"Little Shop of Horrors" at the Guthrie Theater

For their summer musical this year, the Guthrie has chosen the cult favorite Little Shop of Horrors. The 1960 B-movie filmed in just two days (per a great article in the program) - turned successful Off-Broadway musical - turned 1986 film starring Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene (from the original Off-Broadway cast), and Steve Martin - finally landed on Broadway in 2003. And 20 years later it's on the Guthrie stage, the first regional theater to produce a Broadway musical in 1983 (per another great article in the program). It's a bit of a departure from the more classic musical fare usually seen at the Guthrie, and it's a risk that has paid off greatly. This production leans heavily into the story's B-movie roots, features a super talented (and mostly local) cast, and is loads of fun while not ignoring the tragic aspects of the story. Visit the Guthrie through August 18 to see this fantastic production of this brilliant little musical, but please, don't feed the plant.

"The Moneylender's Daughter" at Six Points Theater

Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice can be problematic, with its ant-Semitic representation of the greedy Jewish moneylender, yet it also contains the famous "Hath not a Jew eyes... if you prick us, do we not bleed" speech that argues for a shared humanity. In a post-show discussion, Six Points Theater's Artistic Director Barbara Brooks noted that she's interested in depicting the character of Shylock onstage, and how it might be different at a theater that specializes in telling Jewish stories. But since their home stage at Highland Park Community Center is small, they can't really do a large-scale Shakespeare play, so instead they're presenting the world premiere of Brooklyn-based playwright Martin Coren's sequel The Moneylender's Daughter. I've only seen The Merchant of Venice once, pre-blog in 2007 (more on that later), so I'm not that familiar with it and pretty much viewed this as a standalone play. If you do have familiarity with the original it might have a deeper meaning, but I still found it to be a fascinating and moving play dealing with issues of identity, family, and the anti-Semitism that unfortunately is still very much a part of our world.

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2023: "Pearl and Eugene: One Last Shtick"

Day: 8

Show: 30

Title: Pearl and Eugene: One Last Shtick

Category: COMEDY / DRAMA / MUSICAL THEATER / ORIGINAL MUSIC

By: Clucklesworth Productions

Written by: Avi Aharoni and Donald C. Hart

Location: Mixed Blood Theatre

Summary: A formerly successful comedy/music duo does one last show to try to save the Jewish retirement home in which they live.

Highlights: It doesn't get much better than Robert Dorfman and Nancy Marvy doing shtick, in fact I could've used more of it! They play lifelong friends Eugene and Pearl, who successfully performed together until Pearl quit to get married and raise her daughter. They both ended up at the same retirement home, performing at the annual talent show, and when a developer threatens to buy the property and kick everyone out, they decide to perform at a fundraiser concert. They're interviewed by a local journalist (Robb Krueger, who also wrote the original music), whom the home's proprietor (Avi Aharoni) warns them not to trust. So when the reporter publishes an article revealing some dirt from their past, it threatens their relationship and the performance. There's a lot of drama and some betrayal, but the true joy of this show is when Nancy and Robert perform as Pearl and Eugene. They feel like good old friends, and they're highly entertaining and hilarious when performing all of the shtick, puns, and double entendres. It's corny but in the best way. The final performance is on Sunday, so you have one more chance to catch this delightfully shticky show.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

"Groupthink" at Six Points Theater

The 2022-2023 #TCTheater season officially begins after Labor Day, but Six Points Theater is bringing us a juicy appetizer prior to the start of the regular season. The world premiere new play Groupthink is a darkly funny and so-real-it's-scary look at the world of PR and social media. A group of coworkers at a PR firm plot and plan to make their horrible clients look better to the public, and the scary part is - it works. In what would be a tight 90-minute-no-intermission play, if not for the intermission, the talented cast and crisp design bring us right into this world that doesn't seem so far from our own.

