Midsummer Night's Dream continues at Open Book through November 3. You can never go wrong with a TTT show, and this is a fun new take on a classic.

"The Brothers Size" by Pillsbury House Theatre at the Guthrie Studio

The "Brother/Sister Plays" by young playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney are a complex and intense "series of stories" that tell universal stories of love, loss, family, and relationships through a specific set of characters in Louisiana, who happen to be named for gods in the Yoruba mythology of Nigeria. Pretty heavy stuff, and pretty rich material too, with which Pillsbury House Theatre is doing a pretty amazing job. Last summer they presented the first play in the trilogy, In the Red and Brown Water, at the Guthrie Studio Theater. This fall they're doing the second play, The Brothers Size*, which includes two of the same characters but a different focus. I can only hope they'll complete the trilogy next year with Marcus; Or the Secret of Sweet. I'd really love to see all three done in repertoire, which would be a huge undertaking, but also hugely rewarding to see all the stories and characters within a short time period. It takes a moment to get into the language and the structure of the plays, in which characters speak their own stage directions ("Oshoosi sleeps," "Ogun exits"). But once you do you really come to know and love (or hate) these characters.

In the Red and Brown Water tells the story of a young track star named Oya whose dreams are put on hold when she stays home to tend to her dying mother. It ends pretty tragically for Oya, and The Brothers Size picks up where it left off, although not with Oya**. The focus of this play is her ex-boyfriend Ogun Size and his brother Oshoosi, along with her little friend Elegba who is now grown and has befriended Oshoosi in prison. They're both out now, and Ogun is trying to get his brother back on track, giving him a job in his "carshack." Unfortunately, Elegba is there to drag him back in. This one ends pretty tragically too. Oshoosi and Elegba are best friends and share a lot in prison (just how much is only hinted at), but the truest relationship in this piece is between the brothers. Their parents died when they were young, so they've only had each other their whole lives. Elegba tells Ogun how Oshoosi cried for him when he was first imprisoned, and it's just heartbreaking. Ogun feels responsible for his brother; when Oshoosi went to prison he felt like he let him down somehow, and is determined not to let that happen again.

This play features a three-person cast, much smaller than the last one, and they're all spectacular. Gavin Lawrence is a captivating actor (including a dynamic portrayal of the poet Langston Hughes earlier this year). This version of Elegba is less likeable than what I remember from the last play, but just as compelling. James A. Williams also reprises his role from In the Red and Brown Water, and is convincing as the loving but frustrated brother. Namir Smallwood is new to the trilogy but not to Pillsbury House; he appeared in Buzzer earlier this year (which will be reprised at the Guthrie Studio next year). His Oshoosi is young and playful, but with a dark undercurrent from his years in prison. You can definitely feel the strong bond of family between the brothers Size.

Music is woven into this play in a really lovely way. There's a bit of singing, including a very entertaining version of "Try a Little Tenderness" by the brothers. In addition to the singing, Ahanti Young (who I've known previously as an actor, but who it turns out is also a very talented drummer) plays percussion throughout the piece, adding a soundtrack to accentuate what's happening on stage. He's playing as the audience files in before the show, which makes the pre-show waiting much more pleasant.

The Brothers Size is playing at the Guthrie Studio through the end of the month. If you saw In the Red and Brown Water last summer, you'll want to see this one too. But even if you didn't see it, it's certainly not necessary to appreciate this well-acted, well-written, moving, intense, and unexpectedly musical piece.



*I received two complementary tickets to The Brothers Size as part of the Guthrie's "Blogger Night."

**Oya was not a character in this play, but her portrayer, the lovely and talented Christiana Clark, was in the audience. I wonder if she was as upset about poor Oya's fate as I was!

"Are You Now or Have You Ever Been..." by Carlyle Brown & Company at the Guthrie Studio

... a member of the Communist party. That's the completion of the wordy title of this play, or at least one variation of it. It refers to questions posed by Joseph McCarthy and his senate subcommittee to the African-American poet and suspected Communist Langston Hughes in 1953. This new play at the Guthrie Studio Theater,* written by Carlyle Brown (who also wrote the moving play American Family which premiered at Park Square a few months ago), is about Langston Hughes and his experience with McCarthyism. But it's really about so much more. It's about who he was as a man, as a writer, as an activist, as well as what was going on in America during the time he was writing (with possible parallels to today).

