Kevin Kling and Victor Zupanc fight the summertime blues at CTC

Photo by Dan Norman

Kevin Kling is a Twin-Cities treasure. His quick humor, off-kilter perspective, and deep storytelling gifts make any of performances can't miss.

For many years, he's offered up a summer show. Often at the Minnesota Fringe Festival, or (in more recent years) at Open Eye Figure Theatre. This year, its moved over to the Children's Theatre Company. While it may be geared for a slightly younger set, "The Best Summer Ever" is full of seasonal delights about every kid's favorite time of the year.

Music has often been a key component of the shows. This time out, Kling conspires with Victor Zupanc. CTC's longtime musical director makes an engaging companion for Kling, offering up just the right backdrop for, say, an adventure involving a car wash, a stolen car, and an ice cream truck, or just leading the crowd in a traditional Norwegian folk song.

Kling takes on the role of Maurice Anderson, a young Minnesotan with a big imagination. He's got an older brother who is a constant terror and an older sister who he doesn't quite understand. The summer doesn't get off to the best of starts, as Maurice and his family have to travel north for his great-uncle's funeral. There, he fibs to his grandfather about his farming skills and ends up with some of the last seeds from the old country (and a spare chicken to boot).

From there, it's a wild ride through the seemingly endless days and nights of the summer. Maurice likes to live inside his head, and does things like create nature shows out of his head. Against this backdrop, there's his lonely grandpa, who keeps visiting to have tests done at the hospital, and his not-so-successful garden.

This tapestry allows for some wild tales, like his brother's trip to Norwegian Camp. That ends, naturally, with an attempted invasion of the other camps around the lake, which gets scuttled when the band camp kids turn out to be much tougher than they look.

Along with the hijinks, there is a lot of heart, which is par for the course in one of Kling's shows. You'd have to be particularly hard-hearted to not feel pangs (or even shed a few tears) at the show's expansive conclusion. A lot of that is down to Kling's storytelling and Zupanc's music, but Liz Howls' animations really help to make the finale hit home.

For more information, visit online.

Equivocation is a powder keg of a show from Walking Shadow

Photo by Dan Norman

What if the greatest playwright of the age had been approached by the government to write a propaganda piece about a recent, attempted terrorist attack only to discover that the “truth” behind it was much thornier than the smooth surface.

That’s the plot of Bill Cain’s “Equivocation,” which takes this John Grisham-like plot and drops in the middle of early 17^th-century London, where William Shakespeare finds himself with the impossible task of writing a play about the Gunpowder Plot.

This is perfect territory for Walking Shadow Theatre Company, whose past work includes Shakespeare-adjacent works like A Midwinter Night’s Revel and “Shakespeare’s Land of the Dead.” Though Cain’s script occasionally wanders, the tight direction and fascinating story carry through this compelling evening of theater.

One day, Shakespeare is called away from the Globe – where the company is hard at work making sense of “King Lear” – to meet with Robert Cecil, the behind-the-scenes controller of the King, court, and country. He – King James or Cecil, there’s not much difference – wants Shakespeare to write the “true” story of the recently attempted Gunpowder Plot, where a group of young, radical Catholics attempted to blow up Parliament and start a revolution.

From the get go, there is pressure everywhere: from Cecil, from the other actors in the company, and from Shakespeare (called Shagspeare or Shag here) himself, who realizes that a play about a plot that doesn’t succeed isn’t particularly good drama.

This pushes Shag to hunt deeper for the truth, and after a few interviews with the surviving conspirators and his own keen knowledge of human behavior, he finds an alarming plot behind the plot. There’s a real story here, but it means telling the truth. Mind you, this is an era where the wrong word can get you hung, drawn, quartered and your head hung on a pike.

Cain uses this to look the difficulty of uncovering and telling the truth in difficult times, whether it’s Jacobian England or our modern day, where any uncomplementary story is labeled as “fake news.” Beyond that, there are issues of art, collaboration, loyalty, and family – the last is a big one, as Shag has a troubled relationship with his daughter, Judith.

In other words, Cain put a lot on his plate. It makes for a sometimes overstuffed show, as ideas are constantly tossed around. Yet, while this may eventually make for an exhausting last 20 minutes (which includes whole swaths of one of Shakespeare’s plays), the overall effect is ultimately engaging.

Give director (and Walking Shadow co-artistic director) Amy Rummenie plenty of credit, as she molds all of this material into a sharp thriller that holds all of the stray ideas together. The company is also well chosen, though Walking Shadow’s co-artistic director John Heimbuch had to step into the key role of Richard, Shakespeare’s confidant and friend, at the last moment. During Saturday’s performance, he was still on book and working to meld fully with the rest of the company.

The other performers are all strong, especially Damon Mentzer as Shag and Eva Gemlo as Judith. Once Heimbuch has a chance to settle into the role, they whole company should be able to fire on all cylinders.

Equivocation runs through June 24 at the Gremlin Theater in St. Paul. Visit here for more information.