"The Tempest" at the Guthrie Theater

The Guthrie's production of Shakespeare's The Tempest, which opened last month and continues through April 16, is "such stuff as dreams are made on." Former Artistic Director Joe Dowling returns to the Guthrie to direct this piece, the first time since he left in 2015. I became a subscriber and fell in love with the Guthrie (and through it, the local theater community) during the Joe Dowling era, so this production feels very familiar and comforting to me, like going home. That big blue beautiful building on the Mississippi (which Joe Dowling shepherded into existence) truly is one of my happy places. And this Tempest is a joyful celebration of the magic we call theater, one that's especially heart-warming after the very long intermission of the last two years. This is the first fully new production of the Guthrie's 2021-2022 pandemic-shortened season (they hosted the touring production of What the Constitution Means to Me last fall, and put a new spin on their 40+ year annual tradition The Christmas Carol), and they've just announced an exciting new 60th anniversary season (my 19th as a subscriber). It feels so good to come home to the Guthrie again.

"Operation: Immigration" streaming from Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company

One of the hits of last year's Minnesota Fringe Festival was #TCTheater artist Avi Aharoni's solo show Operation: Immigration, which was the highest selling Fringe show at Mixed Blood. Now, Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company (where Avi has frequently performed) is offering an updated and filmed remount of the show as part of their 2020-2021 season, entitled "Theater Six Feet Apart." Avi and the creative team (including director Robert Dorfman, cinematographer Ryan Melling, sound designer Reid Rejsa, and lighting designer Todd M. Reemtsma) have done a great job transferring the on-stage show to a filmed production. One of the great things about the Fringe show is that Avi played very well off of the live audience, which of course is gone here. But he's still very personable as he tells the story of his twice-immigrant father, an Iranian Jew, and how delving into this story has influenced his own identity. One thing that remains true about this updated version of the show is this, that I wrote in my review last year: "This is a fascinating and inspiring immigrant story, about a man who sacrificed his whole life for his family's safety and security. But even more than that, it's a love letter from a son to a father, one that it was a privilege to witness."

"Oh My God!" by Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company at Highland Park Center Theatre

In Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company's 25th Anniversary season, they're bringing us Israeli playwright Anat Gov's O my God!, an imagined therapy session with none other than God himself. As someone who doesn't believe in the God of the Bible, I found it a little hard to connect to, but still an interesting exploration of faith and philosophy. What there's no doubt about is that this excellent three-person cast, under Robert Dorfman's direction, makes the story feel real and grounded, despite the fantastical elements.

Minnesota Fringe Festival 2019: "Operation: Immigration"

Day: 9

Show: 29

Title: Operation: Immigration

Category: COMEDY / DRAMA / SOLO SHOW / SPOKEN WORD / STORYTELLING / HISTORICAL CONTENT / RELIGIOUS CONTENT

By: Wandering Jew Productions

Created by: Avi Aharoni

Location: Mixed Blood Theatre

Summary: A solo show by #TCTheater artist Avi Aharoni about his father, a two-time immigrant.

Highlights: This lovely show was deservedly the highest selling show at Mixed Blood. Avi is so charming and disarming as he tells his father's story, and really his own story as the son of a Minnesota woman and a man who immigrated from Iran to Israel, and later to America. It's a scripted show, but he's very loose and playful with the audience, asking questions, and reacting to their reactions, which makes the show feel even more warm and personal. It's funny and poignant and relatable (because the more specific something is, the more universal it is), with great use of the space, well-chosen sound cues, and even a little rap. Director Robert Dorfman inserts himself into the action with comments, hilarious facial expressions, and the turning of the sign from one section to the next. This is a fascinating and inspiring immigrant story, about a man who sacrificed his whole life for his family's safety and security. But even more than that, it's a love letter from a son to a father, one that it was a privilege to witness, and a perfect ending to my 2019 Minnesota Fringe Festival experience.

Read all of my Fringe mini-reviews here.

