Sub-Total
2022 Audience Reviews
Member Reviews
The following reviews were submitted by Fringe Member: Joe Allen
Company: Blue Moon Theater
Show: Action Will Be Taken! - (an ACTION-PACKED Play!!)
Venue: CFPA Flex
Loved it
Awesome modern and physically-rambunctious take on a classic pro-Labor Heinrich Boll play. I love how the production found plenty of space to infuse the script with comic sensibilities and modern references without sacrificing any of the cutting social critique. Maintaining high-brow theatricality while climbing on blocks and playing with kindergarten phones is no small feat! Huge shout-out to Rob and Mickaylee's hilariously charged and HR-inapproriate scene.
Company: Timothy Mooney Repertory Theatre
Show: Lot o' Shakespeare
Venue: CFPA Flex
Dang!
While an impressive feat of dramaturgy and memorization, playing iago (bingo) ended up making the whole thing feel like a parlor trick. I was hoping to see some more nuance and differentiation in the character work. Not that we're here just to please me :)
Company: The Yes Fly List
Show: The Brothers Dangus Vol. 1: The Liturgy of the Big Yellow Ghost
Venue: Rarig Center Thrust
Yellow eSChATology
I would have loved this play if it didn't consist wholly one-third of shit. poop jokes, toilet brushes, smearing, pink eye, butt scratching, ass-potatos, etc. I enjoyed the dadaist absurdity and the vulnerable moments of deconstruction, especially as there's no way to bring an ego on stage in a show like this that could survive. Hillbilly tropes with gun codpieces, a literal man-baby on stage, an active shooter, I have now seen all of these things at once.
Company: Shadow Horse Theatre
Show: Dark Pony Radio "An Evening with the Oupire"
Venue: Rarig Center Xperimental
Exsanguinated.
Awesome sound design that was unfortunately not well balanced in the space. Couldn't understand a word from Carnage's open rap as his vocals were WAY lower than the beats. His live looping was awesome. The radio play, however, was dry and meandering - the storytelling not rich enough to distract from the static park&bark of radio acting. Usually the live foley is what makes these events engaging for me, so having all of the sound effects pre-recorded was a bummer.
Company: Moral of the Story Productions
Show: Unbelievable!
Venue: Rarig Center Xperimental
Leave this apple on the tree.
A collection of four short plays retelling bible stories. There's really not much more to say here beyond the show's description. I was hoping to find insightful commentary or theological explorations, but really the stories were just injected with modern phrasing and passably acted. Nothing gained, nothing lost. Adam & Eve stood out, setting a high bar that the rest of the show did not clear.
Company: Cardboard Suitcase Productions
Show: A Little Water
Venue: Augsburg Mainstage
Waterlogged.
When Shakespeare comes to Fringe, it can work if it's performed at a high level, leans hard into gimmick, or breaks new ground in interpretation/execution. This show didn't really deliver on any of these fronts. We got a trimmed down version of Hamlet to the scenes that feature Ophelia. The cast members who were able to deftly handle the text drew a sharp contrast to those who were less comfortable. Significant staging lost to large portions of the house.
Company: Christopher Kehoe
Show: Jesus Qhrist
Venue: Rarig Center Xperimental
These are my cheetos, drink of my diet coke
An absolutely brilliant slow burn as the Messiah endears himself to us with his grounded theology, enthusiastic parables, and Allan Parsons lyrics. An incredible twist on a knife's edge as the power of sacrament is employed masterfully and Jesus himself falls down the rabbit hole. Political and theological commentary at its finest, razor-sharp points made directly and effectively without belaboring the point or ironically evangelizing.
Company: Kyle Munshower and Company
Show: THE MAN FROM EARTH
Venue: Rarig Center Xperimental
Sharp as little pointy rocks
Delightful, absurd script loosely inspired by the titular movie, and Mel Brooks' style nonsense. The comedic timing of the whole cast was crisp, the show clipped along at breakneck speed. One of my favorite comedies of this festival!
Company: LCcreations
Show: I think we are supposed to be 'Coming of Age' by now...
Venue: Augsburg Mainstage
I'm Coming of Age for Earplugs!
Talented young rock band Oister Boy plays a show of danceable, indie-stoner rock reminiscent of 90's Queens of the Stone Age, 00's Band of Skulls, and new, young Radio-K infused darlings infused with a tint of grunge. Then a septet of the incredible multi-disciplinary dance group LCcreations Collective brings that energy up to group. Divisions dissolve as the band becomes entwined with the dancers, the audience is pulled into the music, and it ended with a joyous dance floor that spanned the venue. And earplugs!