Constance in the Darkness is great art from Open Eye Figure Theatre

Photo by Evan Frost

There are a number of truths about the Twin Cities theater community, and one of those is that no matter what Open Eye Figure Theatre puts together, it will be -- at the very least -- intriguing.

The company's mixture of high-class puppetry, top-notch performances, and deep-probes of the human psyche come together in the enthralling and brilliant Constance in the Darkness.

Constance (Emily Zimmer) is off exploring when she gets a series of frantic calls from her mother. Mom is lost and needs her daughter to help her get home. This leads Constance into an ever spiraling series of adventures that take her deep into her childhood. There, she finds an ally in Bobo, her beloved-but-certainly-broken-down beloved bear, and fights against the terrors of some of her less savory toys: Queen Harmonica and Lamby Lamb.

There's also a fairy godmother and a narrator tying all of this together. Most of the roles apart from Constance are played by Maren Ward, who once again does terrific work on the Open Eye stage. Ward moves from role to role like a whirlwind, driving the story always forward. (And don't expect any handholding here; you are going to have remained fully engaged with the twists and turns of the story to get the most out of Constance and her adventures.)

Created by Open Eye's Michael Sommers and Joseph Evans, <i>Constance in the Darkness</i> is an inventive ride that just makes you giddy to be alive and experiencing such great art.

For information, visit here.

Blows against the Empre: The Royale

Photo by Justin Cox

Though set in the early years of the 20^th century, Marco Ramirez’s The Royale is remarkably prescient about race and sports in America.

A lot of that has to do with our country’s stubborn, almost pathological, inability to deal with its troubled past. It’s much easier to paste over the issues with platitudes and Ram truck commercials than to actually come face to face with the collected racism of white America.

In The Royale, making its regional premiere at the Yellow Tree Theatre, Jay Jackson is a barnstorming boxing champion defeating all challengers – as long as they are black. He dreams of coming face to face with the white champion.

When that opportunity comes, it becomes more than just two men trading punches in the ring. Against a backdrop Jim Crow America, Jackson sets off a firestorm of tension. Will reaching his dream cause others to suffer?

There’s more to unpack in this topic than a year of plays, documentaries, and discussions can uncover. Ramirez instead paints with an impressionist’s brush. Clocking in at around 75 minutes, we get touches of the tension beneath the surface from the way Jackson interacts with others, from his sparring partner to his long-time coach to his manager.

Director Austene Van makes the most of these tools. The boxing becomes a ritual dance of bobbing, weaving, and punches. By the end, each virtual punch (there is no actual pugilism on stage, apart from some light sparring) packs a wallop far beyond the ring.

Several terrific performances help to bring this to life. David Murray has the look and swagger of a champion as Jackson. There is a singular determination to Jackson’s quest, and Murray plays it perfectly. As the tension increases, so does the worry in Murray’s face, but Jackson’s underlying confidence never wavers.

James Craven and Charles Fraser play a pair of mentors. Craven is electric as always as Wynton, who has guided Jackson through the rough roads of boxing. Fraser gets a thornier character, as promoter Max has Jackson’s best interest in mind. Is it genuine, or is just because Max needs Jackson to keep making money? That tension is written throughout Fraser’s performance.

By the end, The Royale leaves you exhausted and exhilarated. After all, the weight of American racism – and how it relates to sports – is felt heavily today. (Hello, President Trump!) Yet the power of Ramirez’s writing, Van’s direction, and the company’s acting make it a rewarding trip to the theater.

For more information, visit online.

The road isn't all that easy in The Wiz

Photo by Dan Norman

The Wiz is not a great piece of musical theater. Apart from the music, its soulful twist on The Wizard of Oz hasn’t aged all that well. The book is blah and the story misses plenty of important beats from the original that make it feel more like discreet episodes instead of a fully unified story.

The combined talents of Penumbra Theatre and the Children’s Theatre Company do their darndest to make it work. While the final product is far from perfect, it is much more entertaining than the various parts would indicate.

Dorothy is still from Kansas and is still under the care of her Auntie Em and Uncle Henry. The difference? The family is African American, and when the twister comes and takes her to Oz that fantastical land is modeled after New York City.

After landing on Coney Island, Dorothy makes her way south, picking up her familiar friends (though Toto is seen at the beginning and end, he is missing in action for most of the show) on their journey to see the Wizard. In this case, the Emerald City is the Apollo.

And yeah, you know the story from here. Wizard scares the quartet into taking care of the evil witch, Evillene. They dispatch her without much trouble, come back, get their rewards, and learn valuable lessons about themselves.

Mind you, this 1970s-era musical wasn’t trying to create a new interpretation, like Wicked. The Wiz really just wants to tell a familiar story with some punched up, soulful tunes. Songwriter Charlie Smalls gives the company plenty of great moments to dig into, from the funky choruses of “Ease on Down the Road” to a string of solos that threatened to bring the house down.

