"Rich Dogs" by WeAreMarried at Jungle Theater

We're just two weeks into the new #TCTheater season, and we've had classics and new plays, and now something entirely different. WeAreMarried's original play Rich Dogs is experimental, absurdist theater in which dogs rule the world and humans are their servants. With the way people love their dogs, it doesn't seem like much of a stretch. I'm a cat person (quelle surprise, and yes I have been binging Emily in Paris) so it's a little different, but there are times when I feel like the cats are in charge and I'm the butler - feeding them, cleaning up after them, disposing of mouse carcasses. The talented creative team at WeAreMarried has taken this idea and used it to explore themes of societal norms and structures, classism, capitalism, maybe even art and theater itself. At least I think they are, I'm not entirely sure what this piece is supposed to be about, but that's OK too. Rich Dogs is a captivating, fascinating, perplexing, and wholly unique 90 minutes of theater.

"The Wolves" by Jungle Theater at Southern Theater

The Jungle Theater's production of playwright Sarah DeLappe's story of a girls' soccer team, The Wolves (a finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize), was so successful that they've brought it back in a new venue. With The Children continuing on the Jungle's stage, this is the first time in their history that the Jungle has had two shows running simultaneously. I attended the first preview on a night when the temperature was 20 below zero, not to mention the windchill, and it was a nearly full house. This play has really struck a chord, both with audiences and with the cast and creative team, all of whom return this year. It's such a beautiful and real exploration of nine very different young women, their lives, and their friendship - just the kind of story we're craving right now. That these nine young and talented actors (the Twin Cities Theater Bloggers favorite dramatic ensemble of 2018) have the opportunity to play these complex and interesting roles that go beyond the usual stereotypes of teenage girls we see in plays/movies/TV, beyond the wife/girlfriend/mother role, is also a reason to celebrate. If you missed one of the best #TCTheater performances of 2018, now's your chance to get in on the action (click here for info on the show and complementary programs on women and sports).

"The Wolves" at Jungle Theater

I don't do sports. Except for being a lifelong Twins fan (and running an occasional marathon), I have zero interest in sports. I didn't even watch the recent Olympics. But for some reason, sports makes a compelling subject for theater (e.g., Mixed Blood's 2014 production of Colossal). Maybe because of the inherit drama in sports (teamwork, villains, exciting wins, devastating losses), playwrights are able to use sports as a metaphor for life and tell a really compelling story. The latest example of this is Sarah DeLappe's story of a girls' soccer team, The Wolves, a finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize. Jungle Theater's Artistic Director Sarah Rasmussen worked hard to get this play at the Jungle, and directs it herself, leading an excellent all-female cast and creative team. The result is a very real look at young women today, touching on many issues without exhausting any of them. It's a fantastic 90 minutes of theater that truly feels like eavesdropping on these characters' lives, in which the simple becomes profound.

"The Master Builder" by Theatre Novi Most at the Southern Theater

About Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen's play The Master Builder, Wikipedia says, "the search for meaning or interpretation has often engaged and bewildered critics all over the world." Consider me engaged and bewildered after experiencing Theatre Novi Most's new interpretation of the play, adapted and directed by Artistic Director Vladimir Rovinsky. It's so layered with symbolism that it would take a several thousand word essay to unpack it all, which I unfortunately don't have time for, as fun and challenging as it would be. And since it closed Saturday after a very short run I'll just share a few thoughts and observations about this engaging, bewildering, and gorgeous production.

"The Seagull" by Theatre Novi Most at the Southern Theater

Chekhov's The Seagull is a classic of the theater, but I had never seen it. That's not exactly true, it was actually the first play I ever saw at the Guthrie, but being almost 25 years ago, I have no recollection of it. So it was as if I'd never seen it when I sat down to yesterday's matinee production of The Seagull by Theatre Novi Most, a company that specializes in Eastern European theater, as part of the Southern Theater's ARTShare* program. It took me a few minutes to get into this story of many inter-related characters with strange sounding names, but by intermission I was completely under its spell. This is one of those shows that is so completely captivating that it's hard to shake when you leave the theater. Funny, tragic, odd, and completely enchanting.