Gavin Lawrence plays Langston Hughes, and it's worth noting that he starred in American Family opposite the playwright and Noël Raymond, who directs this play. These are frequent collaborators who continue to work well together. And in this case, Gavin's portrayal of Langston Hughes is one of the best performances I've seen on stage this year. He fully inhabits this character and brings him to life before our eyes. He speaks directly to the audience, looking us in the eye, engaging us and making us feel like a part of the story. He "reads" long segments of books and articles, recites poetry (with the words displayed on a screen behind him), talks on the phone, talks to himself, talks to the audience, all seamlessly and organically. I know I shouldn't be, because it's their job, but I can't help but be impressed by actors who memorize long monologues. This is basically a one-man show for the first hour. And he never stops talking and being this man. I must confess: I've never been able to get into poetry; reading a printed poem does nothing for me. And I know next to nothing about Langston Hughes. But when Gavin as Langston reads these poems out loud, I get it. He brings these beautiful words to life in the most wonderful way - he performs them, he lives them. I could listen to him read poems for two hours, and this is coming from someone who's not generally a fan of a poetry. There are lots of interesting and worthwhile things about this play, but for me it's all about Gavin Lawrence's performance.

Langston Hughes (Gavin Lawrence) and his lawyer (playwright Carlyle Brown)
respond to questions from McCarthy's subcommittee

After about an hour of this phenomenal one-man show, the action moves to the actual subcommittee proceedings as McCarthy and three others pepper Langston with questions about his poems, his travels, and his beliefs. They're seated at a high desk behind the screen, as Langston sits with his lawyer (played by the playwright) facing the audience. The questions are ridiculous and paranoid, and Langston fends them off as best he can. There's no real resolution to the scenario. Only silence as the committee members walk out. One last poem is displayed on the screen, which the audience is left to read silently to themselves.

Sometimes there’s a wind in the Georgia dusk
That cries and cries and cries
Its lonely pity through the Georgia dusk
Veiling what the darkness hides


Sometimes there’s blood in the Georgia dusk
Left by a streak of sun
A crimson trickle in the Georgia dusk
Whose Blood? …Everyone’s


Sometimes a wind in the Georgia dusk
Scatters hate like seed
To sprout its bitter barriers
Where the sunsets bleed

Celebrity Sighting
As I was looking for a seat in the general admission seating of the Dowling Studio, I spotted a sign that said "reserved for Joe Dowling."  Yes, the man for whom the theater was named, and Artistic Director of the Guthrie, was in the house!




*I received two complementary tickets to attend Are You Now or Have You Ever Been... as part of the Guthrie's "Blogger Night." 

"American Family" at Park Square Theatre

American Family.  That's kind of a loaded title.  These days the definition of "American Family" is pretty broad; family is what you make of it.  But in 1964 that definition was much narrower.  A family that's made up of a divorced white woman and her daughter, a black man, and their mixed race child, had a hard time existing anywhere in 1964, much less in Alabama.  Such is the subject of the new play commissioned by Park Square Theatre and written by Carlyle Brown.  And the result is a heart-wrenching exploration of family, love, betrayal, pride, prejudice, and the long-lasting effects of childhood injuries.

The central character in this family and this story is Mary Ellen, a 9-year-old girl in 1964 (played by the delightful star-in-the-making Megan Fischer, aka Annie).  The story begins as the adult Mary Ellen (the very talented and appealing Tracey Maloney, a newcomer to Park Square but a veteran of the Twin Cities theater scene) returns to her childhood home on a mission.  She meets and interacts with her younger self, and watches from the sidelines as her young life is changed for good, but not for the better.  Tracey and Megan mirror each others movements and expressions so that they really do look like they could be two versions of the same person.  Except that the grown-up Mary Ellen has lost much of that spark, that confident feeling of youth that everything is ahead of you and nothing can hurt you.  She knows what a tough road young Mary Ellen has in front of her and tries to warn her, even though she knows she must live through it.

In the first act, we watch along with the adult Mary Ellen as her mother (the sympathetic Noël Raymond, who directed Tracey last year in The Pride at Pillsbury House Theatre) marries Jimmy (a likeable Gavin Lawrence, who will next play Langston Hughes in the next Carlyle Brown project) and they move in with Jimmy's parents on their farm.  Grandma Richardson (the great Greta Oglesby) quickly warms to her new white granddaughter, but grouchy old Grandpa Richardson (played by the playwright himself), who is opposed to the marriage because of the difficulties it brings, takes a little longer to be "charmed" by the spirited young girl.  Just when the family seems to have settled into a kind of happiness, Mary Ellen's biological father (John Middleton, playing an unlikeable jerk) shows up to take her away, which is where the heartache (and need for tissues) begins.

