simone weil and the (insufferable) existentialist breakfast club

SO WORTH LEAVING MY HOUSE!

I really dug this show! I learned, like, a lot. It was one of those shows you have so much fun talking about with the person you came with, my partner and I were so engaged with it. It had that great casual fringe energy and was full of deep, interesting, timely thought. I'm so glad I saw it, it genuinely made me feel hopeful and good about the world (and it was about existentialism!). It was just fresh and original. Funny and then suddenly quite moving. 5/5 from this theater gal!

Very Creative

Good energy with bizarre twists and turns; loved the puppetry

Overly brainy for me...

I wish we would have had something in the "more information" to help us understand the differences between these existentialist philosophers! Otherwise, I loved the puppets, but didn't fully understand the implications of some of the dialogue.

Clever combo of puppets, humor, and philosophy

Favorite play in Fringe so far! A very clever depiction of early 20th century philosophy, with plenty of humor to keep the room engaged. Very impressed with the cast and their execution!

Must see at The Fringe

This show was hilarious, smart, and wildly original. Existential puppets of Sartre, Camus, de Beauvoir, and a wonderful actor playing Simone Weil dive into deep, and ridiculous ideas —with absurd, laugh-out-loud conversations and Punk energy. The cast was clearly having a blast, and the puppets were brilliantly designed and performed. So fun to watch. It’s not a dry philosophy lecture—it’s a riotous, history-packed performance with great audience interaction. A must-see for anyone at the festival!

Let this show void you.

Is it bourgeois to begin a review of a puppet show by saying that it made you cry? This is an example of a question I'd like to ask Simone Weil. This show started strong, went quickly off the absurdist rails, and grew on me so steadfastly that by the end I wasn't ready for lights-up. The last third of this show was so alive with ideas of responsibility and morality and meta-puppetry that I wished I could slow it down, watch it all again. Consider me a convert. Praise be to St. Simone and her unholier-than-thou compatriots.

It sneaks up on you

If you see this, my advice is to let it wash over you, there is a linear narrative but its a little obfuscated. My favorite thing about this production was how in conversation all the actors seemed, it was of course scripted but most of the time it didn't feel that way.

Unique, original, and FUNNY

This play is a really fun ans unique experience. The puppets are not what I expected (in the best way) they are elaborate and their operators were fantastic. They engaged the crowd, leaned into the silliness of the puppetry, while also entertaining and educating us. I thought this was a very original take on this kind of production. Would absolutely go see it again!

Biggest laughs this Fringe

This has been a very generous festival—performances hilarious, tragic, a bit of each—and I was certain by the end of yesterday's lineup that the comedic ceiling had been reached. Whatever came, however much I loved it, there seemed very little chance of moving that particular needle this year. Then I witnessed "Simone Weil and the (Insufferable) Existentialist Breakfast Club," and my standards shifted on a fundamental level. This play checks the personally beloved, indie-coveted box of Uniqueness above nearly everything else I've yet seen—outright rejecting the artifice of polish and generic plotting, embracing its subject with sincerity but resisting sentimentality. It's goofy, earnest, intelligent, absolutely braindead, and punk as fuck. With zero expectations going in, its many surprises shocked heavy laughter out of me. Simone isn't here to give you petty wish fulfillment and a hero's journey, nor monologue about an increasingly stale hyperthesis; this is something with a clear identity, admirable (and lofty!) goal, and the violent puppet-shaking idiocy to make everything gel. I belly laughed against my will. Thrilled that I managed to catch it.

Absurdly Hilarious

The absurdity in this production was most enjoyable. It showcased a little bit of everything; from humor to history and plenty of references for today as well. I especially enjoyed the artistry of the puppets!

Script? Was All Over

At times it was difficult to follow a lot of dialogue since the characters talk over and interrupt each other so much. Much of the script was trying to get somewhere, but just seemed to keep getting in the way of itself. It also seemed as if a large chunk of this under dialogue was improv, and specifically that a lot of it was jokes that had landed with another audience and they were waiting for them to land with ours... like repeating 'feet pics' and 'pussy' over and over. What I did love about this was the puppet's physical humor. The dropping of things, the talking to their operators, coming over to the audience to interact more personally... all of that was really fun! But that didn't seem to have anything to do with the actual show.