Company: Brick by Brick Players
Show: My Dance with Lisa
Venue: Augsburg Studio
Good job y'all!
At times meandering and awkward, this show alternates between mundane, playful, and heartbreaking vulnerability. Meditations on codependent dream-seeking, the glass ceiling, and the male-gaze make this a refreshing one-WOMAN-show in a festival full of many normative one-man-shows.
Company: Brick by Brick Players
Show: My Dance with Lisa
Venue: Augsburg Studio
Good job y'all!
At times meandering and awkward, this show alternates between mundane, playful, and heartbreaking vulnerability. Meditations on codependent dream-seeking, the glass ceiling, and the male-gaze make this a refreshing one-WOMAN-show in a festival full of many normative one-man-shows.
Company: Alisa Pritchett/Out Of The Mist Celtic Theatre
Show: We Are The Sea
Venue: Rarig Center Xperimental
Tidal forces of grief and loss.
A harrowing meditation on the horror of Irish coffin ships and the violence enacted by some to 'shield' themselves from their own trauma and complicity. Uneven talent amongst the ensemble leaves for some rough edges, but everyone is so clearly invested and cares about the story that this is a minor quibble. Everyone should be very proud of this work. Creative direction and evocative staging with the ensemble makes clever use of the venue and some stunningly beautiful moments. Katrina Stelk might have delivered the best monologue I've seen this festival in a non-one-person-show. Though repeated four times, I could listen again and again to the beautiful, haunting dirge of bodies taken by the sea. Still living in my head.
Company: Kyle B. Dekker
Show: He-Man Is The Devil & Other Satanic Panic Tales
Venue: Rarig Center Arena
Rolls 19 on Therapy Check
Kyle tells a powerful and triggering story of his trauma, survival, and escape from the cult of religious fundamentalism. I wept, with how closely his experience hews to the violence and trauma of my own childhood. It's clear that Kyle has done tremendous work in therapy and on himself, and has found a large amount of peace amongst the pain that lives in his body. Just wanna give him a big hug.
Company: Kurkendaal-Barrett Presentations
Show: The Real Black Swann , Confessions of America's First Black Drag Queen
Venue: Rarig Center Thrust
Black Lives Matter
A really phenomenal script and story, though the performer falls short of weaving a fully captivating experience. Still, it is so important we are continuing to tell the stories of blackness in America. Black lives matter. Add in a beautiful and vulnerable donning of a dress, and learning about America's first gay activist of record, and the educational content alone makes this worth the slot.
Company: Clevername Theatre
Show: Who's Afraid of Winnie the Pooh?
Venue: Theatre in the Round
Sharp, charming, deranged.
I read the text in Albee's plays, 'Woolf' in particular, as a metaphorical cloak concealing a pathological dagger. The text, set-dressing, the subtext, the meta-message. Change the text, the essence of the play is still right there for the actors to wield. This production plucks the twisted, beating heart right out of 'Woolf' and drops it into an animated, plushy, stuffed body. It simply works, everyone brings it together, and you should see this intelligently demented, keenly-hewn show.
Company: Goddard's Gardens
Show: Ancestors Rising
Venue: Mixed Blood Theatre
Not theatrical. Highly valuable.
This is a little tough to review.. It's not really a 'show' in any theatrical sense, it's far more akin to a spoken word/open-mic hybrid. The artist does talk about a show that is in development, and alludes to content and plot, but that theatrical content is not present. Misleading summary. However, the truth that Joe Davis is speaking about is so valuable, I want folx to see this. If he reaches even one person per audience and connects for them the deep, urgent message to connect to yourself, to listen to your breath, to open and heal your heart, to cry, to practice radical compassion, the world is turning towards that brighter, more beautiful place.
Company: Comedy Suitcase
Show: Bob and Reggie Go To Bed
Venue: Rarig Center Thrust
Live Action Cartoon Clowns!
A live-action cartoon full of rollicking antics, startling physical humor, clever illusion, and proper dumb show. There were a few kids just PEALING with raucous laughter the whole time, and frankly, plenty of adults in touch with their inner child laughing and murmuring to themselves. One of two shows this festival to bring tears to my eyes, this is such a wonderful example of clowning done right.
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Company: Hey Rube!
Show: Orzel Rising
Venue: Rarig Center Arena
Engage your Imagination to Reach the Depths!