"A Midwinter Night's Revel" by Walking Shadow Theatre Company at Red Eye Theater

'Tis the season for holiday shows. The true and ancient reason for the season is the coming darkness of the Winter Solstice, so Walking Shadow Theatre Company's contribution to the holiday theater season seems most appropriate. A Midwinter Night's Revel, a sort of sequel to Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (on glorious display at the Guthrie earlier this year), is a celebration of the darkness of the season, and the waiting and hoping that carries us through it to the sunnier days ahead. In fact this Shakespearean sequel, written and directed by Walking Shadow Artistic Directors John Heimbuch and Amy Rummenie, respectively, is so successful in recreating the characters and tone of the original, albeit it a bit darker and more bittersweet as appropriate to the setting of WWI-era England, that I wonder why we haven't seen more such sequels. I suspect it's not as easy as the cast and creative team of A Midwinter Night's Revel make it look. It may be true that it's hard to be the Bard, but you wouldn't know it from this delightful show.

"The Coward" by Walking Shadow Theatre Company at Red Eye Theater

Nick Jones' 2010 play The Coward is a spoof of that gentlemanly period in England when it was appropriate, nay necessary, to challenge a man to a duel if he in any way besmirched your honor. It's a play with a lot of men fighting, and one woman to fawn over them as they fight. Walking Shadow Theatre Company has turned this idea on its head, casting women in all the male roles and a man in the one female role. It's an interesting twist that makes these proud and silly men look even more silly, maybe because we all know women are too smart to get involved in such petty and deadly disputes. It all amounts to a lot of bloody good fun.

The young gentleman Lucidus is pressured by his father to participate in duels to defend the family honor (which, by the way, got his two older brothers killed). But Lucidus would much rather classify butterflies by their beauty or go on a pie-tasting picnic with his friends, dressed in top hats and tails. He eventually agrees to a duel, but is afraid to fight it. He goes to the town pub to hire a man to fight for him, and finds Henry, who is happy to fight as long as he can do it by his rules. I don't want to spoil the outcome of the duel, but when there's a "blood designer" and two "blood assistants" listed in the credits, it's safe to say there will be blood. And lots of it. Henry gets a taste for dueling as Lucidus, and begins challenging people all over town, much to Lucidus' dismay. The situation gets even worse when Lucidus' father discovers the ruse and decides he likes Henry better, and adopts him as his son while disowning Lucidus. Lucidus agrees to one final momentous battle to settle the matter once and for all.

Linda Sue Anderson, Briana Patnode, Suzie Juul, and
Shelby Rose Richardson (photo by Dan Norman)

This wonderful cast of women (and one man) gleefully revels in the concept and the bloodletting, under the direction of Walking Shadow's co-Artistic Director Amy Rummenie. The always excellent Briana Patnode makes Lucidus likeable despite his cowardice. Jean Wolff is strong and pompous as his stern father, and Charlotte Calvert is a delight as the duel-loving Henry. Also having great fun are Suzie Juul and Shelby Rose Richardson as Lucidus' pals, and Chase Burns, the lone man in the cast, as Lucidus' haughty love interest. Last but not least, Linda Sue Anderson is a hoot as an addled old man and Lucidus' loyal butler.

This very pretty and proper set, in shades of red and pink surrounded by a in gilt frame (designed by Eli Schlatter), becomes the backdrop for some beautifully disgusting blood flow. Let's hope they have a dry cleaner on standby for Sara Wilcox's gorgeously rich costumes.

The Coward is a silly, fun, lighthearted romp through proper English duels, highlighting just how ridiculous the concept is, with a terrific cast that appears to be having as much fun as the audience. Playing through February 28 in the Red Eye Theater.