A whimsically brief thinkpiece. With puppets.

(NOTE: FOR THE SAKE OF TRANSPARENCY I DELETED THIS REVIEW AND REUPLOADED IT WITH THE APPROPRIATE RATING, as I cannot edit after posting. Also I did not realize you couldn't do line breaks and as someone who struggles to read that is very annoying! :)) I digress) The show itself was well articulated, and they worked well in spite of the venue-- an open circle is a difficult prospect for figures that can only really face one direction, but they worked with it the way they best could, and I think it worked well. In the future I could see implementation of more interactive elements with the audience (though bluntly, Minneapolis residents are not particularly known for their willingness to participate as often as they seem to enjoy talking about it) The concept of the show was in my mind a bit of a thesis that challenges the redundancy of evolutionary thought in the name of 'praxis'. No philosopher regarded in the performance is put upon a pedestal. In fact, I feel that each character was examined critically through their dialogue even if it felt rushed in some places (45 minutes is not a great amount of time for a crash course on french philosophy, granted). It simultaneously regarded revolutionaries as important and perhaps too self-important, but also proves even bright thinkers to be tragically mundane and often foolish in spite of their admirable aspirations. It held a mirror up to radical leftism and asked us what commitment to anti-fascism actually is vs what we aspire for it to be. For me personally, it also spoke a rather poignant truth that was somewhat uncomfortable: we can't choose how we die or when, only what we do with our lives and our feelings while we live it. And the choices feel boundless. Do we choose every moment to be the best people we can be, violence be damned, or is that unreasonable in a World where most are rightly fearful of a meaningless death? Do we hold pride in proving that we are better than those who judge us? Does that actually work to our detriment? If we can utilize that to the benefit of others, how do we determine if we've been successful? Do other decide that for us instead, and does that matter? Do we, as those who aspire to Weil's steadfastness choose to throw our life away with the firm belief that it will mean something, somewhere, to anyone? Do we do that selflessly? Or would we do it because we felt we had something to prove? Is that worth the cost we say we will pay? Ultimately, I believe to be an absurdist is to choose to live openly and romantically with compassion because we accept that we cannot move a collective, but that we can still move ourselves. To live in wonder is one of the greatest acts of rebellion you can choose when you have little choice. So, for fear of crashing into a tree on the morrow I am going to choose to live today. I look forward to future productions. 0/

Puppets made by Mackenzie Lageson

I only lead with this title because I watched my very multi-talented friend and roommate spend hours upon days in our dining room creating the life-size puppets you'll see in the show. His labor was very palpable and admirable, as is the labor of the underclasses of workers with whom the show's portrayal of Simone Weil would lead you to inspire to rally alongside. The show featured a raucous college-style party scene among the philosopher puppets that segued into and contrasted with the more somber and inspiring words about Sisyphus and back to Simone Weil. Idk, maybe as some Vietnamese Minnesotan lefty schmuck, I think I'm not the audience for a show featuring the long dead fixtures of White European celebrity thinker-writers even if it features, though mainly in the exposition and only after she know longer serves as a living character in the show, a working class freedom fighter. Possibly because I'm from a continental region where the philosophy had to be useful towards breaking country-sized chains of colonial-capitalism from the metropoles that each character in this show originates from. I guess now this show is prompting me think about whomever unsung thinker-fighters from Vietnam and such who are worth celebrating yet whose legacy are less transcribable to the classes of English-speaking literati. Anyhow, I enjoyed the enough of the show via the sleazy, low brow portrayals of the philosophers and the puppeteers performing each of the puppets along with the different character monologues and sound/lighting direction. A fun romp of a punky, smart amateur show. You can find and connect with Mackenzie Lageson via his Patreon.

Great show!

Going into this show, it can be confusing at first and have you asking "why puppets?" Later it charms and gives meta commentary in a way that only using puppets could do, along with some slapstick (puppet-stick?) humor mixed in with things that make you think about it after. No longer will you ask "Why puppets?", you will be asking "What is a puppet?"