We’ve got Greta Oglesby, cast as Aunt Em and Evillene, reaching for the rafters on two numbers, the opening “The Feeling We Once Had” and “Don’t Nobody Bring Me Bad News.” Paris Bennett sings well throughout as Dorothy, and it is hard to go wrong with the likes of Dennis W. Spears, Aimee Bryant and T. Mychael Rambo filling out the cast.

When they are singing, The Wiz is great fun. It’s harder for the company to overcome William F. Brown’s sludgy script. All of the hard work done by the company, the creative team, and director Lou Bellamy can’t save us from the fact that we’re watching a facsimile of the original story, and like so many copies, it doesn’t capture all of the details of the original.

Visit online for more information.

Ishmael: The greatest fishing tale of them all

Nate Sipe, Jim Parker, Kevin Kniebel (musicians); Jack Weston

(Photo by Dan Norman)

Sometimes dragging yourself out of the house during the Minnesota winter seems like a terrible burden. It’s warm at home. There’s no terrible road conditions, low visibility, lower temperatures, or awful parking to deal with when you choose not to go out.

Still, there are rewards for the brave, such as the Jungle Theater’s new production, Ishmael.As you might guess from the title, this is a version of Moby-Dick. It’s been trimmed down to a slim 90 minutes, but does so by honing in on the core of the tale: the madness of Captain Ahab, the wanderlust of Ishmael, and the scary life that awaits anyone foolish enough to sail the seas.

All of this is told through the capable hands of Jack Weston, who presents us with a campfire tale to end all campfire tales. Adapter Leo Geter uses only words from Melville’s original novel. That means it retains the original tone even if the events have been scaled back.

The story does take its time getting started, but the lengthy prologue helps to set Ishmael’s character and allows the audience to sink deeper and deeper into the story, until we – like our narrator – are almost drowning under Ahab’s mad passion.

Weston isn’t alone on stage. A trio of musicians – two drawn from neo-bluegrass outfit Pert Near Sandstone – offer support, as they sing traditional tunes or provide the occasional “crowd” when needed. The focus, however, remains on Weston, whose dazzling performance makes it feel like we are right there on the Peqoud with the doomed crew.

Find out more here.

Addendum (or a scary look into the way my mind works)

Moby-Dick has made an impact on lots of culture, including rock and pop music. Led Zeppelin called its extended drum solo/chance for the rest of the band to score some drugs, “Moby Dick.” The doom-laden metal band Ahab took cues from the story, as did the heavier-than-thou Mastodon on “Leviathan.”

Then there’s Moby, who apparently is a distant relation of Melville, and took his name from the famous white whale. However, there is nothing heavy or mysterious about Moby or his music.

Fool for Love drags into horrors of the American Dream

Photo by Rich Ryan

Sam Shepard compressed several plays worth of insight into the American psyche and what it means to be a “man” in his early 1980s masterpiece, Fool for Love. Over the course of an hour, we get an intense window into the lives of four disparate characters all trying to find a piece of the “American Dream.”

Dark & Stormy, never shy about intense character studies or difficult tales, dives head first into Shepard’s twisting tales with largely positive results.

This is the third production of the show I’ve seen over the years, with the previous two both being at the Jungle Theater. In fact, it was the very first show I saw at the venerable theater, back in the 1990s when it was in a little shoebox of a theater on Lake Street.

Dark and Stormy’s flexible space brings the action right into the audience’s laps, even more so than that production from two decades ago. Now, the hot and cold relationship between Eddie and May plays out just a few feet away, and the Old Man rocks silently on his chair just as close to the action.

I’m getting ahead of myself a bit. Eddie and May are longtime lovers whose relationship has flamed out. May lives in a nothing town somewhere in the American southwest, and cowboy Eddie has traveled hundreds of miles out of his way to try and win her back.

This isn’t some rom-com though. The pair have… issues that run deeply throughout their relationship. A lot of those are down to the Old Man, who haunts their memories. In fact, it is never quite clear if this is something the Old Man is imagining, or that his presence in their lives is so strong that they can’t shake his influence when they are together.

Another man enters into this three-way dance. He is Martin, a young and somewhat gentle soul who is romancing May. The hard-nosed and jealous Eddie enters into a bit of a “man-off” with Martin, and May finds herself torn between the fury of her previous love and the safer harbors of Martin’s.

Sara Marsh and James Rodriguez bring an appropriate amount of heat as May and Eddie, but it is the two other actors that really make this an intriguing production. Patrick Coyle’s steely intensity, present even when he is just watching the proceedings and drinking from a Styrofoam cup, is arresting and his presence looms (as it should) over the whole show.

Antonio Duke brings a fresh look to Martin, who often comes off as just a wallflower; one of the mythical “snowflakes” folks complain about. Duke, however, offers up some inner strength that Martin usually doesn’t have. There are signs that a tough life has given him some additional steel behind the polite façade.

Mel Day does a solid job in directing, though the opening scene – when Eddie spends all of his energy to convince May to come back – needed some additional space and time to really sink in. The play rushes by quickly, and a few extra moments to ground us to the main characters would help the rest of the action hit harder.

For information and tickets, visit online.