The second act shows us what happens when the adult Mary Ellen meets her 16-year-old brother (Michael Terrell Brown, a promising young talent), whom she only knows from her mother's letters.  Tommy grew up in the shadow of the memories of his older sister, even though he never met her.  Both have assumptions about the other that prove to be incorrect.  Tommy's life is not easy, despite living the life that Mary Ellen wished she had, and Mary Ellen doesn't conform to the image in Tommy's head of his missing and much-missed sister.  Maybe it's too late to undo the hurts that have been done, but you can't help but wish for healing in this American family as the play ends.

I found this play to be a really moving look at a family that tries to survive when the whole world seems to be against them.  It's playing at Park Square through April 7 (if you go, be sure to bring tissues!).  And I look forward to seeing Carlyle Brown's play Are You Now or Have You Ever Been..., about writer Langston Hughes, playing at the Guthrie Studio Theater in May.

"In the Red and Brown Water" by Pillsbury House Theatre at the Guthrie Studio

When I go to the Ivey Awards this fall, I'm going to recognize many more theater companies and productions than I usually do.  In the last year I've attended many shows by theater companies that I was previously unfamiliar with, and last night I crossed another one off the list: Pillsbury House Theatre (thanks to the Guthrie Studio Theater for bringing many of them into a space I'm familiar and comfortable with).

How can I describe In the Red and Brown Water?  Fortunately there was a post-show discussion that helped me understand it a little better.  On the surface the story's pretty simple.  A young woman loses her mother and her dream of becoming a track star, and wanders through her life looking for something to cling to.  The staging is very simple too; there's nothing on stage but a dozen lawn chairs on an upward sloping reddish brown floor.  But the themes are more complex; it feels like a piece I need to see a few times to fully comprehend.  Lucky for me, Pillsbury House Theatre is producing the play again in 2012, along with the other two plays in the Brother/Sister trilogy by emerging playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney.  I really grew to know and love these characters over the course of the play, so I'm curious to find out what happens to them next.  Stay tuned.

The characters in In the Red and Brown Water are named after gods in the Yoruba mythology of Nigeria; the child/prophet Elegba, the attractive bad boy Shango, the good and stable man Ogun, and our heroine Oya.  A unique feature of this play is that the characters speak their own stage directions aloud.  "Shango enters," "Elegba exits," "Oya weeps."  It was a little jarring at first, but once I got used to it I really liked it.  As was discussed in the talkback, it's another opportunity to more deeply understand the characters.  The way the actors say the stage directions gives the audience insight into their feelings: sad, angry, confident, joyful.  Towards the end of the play Oya begins to say everyone's stage directions, perhaps because she's starting to take control of her own life.

Oya is a high school track star from the projects in San Pere, Louisiana.  She turns down an opportunity to run for the state college so she can stay with her dying mother.  Oya is devastated by the loss, but is comforted by the love of Shango.  She's devastated again when that relationship ends, and her sweet friend Ogun helps pick up the pieces.  Having missed her chance at her dream of running, she clings to a new dream - starting a family with Ogun.  But that never happens either, and Oya goes to drastic lengths to give something of herself to someone.  She is completely depleted.  And then she gets up and starts running.  As director Marion McClinton said in the talkback, sometimes it's the running of the race that matters, not the outcome.  There's glory in the running.  (I'll be thinking about that as I run my fourth half marathon in four weeks on Sunday in Minneapolis, in a race I like to call the Run to the Guthrie. :)

This is a top-notch production and the cast is amazing; I will definitely be checking out other productions at Pillsbury.  Christiana Clark plays Oya.  Not only does she look like an athlete, but she also beautifully embodies Oya's spirit - her confusion, desperation, and determination.  Gavin Lawrence plays the delightfully devilish Elegba, who grows from a boy to a young man.  Elegba is one of those characters who seems simple, but is actually quite wise and profound (the title of the play comes from a dream he has about Oya's future).  Gavin is very convincing in that transition, and has a lovely voice when he sings for Oya.  From Sonja Parks as Oya's mother, to Ansa Akyea and James A. Williams as her suitors, to the great Greta Oglesby as her aunt, to every last member of the ensemble, the cast is just beautiful.

I can't say it better than this, from the Guthrie's publicity postcard about the show: "Lusciously theatrical and boldly original, this play weaves together elements of urban contemporary realism with West African mysticism for a lyrical experience that is at once joyous and challenging, raucous and raw, and brazenly beautiful."