"Dry Powder" by Dark and Stormy Productions at Grain Belt Warehouse

After two pretty dark and devastating plays about suicide ('Night, Mother) and child abuse/kidnapping (Blackbird), Dark and Stormy returns to comedy with the regional premiere of the new play Dry Powder. It's still dark, and not exactly light-hearted since it features some pretty horrible people working in the cutthroat world of finance, but it is funny. I didn't understand a lot of the terms and acronyms being thrown around, but I am familiar with layoffs and buyouts. Either way it's less about the business world than it is about how these four characters function within this world. As always with Dark and Stormy, there are great performances by a terrific small cast, seen up close and personal in their small studio space, with tight and clear direction (here by Michaela Johnson). It's not so much a forget your troubles kind of comedy, more of a laugh at the troubles of the world because if you don't you'll cry.

"Shul" by Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company at Highland Park Center Theatre

On a weekend when there was yet another deadly attack on a synagogue, I can think of no better reaction to the devastating news than to go to our local Jewish theater and support Jewish artists, Jewish stories, Jewish culture. Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company's world premiere new play Shul, another word for synagogue, is especially appropriate as it deals with an inner city synagogue in danger of closing, and even references a bullet hole in the window. It's a beautiful, funny, poignant story about a group of people trying to keep their culture, traditions, and community alive in the face of ever-changing modern times.

"Frankenstein - Playing with Fire" at the Guthrie Theater

The Guthrie Theater is opening their 56th season (my 16th as a subscriber) with a play they commissioned 30 years ago. Minnesota playwright Barbara Field (who also provided the adaptation for the Guthrie's first A Christmas Carol, that they used for over 30 years) adapted Mary Shelly's famed novel Frankenstein as Frankenstein - Playing with Fire, premiering in 1988. About her work she says, "the animating spirit of this play is a hunger for science and knowledge that motivates the questions these two old men ask each other." One big long conversation between two people about science, philosophy, life, and death is a play that's right up my alley (bonus: mathematical equations!), especially when so beautifully designed and acted as this.

"Indecent" at the Guthrie Theater

Fresh off of Broadway, Indecent has arrived at the Guthrie Theater. Ingeniously written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel (who made her Broadway and Guthrie debuts with this play and is currently the toast of the town), the play tells the story of a play, the history of the world around it, and the interaction of the two. It's about so many things, among them the depiction of a lesbian romance on stage in the early 20th Century, the role of theater in the world, the rise of Nazism and the Holocaust, and the resulting decline of a language and a culture because of it. This new production is gorgeously designed and beautifully performed by the seven-person mostly local cast, for an incredibly moving, enlightening, thought-provoking evening of theater.

"Via Dolorosa" by Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company at the Highland Park Center Theater

In 1997, British playwright David Hare (whose work was recently seen in the Twin Cities via Park Square Theatre's production of Amy's View) traveled to Israel and Palestine to do research for a play about British involvement in the area. What he came away with was a one-man play in which he, the playwright, tells stories from his journey there. Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company is presenting Via Dolorosa to begin their 23rd season, and wow, is it fascinating. I realized just how little I know about the subject, and felt like I should have been taking notes for this engaging lecture. Vaguely familiar phrases like Six-Day War and Oslo Peace Accord sent me scurrying to Wikipedia this morning for details, but it would take weeks, months, years of study to understand all the complexities and centuries of history. This play doesn't attempt to spell everything out, but rather give one man's impression of the land he experienced and the people he met.

"We Are the Levinsons" by Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company at Highland Park Center Theater

The new play We Are the Levinsons is like a very special episode of a TV sitcom. I mean that as a compliment; I grew up on sitcoms (and I learned a lot from the very special episodes). Playwright Wendy Kout has experience with TV sitcoms; she created one that ran four seasons. The play is structured as a series of scenes with natural commercial breaks, often punctuated with a joke or a shocking reveal. Even the font used in the program has a Gilligan's Island-esque feel. But like those very special episodes, We Are the Levinsons deals in more than easy jokes as the characters struggle with aging, illness, messy family relationships, and identity crises. And you may find yourself shedding a few tears amongst all the laughter.

