Show: 54 (encore)
Title: Twice
Category: Drama
By: Its Time Productions
Written by: Chris Andersen and Lee Lawing
Location: The Playwrights' Center
Summary: Three pairs of plays by two playwrights explore the same situations and themes in different but complementary ways.
Highlights: My 54th and final show of the Minnesota Fringe Festival was the encore performance of Twice, which sold out its entire run at The Playwrights' Center. I can see why. These six short plays, each of which could stand on its own as a fully defined situation and characters, together form a more complete picture around the themes of family, relationships, endings, beginnings, death, and hope. "A customer walks into a record store" becomes two young men (Reid Emmons and Jacob Mierva) flirting, or two older men (Peter Vitale and Dennis Spears) flirting. "People gather in a church during a downpour" becomes three church ladies (Janet Hanson, Annette Cummings, and Jane Zilch) planning a party and gossiping,* or a stranger comforting a grieving mother. "A son sits with his dying father" becomes an imagined last conversation, or an urgent flight home. It's a fascinating idea for a playwriting experiment that turned into one really well-written, -directed (Audrey Stottler), and -acted piece of theater. And an excellent conclusion to an excellent 2016 Minnesota Fringe Festival.
