Minnesota Fringe – Day 4 Roundup

I’ll confess to feeling a little burned out by the end of the day on Sunday. I almost get hit by two separate cars on my bike ride between Comedy Corner and Bryant Lake Bowl in spite of the fact that most of that ride is on the Hiawatha LRT Trail and Greenway. Washington Ave and Lake Street are where bikers go to die.

But more than my life being in mortal peril, it’s the scale of Fringe itself. There are so many good shows – so many FRINGEY shows – and the back-to-back-to-back viewings are starting to tire me out. It’s like when you’re trying to catch up on an overloaded queue of podcasts and you’re still happy to be listening, but you’re pretty sure that your brain turned off four shows ago.

I’m grateful for the dinner break I budgeted into my viewing today. My partner and I nibble on burgers at Bryant Lake Bowl, chatting over Ariel Pinkerton’s one-woman show (Put a Needle To Me) before I go to The Ghost of Frankenstein’s Bride. Yes, we forget to ask about Fringe button discounts, as usual. Don’t be like us…ask about the deals. That Fringe button can pay for itself.

And, of course, I’m still so happy to be here. There will be time to digest and decompress at the end of the Festival.

Thy Hard (The Comedy Corner – Underground)

Thy Hard is a very certain type of Fringe material. A person (in this case Micheal Shaffer) takes one thing that he loves (Die Hard and tangentially related pop culture) and smashes it together with another thing that he loves (Shakespeare). What results is sonnets rewritten to adore Twinkies and their “hydrogenated tallow”, throwaway lines like “I see dead people, Horatio,”, and an impeccable Alan Rickman impression. Shaffer even printed a Bingo card on the back of the program, where audience members can cross off references like “Run DMC” and “King Lear” as they come up. Just don’t say Bingo during the performance or they’ll get mad at you.

The show is formatted as a pitch. Shaffer, who is on the stage, is pitching Thy Hard material to an unimpressed Jo, who is in the sound booth. Her Voice of God performance was great, but her character consistently insulting the show the rest of us were trying to enjoy annoyed me.

Perhaps my favorite part of Shaffer’s performance was the helicopter crash. I don’t want to give too much away, but let’s just say that there was a propeller hat involved and the SFX will take you back to your childhood playroom in the best way possible.

The tone of the show changes briefly about three quarters of the way through when Shaffer brings up Willis’ diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia. The transition to this emotional detour was abrupt enough that I was concerned that we were heading into an ableist joke – but let me save you the worry: this is genuinely something that Shaffer cares about. His grandmother also suffered from the disease, and he considers Thy Hard something of a love letter to Willis.

I recommend this show for people who like Shakespeare, Die Hard, and those who have been impacted by Alzheimer’s.

Remaining Shows:

8/6 – 7:00 PM
8/7 – 5:30 PM
8/8 –  5:30 PM 
8/10 – 1:00 PM
8/11 – 1:00 PM 

Antistrophe to an Andro-Sapphic Tragedy (Barbara Barker Center for Dance)

Antistrophe to an Andro-Sapphic Tragedy does my favorite Fringe thing: it has action on the stage before the show begins. Upon entering the theater we are met with a young woman sitting on the edge of an unmade bed. A beachy barrier made of posts and a frayed rope stands on the opposite side of the stage. The rope between two of the posts is broken, making an entrance to the young woman’s bedroom. A bright strand of lights, perhaps meant to suggest the foamy edge of an ocean, curves along the front lip of the stage. The sound of crashing waves never ceases.

This is a visually stunning piece. Costumes cross centuries, props are minimalist. Playwright Greta Mae Geiser plays with language in an interesting way, if a little pretentiously. The pronouns around the young woman at the center of the story shift constantly, from she to it to they and back to she, depending on who is talking to or about her. Everyone treats her poorly.

This is a heavy play. Although the script is sprinkled with comedic moments, the tension is built so fast and so effectively that our audience rarely felt comfortable laughing. The bed always looms with a threat of sexual violence. The eerie sound design made it impossible to relax. For me, this worked to the detriment of the performance. I practically ran outside at the end of the play, hoping that the feeling of sunshine on my skin would help.

That said, performances were strong across the board and if you are craving a little more darkness in your Fringe, this will be right up your alley.

I recommend Antistrophe to an Andro-Sapphic Tragedy for people who like theater / dance mashups, the sound of waves crashing into an ocean shore, and a little sprinkle of pretension in their storytelling.

Remaining Shows:

8/5 – 8:30 PM 
8/7 – 7 PM  
8/8 – 5:30 PM

Put a Needle To Me or How I Got a Full Back Tattoo During Covid Because the Government Gave Me More Money Than Any Food Service Job Ever Has (The Comedy Corner – Underground)

Ariel Pinkerton is pretty notorious at the Minnesota Fringe Festival – and for good reason. She is a deft storyteller with an interesting perspective and a great performer. Put a Needle To Me is no exception. With only a music stand and a script in front of her, Pinkerton explains the arc of her life to date, occasionally stopping to muse on subjects like mid-life crises and love. She briefly discusses her identity as a queer woman who struggled to date outside of hetero relationships for reasons that I think much of the community might still find relatable today.