"And So It Goes" by Dark and Stormy Productions at Grain Belt Warehouse

"If this isn't nice, I don't know what the hell is." This quote by American author Kurt Vonnegut is also a line in Canadian playwright George F. Walker's play And So It Goes, in which Vonnegut is a (ghostly) character. And it's a fine way to summarize the experience of watching Dark and Stormy's production of the play. The "this" in this case is a funny/tragic script brought to life by four of the Twin Cities best actors with an interesting and intimate staging in an unconventional space. It doesn't get much better than that, friends. And even though I've never read Vonnegut and don't know much about him (I was a math major), I do know theater, and this is great stuff.

"The Critic / The Real Inspector Hound" at the Guthrie Theater

Two one-act comedies, written by two of my favorite playwrights, covering the topic of theater criticism? I'm in! While I don't consider myself a "critic" I do spend a considerable amount of time seeing theater and writing about it. So these two plays that skewer theater critics (and poke a bit of fun at theater in general) are right up my alley! The pairing of Richard Brinsley Sheridan's The Critic (adapted by Minnesota's favorite playwright Jeffrey Hatcher) and Tom Stoppard's The Real Inspector Hound, written 200 years apart, is genius. This fruitful collaboration between the Guthrie and Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington D.C. features a fantastic cast (that includes actors from both communities) playing in these two very different worlds that both deal with the relationship between theater and theater writing. The result is a hilarious farce, or rather two hilarious farces (or maybe four hilarious farces as both plays feature a play-within-a-play) that is enjoyable for anyone who loves theater. And if you don't love theater, you're in the wrong place.

"Choir Boy" at the Guthrie Theater

What do you get when you combine a talented young playwright, an excellent cast that includes five up-and-coming actors and two beloved veterans of local stages, stirring a capella gospel music arranged by a local musical legend, and the Twin Cities' best director of "theater musically?" You get Choir Boy, a lovely and affecting play about a young gay man coming of age in an African American boarding school. The playwright is Tarell Alvin McCraney of the excellent Brother/Sister trilogy that Pillsbury House Theatre has produced in its entirety in the last several years. While those plays have an epic, mythical quality, Choir Boy is more grounded in reality, but just as beautifully written. Add in musical direction and arrangement by Sanford Moore and direction by Peter Rothstein, an expert at using music in the best possibly way to enhance the theatrical storytelling, and you have something quite special going on in the Guthrie's Dowling Studio.

Choir Boy centers around five young men at Drew Prep School, a fictional African American boarding school (of which, the playbill tells us, only four exist). We witness their lives over the course of a school year, beginning with graduation at which Pharus (John-Michael Lyles) proudly leads the choir in the school song, until distracted by some homophobic heckling by his classmate Bobby (Darrick Mosley), who happens to be the nephew of the Headmaster (James Craven). This causes some tension in the choir room when the boys return to school in the fall, and newly appointed choir leader Pharus kicks Bobby off the choir, while allowing his sidekick Junior (Kory LaQuess Pullam) to stay. Pharus has a sweet friendship with his roommate AJ (Ryan Colbert), and some unspoken history with David (Nathan Barlow). A new (white) teacher (Robert Dorfman) comes in and tries to shake things up, challenging the boys to think about things in a new way. As graduation rolls around again, these five young men are in a different place in their lives, a bit older, a bit wiser, a bit more lost or a bit more found. It's really a slice of life kind of play, where you can imagine these characters' lives existing before the actions of the play, and continuing after the actions of the play, in a direction that's not clearly spelled out. We don't know the full stories of their lives, but getting to watch a year of their lives over the course of 90 minutes is a fulfilling and rewarding experience.