Strong physical theatrics, clever stage antics, and imaginative light and shadow play tell a riveting war story. The audience was audibly reacting to the discoveries and surprises, eating up the creative stagecraft. A solid show, with minor hiccups eclipsed by theatrical magic.
Company: Sarah Baker
Show: Newton Jr.
Venue: Augsburg Studio
Grumbly Panel unimpressed
Two plucky and charming clowns fuddle their way through a loose plot skeleton, and pull the audience into their aimless wandering. There are some moments of sweetness, and some clumsy attempts at poignancy, but ultimately the show failed to break any scientific or artistic ground.
Company: Special When Lit
Show: Finger Lickin' Good
Venue: Rarig Center Thrust
Flesh this Review Title Out
As a young man I would watch the majority of this cast every Saturday night at Brave New Workshop's Improv-a-gogo. They're hilarious, and I would laugh, and we'd all have a good time. This show has some strong moments, but largely it feels like a long-form Improv sketch idea that doesn't really go anywhere while making the same jokes repetitively. Hyper-sexualized nonsense is funny in drabs, but it wears thin. There's not much more to say that the reviews haven't already captured. This isn't a bad show. It's not a great show. It's very much the gimmicky-comedy-of-this-year's-festival with some dynamic moments of uproar among plodding, hoarse, pleading comedy. Best moments - Shanan Custer's flustered-grabbing-her-glasses, and the final juicy tableau.
Company: Wheeler In The Sky
Show: ‘WHOOSH! The Civil War Mythology of Michael Hickey and His Perilous Precipitation Over St. Anthony Falls.’
Venue: CFPA Black Box
:O
Masterful acting, character work, diction, message, delivery, timing, grounded energy, etc... I'm fairly positive that the reason Andrew Wheeler doesn't have more reviews is that it is humbling to be a wordsmith in his wake. The direction is meticulously exquisite, as light and refreshing as breeze. Every cross serves a purpose, the economy of movement as informed and driven as the manifold intentional utilities of every prop. Bravo.
Company: The Coldharts
Show: Silver Hammer
Venue: CFPA Black Box
Bring your Lucidity, you'll need it.
I will probably be thinking about this show for the rest of time. A brilliant piece of deceptive misdirection, meta on every level, deeply informed by doing-your-own-research. Touching on universal truths and pernicious falsehoods at every step - Silver Hammer lays bare the internality of the artistic struggle, a loosening grip on quarantinsanity, and the dysfunctional and malicious information war we continue to endure in more than three dimensions. If you've ever lost a loved one to QAnon, or theatre school, this will hit hard.
Company: Laura Packer, storyteller
Show: Becoming Baba Yaga
Venue: Bryant Lake Bowl
Slow-burning coals that never go out
I had to work to stay engaged through the early parts, as I realized this wasn't a theatrical storytelling, but an older, softer, deeper, nurturing modality that required receptivity, patience, and attention. The stories serve as a slow-burn incantation to direct communion with the grandmother herself. Come to the woods with a question in your heart.
Company: RE|dance group
Show: The Biggest Wail From The Bottom Of My Heart
Venue: CFPA Black Box
A balm to my heart.
The power of evocative movement, postmodern kinesthetics, and heavy breath in union bring weighty political themes to the surface. Where other productions at the festival have faltered by waxing didactic or giving into anger and rage... Biggest Wail embraces love, touch, unity, and joy. This is the correct answer, I think. A balm to my soul. Was their last show though, and off they go back to Chicago. Keep thinking about the efficacy of the white picket fence and little bit of artificial putting green as the backdrop to our deeply American problems, and how worried I was our artists with no health insurance might trip up, slide, or crash over. Thinking about how many dancers I know, with so much talent, burn out by 30, LOVED to see some older-by-way-of-dancer-measure moving with grace and physicality.
Company: The Bearded Company
Show: Swords & Sorcery: The Improvised Fantasy Campaign
Venue: Theatre in the Round
Nice hair!
This party of wizards continues to bring down the house with their rollicking travails. It's improv, so there's some in inherent variability, but always an adventure! Sound can be an issue in TRP, and the balance is tough between the keyboards and that pesky audience having such a great time. Wouldn't be fair to mark the troupe down for their good reception, or expect them to only provide half a show in the few gaps between laughter, so I'll just sit cantankerously that I couldn't hear every last sidebar. We brought our 8 and 11 year old, their first improv. The eleven year old loved it, and the eight year old was proper spooked. If you're a more fastidious or conservative parent, however, some of the violence/innuendo might make you uncomfortable (good! squirm!).