Pinkerton is an easy sell. I recommend Put a Needle To Me for people who like storytelling, are interested in other people’s lives, and anyone who likes Ariel Pinkerton.

Remaining Shows:

8/9 – 7 PM 
8/10 – 4 PM  
8/11 – 4 PM

The Ghost of Frankenstein’s Bride (Bryant Lake Bowl and Theater)

The Ghost of Frankenstein’s Bride opens with two figures struggling from the back of the theater to the front. They are both clad in black, carrying the sagging body of a woman in a white dress. After the body is placed on the crank gurney on stage right, we find out that all three of these women were members of the same coven. The one in white, Elizabeth (Freya Kildeer), recently passed away, leaving the coven broken and Victoria Frankenstein (Kayla Marie Mielke) heart broken.

What follows is a tale of grief put on hold while trying to fix something broken. Victoria and Igre (Savanna Gorbunow) try repeatedly to bring Elizabeth back, drawing on their skills as witchy doctors. The reimagination of Dr. Frankenstein as a practicing witch allows the magic of science in the 1800s to reemerge as a core component of the story. The second to last scene, which I don’t want to speak on in too much detail for fear of spoilers, was beautifully staged and so romantic. 

One of my favorite things about The Ghost of Frankenstein’s Bride is that it matches the tone of Mary Shelley’s novel. This is a story of love unrequited due to uncontrollable circumstances, of regret and failed attempts to connect.

I recommend The Ghost of Frankenstein’s Bride for anyone who likes reinterpretations of classics, romantic horror, and wants a story that centers queer love.

Remaining Shows:

8/7 – 5:30 PM
8/9 – 10:00 PM
8/10 – 2:30 PM  

Becoming My Mother: The Other Origin Story (HUGE Improv Theater)

Becoming My Mother is told in multiple acts which all have the same format. Part One: a darkened theater, sometimes illuminated by a photo slideshow, is filled with a booming, prerecorded voiceover in which Jeannie Retelle talks about her son, Spencer Retelle. Part Two: a short drag performance by Spencer’s drag persona: The Other Jeannie Retelle. Part Three: a monologue by Spencer / The Other Jeannie Retelle during which Retelle applies a full face of makeup.

This format allows us to meet Retelle’s inspiration for his drag persona (his own mother), meet The Other Jeannie Retelle (his drag persona), and also get to know Spencer. He and his mom tell stories and reflect on the journey that brought him from childhood to where he is now. Hearing his storytelling alongside his mother’s storytelling is special. Their similarities are so obvious when they’re set next to each other. Both speak with a bluntness, an insightfulness, and an irreverent sense of humor that I would say is unique if it wasn’t so clearly a shared family trait. 

I highly recommend Becoming My Mother: The Other Origin Story, especiallyforpeople who like drag, coming out stories, and watching people do their makeup.

Remaining Shows:

8/8 – 7:00 PM
8/9 – 5:30 PM
8/11 –  2:30 PM

Francis Grey and the Case of His Dead Boyfriend: A One-Man Whodunnit (Phoenix Theater)

Nathan Tylutki plays every character in this murder mystery, interacting with recordings of themselves on a projector screen at the center of the stage. They embody the detective, the ex-boyfriend, the sister, the mom, the dad, the colleague, and, of course, Jennifer Coolidge. Mannequins and blowup dolls are placed on either side of the stage, slowly collecting character clothing and wigs as the play progresses, a reminder of all the suspects we’ve already met.

If you have ever wanted to watch a Fringe show that feels a little bit like playing a video game, Francis Grey and the Case of His Dead Boyfriend is for you. Although Tylutki’s timing is often perfect, there are moments where the characters on the screen nod silently for a little too long or interrupt Tylutki before they finish speaking. There are jump cuts in the video that anyone who has ever talked to an NPC will immediately recognize. This sense of familiarity along with Tylutki’s improvising make these moments part of the underlying comedy that shapes the show.

I don’t want to give anything away, but I’ll say that there were several twists that I did not see coming and the climax of the show is frenetically hilarious. I would be remiss not to mention that the f-slur is used multiple times, usually as a joke, but once as a slur. Because this show and production company are both queer-centric it was more surprising than offensive, but definitely bears mentioning.

I cannot promise anything, but folks who pre-buy tickets might have a special surprise waiting for them at the show.

I highly recommend Francis Grey and the Case of His Dead Boyfriend: A One-Man Whodunnit, especially for people who like multimedia experiences, familial drama, and off-the-rails storytelling.

Remaining Shows:

8/9 – 7:00 PM 
8/11 – 1 PM