This play truly depicts the universal struggle of being a teenager and trying to figure out who you are and what your place is in this world, when so many external sources are telling you what to do, be, and think. This is conveyed through the specific challenges of being a young gay man in a strict Christian African American boarding school. And the music, which is absolutely beautiful and essential to the piece, really helps to create the specific world. Under the direction/arrangement of Sanford Moore, these five young men create some beautiful harmonies and fascinatin' rhythms on these traditional gospel and spiritual songs with a modern twist. The music is placed perfectly to enhance the storytelling, whether the song is mournful or joyful, and happens organically in scene transitions, rehearsals, or performances.

the Choir Boys (Darrick Mosley, Ryan Colbert,
John-Michael Lyles, Nathan Barlow, and Kory LaQuess Pullam,
photo by Heidi Bohnenkamp)

John-Michael Lyles is the one member of this excellent seven-man cast who's new to the Twin Cities theater scene, and he's just perfect for his role. He creates a real and well-defined character in Pharus, alternately frustrating and sympathetic (if the Drew choir is Glee, Pharus is Rachel Berry, full of talent and not afraid to say it). The four other young men are bright young local talent seen on various stages around the Cities in the last few years, and it's nice to see them all shine as individuals and as a group in this piece. James Craven always makes everything better, here as the stern Headmaster who truly cares for these boys at the same time he's frustrated, perplexed, and annoyed by them. Last but not least is Robert Dorfman, his portrayal of the eccentric teacher in nice contrast to the otherwise strict boarding school environment and providing some comic relief - bumbling, putting his foot in his mouth, but passionate about his job and reaching young minds.

Michael Hoover's sharp set simultaneously represents five different settings (dorm room, Headmaster's office, showers, classroom, and yard) on multiple levels, making great use of the upper story balcony in the Dowling Studio. And what was it that Chekhov said? If you show a shower on stage, you must have a shower scene? Both Damn Yankees and Choir Boy deliver on that promise, although the latter with more realism.

I saw Choir Boy last Saturday night at the Guthrie Theater, home of three stages in one building. It also happened to be the first preview of The Music Man, and the joint was jumping! Even though I was annoyed to find my usual parking level full, and people clogging the escalator, hallways, and bathrooms, like the man I rode the elevator with said, it's nice to see so many people out supporting the arts. And three such different plays on the three stages - a 90-year-old Irish play that is departing Artistic Director Joe Dowling's swan song, one of the most beloved American musicals, and this exciting new play about young African American men coming of age. Some 2000 people, all gathered together in one space to share in the experience of live theater - what a beautiful thing (thanks again Joe Dowling!). Choir Boy continues through July 5.


This article also appears on Broadway World Minneapolis.

"The Hothouse" by Dark and Stormy Productions at the Artspace Grain Belt Bottling House

I admit it - I don't get Pinter. Dark and Stormy's production of The Hothouse is the third play I've seen by English playwright Harold Pinter, and the third time I've left the theater (or in this case the bottling house) with a feeling of "what just happened?" Pinter plays are absurd, don't spell things out clearly, and are open to interpretation. But that's not a bad thing. In fact in this case it's a good thing. Dark and Stormy's production of this bizarre and funny little play is entertaining, engaging, and thought-provoking. And like all of their work (this is just the 5th play they've done over the past few years), it's brilliantly cast with some of the Twin Cities' top talent, and presented in a unique nontraditional location.

The title refers to an institution where the play takes place. It's called a "rest home," in contrast to a "convalescent home," but the details of how patients come to be in the institution and what kind of treatment (or punishment) they receive is unclear. What we do know is that there's a clueless boss (an absolutely delightful Robert Dorfman, making the most of every moment), a seemingly sycophantic but secretly ambitious second-in-command (Mark Benninghofen), another employee who seems to be his rival for the boss' attention (Bill McCallum), a new and eager employee (John Catron), the lone woman on the staff who seems to be in a relationship with several of the men (Artistic Director Sara Marsh), and a lower level employee who walks around turning off lights and moving furniture (Bruce Bohne). The play takes place on Christmas Day, which is neither here nor there, but what is noteworthy is that one patient has recently died and another has given birth. The staff tries to get to the bottom of this, but seems to be more concerned with their own place in the institution. The newbie becomes the scapegoat, which makes me wonder if he's actually a patient and just thinks he's an employee.