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Company: Sugar Throw Theatre
Show: What Takes Who
Venue: Rarig Center Xperimental
Short on nuance, Delivers on Authenticity
An example of devised socio-political work actually building to something greater than the sum of its parts! This ensemble piece does not shy away from making pointed political commentary authentically from the voices and bodies represented onstage. It's still a little heavy-handed and didactic, however. If there's a way to make this type of show really sing it is few and far between. Some moments of visual spectacle really sizzle, others fall flat, but the voices of the folks onstage carry true. Still thinking about the haunting rendition of that song about the wolf. There are many shows in the festival this year embodying justified female anger, and this is one worth contributing your time and capital towards if you'd like to make a statement.
Company: The Shrieking Harpies
Show: The Shrieking Harpies
Venue: Rarig Center Arena
Blood eeevverryyywherre
So much fun! Loved the awareness and listening in practice between the performers and keys. I really enjoyed analyzing the group's format, and the long-form skills to leap on their callbacks and manage their time. Overall, an excellent display of the craft.
Company: Mad Company
Show: Connor's Gonna Tell: The Táin Bó Cúailnge
Venue: Rarig Center Arena
Come close to the fire in these halls of stone
Simply brilliant. A master class in both execution and analysis of the long-form epic storytelling that humans are shaped by and rely on to stay sane. Add to this that the storyteller shaping this story is also a well-researched comic dramaturgist nimbly dancing in and out of informative asides, and an insanely talented propsmaster to boot(to mask! to spear!). Add into this mix the spellbinding and sensitively nuanced accompaniment of Bradley Kalhoff on the mandolin and you're left with a riveting fringe slot you do not want to miss. I can't wait to see what Connor tells next. Arrive early enough to get in when they open the house, as you don't want to miss either of the beautiful Irish songs that Brad plays.
Company: Clucklesworth Productions
Show: MY LOVELY, LOVELY, LOVELY, LOVELY, LOVELY FAMILY
Venue: Bryant Lake Bowl
I Resemble this Subreddit Remark
Fun concept, but doesn't deliver anything more nuanced or high-brow than the /r/polyamory post the show description suggests. Representation matters, and I'm happy to see nontraditional family/relationship structures depicted onstage, but the script doesn't manage much more than alternating between shallow didactic messages and providing some fun and cute play for the actors. Particularly disappointed that we're given Sky's pronouns and then witness to (zir? xir?) repeatedly mispronouned (she/her'd and they/them'd within minutes). Nice character beats found by all, particularly from the conservative parents.
Company: Jackdonkey Productions
Show: A Drug Play
Venue: Rarig Center Arena
Short Title for my Review
This show is at its best when the ensemble is singing, dancing, or brawling. The modern dance sequences are poignant and informed. The stage combat sequence was one of the best fights I've ever seen in Fringe. This show is at its worst when being awkwardly didactic and shouting hoarse. It's a tough line to walk for shows that are committed to delivering important socio-political messages, but the message wasn't heightened or articulated by the artistic content of the show. Of course here I am being the too-critical Leftist. The message matters, which is why I wish it was delivered with more thoughtful nuance. What remains is stunning physical work by talented actors bogged down by evangelistic posturing.
Company: 2HOOTS PRODUCTIONS
Show: Jon Bennett: FIRE IN THE METH LAB
Venue: Rarig Center Thrust
Poignant, Bleak, Difficult, Wonderful, Hilarious
Get ready for a painfully real meditation on addiction and childhood trauma delivered through the dark humor instilled by coping and surviving those same things. Also a 10/10 trip report of how NOT to do psychedelics. This show is a standout one-man Fringe success complete with slide show, audience interaction, and raw immediate vulnerability.
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Company: Melancholics Anonymous
Show: A Day with the Newhearts
Venue: Mixed Blood Theatre
Can I get that Recipe?
A nauseatingly trite first act serves as an appetizer to cue up a hilariously dark comedy entree. The undertones of the violence of white supremacy and HOAs provide a haunting counterpoint to the stage antics. Great physical humor and solid, committed performances from the cast tie this thing together with a couple deft minutes of blackly hilarious, well-executed stage violence. I'm not sure if I got the tonal shift faster than most of the audience, or if I'm just a horrible person, but don't be afraid to belly laugh when blood starts to spill.