the cast in rehearsal in the Grain Belt Bottling House

The location of this play is truly unique - a large open atrium in the Arthouse Grain Belt Bottling House. It very much feels like a cold institution - cement floor and gray walls, with doors around the perimeter on both levels. Sparse office furniture populates the set, with four rows of chairs on one side for the small audience. Sound escapes and echos in this sort of a space, so the solution Dark and Stormy came up with is mics on the actors and headphones for the audience. It's a very odd and cool way to experience theater, one completely new to me, with the sound right in your ears even though the actors may be whispering in a far corner of the space. This allows for subtlety in delivery that can be heard in full detail, while the echos in the larger space can still be heard through the headphones. It all makes for an innovative and fascinating theatrical experience (sound design by C. Andrew Mayer).

The Hothouse continues through January 4. Check it out for a truly unique experience of this bizarrely funny and inexplicable Pinter play. UPDATE: The Hothouse has been extended through January 10.

"Freud's Last Session" at the Guthrie Theater

As a friend of mine once said, sometimes the best theater is two people sitting in a room talking. Freud's Last Session is perhaps the best example of this idea that I've ever seen. The two people in this case are Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis, two intelligent, eloquent, strongly opinionated men. The imagined conversation between the two of them plays out in real time, with neither actor leaving the stage for more than a brief moment. It's one long fascinating and brilliant 80-minute conversation that we get to listen to. Freud's Last Session was a hit Off-Broadway (where I saw it a few years ago) and is now playing in the Guthrie Theater's Dowling Studio. Brilliantly written and marvelously acted, it's just really great theater.

The play is set in 1939, when Freud (the founder of psychoanalysis and an atheist) is near the end of his life and in pain from advanced oral cancer. He is in exile in London, having been forced to leave his native Austria due to the rising threat of the Nazis. Lewis (perhaps best known as the author of the Chronicles of Narnia but also an accomplished author on the subject of Christianity) is teaching at Oxford and pays Freud a visit. What follows is a fascinating discussion of God, religion, sex, relationships, death, family, evil, morality, and myths. The war and Freud's impending death bring an immediacy to these theoretical issues, as the conversation is occasionally halted by air raids and Freud's increasing pain. Playwright Mark St. Germain has brilliantly constructed this conversation with facts from the men's life as well as their writing. And in the persons of Robert Dorfman and Peter Christian Hansen, Freud and Lewis come to life before our eyes.

There are only two flaws in this play. One, it's too short. I could easily spend another hour or two listening to Robert and Peter as Freud and Lewis debate the very essence of life. The other flaw is that it's impossible to watch both of them at once, which is perhaps more a flaw of human vision. I wanted to watch one's reaction as the other was speaking, but also wanted to watch the speaker at the same time. It's like watching a tennis match between two brilliant and equally matched players (or at least I assume that's what it's like, I don't watch tennis). I found myself nodding in agreement with one, and then the other, as they made their points. In the end it's clear that it's not about who "wins" the debate, it's about two people sharing their opposing viewpoints and gaining a better understanding of the other. Neither is swayed from their position, but they respect each other's opinion and try to understand it as they debate. How I wish people on opposing sides of arguments today could converse like Freud and Lewis do in this play.

C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud ponder the big questions
(Peter Christian Hansen and Robert Dorfman)

The Dowling Studio looks completely different than I've ever seen it before, and also completely different from the last time I saw this play. The Off-Broadway set was a very realistic and lived-in study, with books and tchotchkes on every surface, like a cozy and cluttered professor's office. The set at the Guthrie is quite the opposite, more stark and fantastical than cozy and realistic. Everything in the set is black - the books are black, the figurines on the desk are black, the furniture is black, the floor is black, the radio is black. Prior to and after the show there is an odd otherworldly lighting and almost creepy haunted house sounds, although during the play the lighting is quite natural and you soon forget they're in a colorless world as the debate takes center stage. Director Rob Melrose explains in the playbill, "I imagined a production that dispensed with clutter and realistic details and allowed the focus to be on the great men and their ideas, almost as if we were ripping them out of time and space and bringing them to the Dowling Studio for our own edification." He also chose to position the long narrow stage between the audience on either side, so that we're surrounding the conversation and can see the audience on the opposite side. It's an interesting choice. (Set design by Michael Locher)

Freud's Last Session is a wonderful play, so smart, challenging, thought-provoking, moving, and even funny at times. It will thoroughly engage your brain and maybe even get you to think about your own life and beliefs a little. My friend and I stayed in the theater talking until we were kicked out of the space. It's that kind of play. If you like smart, thoughtful, well-written and well-acted theater, go see Freud's Last Session (playing now through March 16).

"Uncle Vanya" at the Guthrie Theater

Since I'm a Guthrie season subscriber (this is my 11th season), I just go when they send me, which for Uncle Vanya happened to be in its final week. There was not a big crowd on Tuesday night (I think the opening of the fantastic Tribes has overshadowed it), but those who were there seemed to enjoy it, including me. I've never seen a Chekhov play (not counting a production of The Seagull over 20 years ago of which I have zero recollection, even though it was my first ever Guthrie show), and honestly when I think Russian literature my first reaction is... ugh. But a few minutes into the show I realized Uncle Vanya is not at all intimidating or fomidable or dry; this adaptation by Irish playwright Brian Friel is a very accessible telling of a bittersweet story, a mixture of laughter and melancholy. With a charming set and the usual fantastic cast of Guthrie favorites and a few newcomers, I found it to be quite enjoyable - a bittersweet, melancholy, funny, thoughtful, and insightful play.

Set in late 19th century Russia, Uncle Vanya tells of a group of relations living on a country estate. Sonya (Emily Gunyou Halaas) and her Uncle Vanya (a charmingly befuddled Andrew Weems) work the estate that she inherited upon her mother's death years ago. Her ill and aging father Alexander (Robert Dorfman) has returned to the estate with his new young wife Elena (Valeri Mudek), and has plans of his own. Also living at the estate are Vanya's mother Maria (the legendary Melissa Hart, making the most of a small role), the nanny (Barbara Kinsley, so memorable in August: Osage County at Park Square a few years ago, here creating another distinct character), an eccentric family friend nicknamed Waffles (the always fantastic Jim Lichtsheidl), and occasionally the town doctor (John Catron, with another great drunken scene). It's a diverse group of characters who interact with each other, having conversations in small groups or alone on stage, talking directly to the audience.

Valeri Mudek, Jim Lichtsheidl, Andrew Weems,
and Emily Gunyou Halaas

Not a lot happens in the play; it's more of a study of life through these characters. The doctor is an environmentalist and talks about the destruction of the forests and the ecosystem in a way that has become scarily real in the 100+ years since the play was written. Poor Sonya is blissfully in love with the doctor but he's completely unaware of her. Everyone falls in love with the married Elena; she leaves many broken hearts in her wake but is not unsympathetic herself. Alexander mourns his exciting life as a famous professor that is now largely behind him, and Vanya struggles with the drudgery of every day life with no excitement or happiness. The play ponders such ideas as: What does it mean to be happy? Why are some people destined to live happy and full lives while others don't? Why do some women have all the men fall in love with them while others must toil away on the family farm? No clear answers, but we must endure!

The charming set was designed by Michael Hoover (who seems to be the busiest and definitely one of the best set designers in town); it looks like a life-size dollhouse. Three different rooms in the house are distinctly created in exquisite detail - the front porch, a living room, and a bedroom. Two of the sets are split in two and move in from either side to join in the middle. It's a delight to watch.

Uncle Vanya closes this weekend, so you only have a few more chances to see this lovely production of a classic. I'm looking forward to seeing the final play in the Guthrie's 2013-2014 next summer - the recent Broadway hit Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, a sort of modern twist on Uncle Vanya. That's some pretty clever season programming.