Company: Laura Dierke Productions
Show: She’s Already Gone
Venue: Augsburg Mainstage
Young Professionals Shine
I am so proud of the work and vision of these young artists. The book and musical motifs ruminate on the thematic elements of delusion, ignorance, grief, and youthful naivete with a depth and grace uncommon for a young writer. Jenna Dierke holds the weight of the show's center confidently with invested and passionate energy. Erika Dierke is captivating with a commanding, grounded presence, and her iterations through the show's central musical theme are stunning. Emma Inga crushes the final act. The direction, while clumsy at moments, serves the unraveling mystery of the show, and the scene changes are deftly handled.
Company: The Aquatic Center
Show: swim team
Venue: Rarig Center Xperimental
Surreal High-dive into a Deep Pool
A delightful collection of theatre exercises and surreal vignettes loosely inspired by Miranda July's short story. Three young and talented women with haunting presence utilize silence, voice, harmony, and discord to reflect on the angst of youth. So much of the show is in the gaze and space between these three performers, so much left unsaid but carried through eyes and heart. This show defies descriptions in a lot of ways, and certainly won't be everyone's cup of tea, but it is weird, beautiful, and captivating.
Company: Luna Muse
Show: The Witchy World of Luna Muse
Venue: Mixed Blood Theatre
Swiffers and Boots, oh my!
What kicks off as a perfectly primped drag show unfolds into a poignantly vulnerable tale of the journey of self-reflection and self-delusion of an imaginative, sensitive, queer youth. The bitchy, witchy vibes carry through the show as burlesque, cabaret, drag, and acoustic guitar lead us to a saccharine happy-ending. I'm not sure this show needs a cute button at the end, but it's worth almost every sexy, sweaty, magical moment.
Company: Ripped Nylons Productions
Show: Endometriosis: the Musical
Venue: Theatre in the Round
Zany, Heartfelt, Absurdly Real
A fucking riot. It is so rare to encounter across-the-board vocal talent impeccably sound-balanced with a LIVE trio (piano, bass, drums) in a theatrical space. Clever lyrics, polished scenework, and the balance of absurd comedy with gut-knife social-commentary.
Company: Albino Squirrel Productions
Show: Turnabout Samurai
Venue: Mixed Blood Theatre
Enthusiastically Silly, Hard to Follow
I missed the first iteration of the Phoenix Wright fan-service musical in the before-times, so I appreciated the liner-notes in the program and expositional dialogue. The show was very hot-cold. Fantastic costumes in counterpoint to distractingly-wobbly set-pieces. When the lyrics were intelligible, the songs didn't hook me, but when they erupted into glorious cacophonic sondheim-esque choral numbers, I couldn't understand a word of the rapid patter - which is a problem when that same patter contains the plot. If you're not piqued by the source material, I'm not sure that this lovingly faithful homage is doing enough else to rise above the level of fan service.
Company: The Winding Sheet Outfit
Show: Årsgång: What You Follow Follows You
Venue: Theatre in the Round
Expert Weavers at the Loom with too Little Thread
Winding Sheet Outfit has an impeccable and reliable reputation for weaving spellbinding and evocative tapestries of sound, music, voice, and movement to tell deeply fascinating and harrowing stories. All of that craft is on display here, but frankly I left feeling like a four-minute spooky folk tale was stretched out into a 45 minute run time. Where their stories before have spooled out richly textured layers of intriguing and compelling story, here I left feeling like I digested a REALLY well-crafted clickbait. You'll probably see it, so do, and I wonder if you'll feel the same.
Company: Lampstand of the Covenant Productions
Show: Neil Gaiman's "The Wedding Present"
Venue: CFPA Flex
Holding space for your grief
In what will probably not be the first of the festival, this show JUST lost a lead to COVID. Stage Manager stepped in to walk the track with script-in-hand. This sucks for everyone involved, and my heart is with you. Cool script, clumsy blocking, and some really wonderful and poignant moments delivered by the cast despite the just-before-curtain upheaval. Hard to evaluate given the circumstances, but I do wish I could have seen the show with full-cast chemistry intact.
Company: Killer Whale Collective
Show: Moonwatchers
Venue: HUGE
Make Space to see this show
Delightful, exuberant, pure. Great comic timing delivered by a duo with grounded, honest chemistry. The concept holds as a nimble jumping off point for humans and cows alike.
Company: Michael Rogers
Show: Developers
Venue: CFPA Black Box
When Early Access is already Gold
Excellent. A clever mockumentary deftly directed with a large, talented ensemble. Delightful physical humor, great script, consistent tonal comedy, with an absolutely genuine heart-of-gold human center in Eric Heiberg's beautiful, nuanced work. Love Tara Lucchino's performance, and am thrilled to see her continue to shine! Hopefully they can mark the sound levels down about 20% for the actors.