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| Isabelle (Phoebe González) and Hugo (Nate Burger) (photo by Liz Lauren) |
I had never heard of this play, and found it to be a charming and funny almost farcical romantic comedy, with a touch of melancholy and some interesting things to say about class and privilege. It involves identical twins Hugo and Frederick, wealthy eligible bachelors both, but with very different personalities. Hugo is a suave and callous lady's man, while Frederick is tender-hearted and awkward. Both are played by 13-year APT company member Nate Burger, who creates such completely different characters that you know which one he is the moment he walks on stage (for the most part). Their elderly aunt (played by the divine Barbara Kingsley, familiar to #TCTheater audiences) hosts a party, and to make a long story (i.e., three acts and two intermissions) short, Hugo invites a poor dancer (Phoebe González) to attend and impersonate a society lady attracted to Frederick in order to keep him from marrying a woman who only wants his money and, well, Hugo (she's played by Nate's wife Laura Rook, APT is a family affair). Similar to Pygmalion, Isabelle turns out to be smarter and more sensitive than the men trying to manipulate her, and stands up for herself and "the poor," even if her mother's love of the wealthy and marrying rich almost derails her. The swapping of the twins is cleverly done (using a body double), physical humor is plentiful (in both fighting and dancing), the performances are all perfection, and the '50s era costumes divine.
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| meet-cute between Marianne (Phoebe González) and Roland (Casey Hoekstra, photo by Liz Lauren) |
I fell in love with this two-hander (which, if you're paying attention, you'll know is my favorite kind of play) several years ago at the Jungle. I love plays that make me both think and make me feel, which this multiple-universe tragic-beautiful love story definitely does. Casey Hoekstra (also a familiar face from #TCTheater 8-10 years ago, who now makes his home in Chicago) and Phoebe González (again) play British couple (because accents make everything more charming) Roland and Marianne who meet, fall in love, break up, get back together, 'til death do them part, and then do it all over again in a series of repeated and overlapping scenes. It's trippy as it makes you think about the meaning of time, and how all the decisions you made (and didn't make) have led to where you are now, and how maybe there isn't more time or less time, there's just all the time we have and had that's now and forever and always. Both actors give such real and present performances, palpably conveying the love, rage, grief, and everything in between that this couple goes through (or doesn't). This play truly is a feat of acting, direction, and design, and it's all perfection. Often scenes are repeated with identical dialogue, but with a totally different tone and meaning because of the acting and direction choices. It's simply staged on a square of white carpet against a mirror-tiled backdrop that reflects fractured images of the characters from different angles, dressed in opposite soft gray and muted green, barefoot and bare-souled. In discussions with my friends after the festival, I couldn't choose a favorite play, but if asked which play I'd like to see again, it would be this one, because there's so much there in the 70 or so minute show that feels both like ten minutes and three hours.
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| the cast of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (photo by Hannah Jo Anderson) |
This beautiful and devastating production of one of August Wilson's Century Cycle plays has a lot of #TCTheater connections. Director Gavin Dillon Lawrence has been with APT for years, but has also been seen frequently on Twin Cities stages. Several members of the cast are also familiar to #TCTheater audiences - the great Greta Oglesby (who, as we learned from her solo show Handprints at History Theatre earlier this year, has a long history with Wilson) plays Ma Rainy, longtime Penumbra company member Lester Purry plays one of her band members, and Guthrie/U of M BFA grad Nathan Barlow gives a powerful, tragic, and heartbreaking performance as Levee. Set in 1920s Chicago, Ma Rainey is a successful touring blues singer who is recording a couple of her songs, and disagreeing with her White manager and record producer, as well as some of her band members, on how to go about it. Ma may seem like a diva, showing up late and demanding a Coke before beginning to sing, but as a Black woman she knows that she has little power, so she's going to use what power she has - the value of her voice - to stand up for herself, her family, and her art. Like many of Wilson's plays, much of it is authentic conversations between the well-drawn characters that represents the Black experience of the era, that's at times funny, at times tragic, and always real. A full two-story recording studio is built onto the APT stage, blocking out the nature behind, filled with period furniture, recording equipment, and musical instruments, and period costumes that suit each character (particularly the all-important shoes).
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| a swoon-worthy moment with Benedick (Marcus Truschinski) and Beatrice (Jessica Ko, photo by Liz Lauren) |
I saw a matinee of Much Ado on a gorgeous summer Sunday that was warm but not too hot, especially with the pale green tarp hung overhead that provided some shade to the stage and audience, and just made you feel cooler by its gentle billowing in the wind. It's a perfectly charming rendition of this rom com about bickering Beatrice and Benedick, who protest so much about each other, and marriage in general, that they're destined to end up together. Jessica Ko is making her APT debut, Marcus Truschinski been with APT for over 20 years, and together they're magic. Both are so believable and funny and real as this couple that loves to hate each other, and then just plain loves each other, creating some positively swoon-worthy moments. Samantha Newcomb and Ronald Roman-Melendez are also lovely as the young lovers Hero and Claudio, who have a cruel trick played on them by the prince's bastard brother Don John (played by Casey Hoekstra in a much darker and more ominous performance than in Constellations). There's a bit of music used in the show, which always makes everything better, and the side exits and entrances into the woods are particularly well-used. For all plays in the Hill Theatre, and particularly this one, the space is well used, with actors moving all around the stage, through the audience, and into the nature surrounding us. The bright and colorful Renaissance era costumes include flouncy dresses, gorgeous shoes, sharp uniforms, and shorts that I'm sure the actors appreciate on a hot day.
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| the Mundy sisters Dancing at Lughnasa (photo by Liz Lauren) |
We really couldn't have picked a better show to end our weekend of theater. This Irish play has that deliciously melancholy feeling that accompanies the end of something wonderful. Like all good Irish art, this story of five sisters, their recently returned brother Jack, and unfortunate run-ins with love, as told by the son of one of the sisters, all grown up, is filled with the bittersweet joy of being alive. This is a memory play similar to The Glass Menagerie, in which Michael (Marcus Truschinski again, oozing nostalgia) narrates the story, often watching it from the side, or voicing young Michael who is talked to by the sisters but never seen. The sisters - responsible eldest Kate (Tracy Michelle Arnold in her 25th season with APT), fun-loving Maggie (Colleen Madden, who also played the mother in Ring Around the Moon, such a different performance that I didn't realize it until halfway through the second act), quiet and hard-working Agnes (Laura Rook in her 12th season), sweet and childlike Rose (#TCTheater fave Elizabeth Reese), and young mother Chrissy (another familiar #TCTheater face Maggie Cramer making her APT debut) - dance and joke and make tea. Chrissy is visited by her son's father (Nate Burger again), whom she loves but knows cannot be counted on, innocent Rose is taken advantage of, Jack's health declines (a heart-breaking performance by James Ridge, looking physically frail in stark contrast to his performance in Much Ado), and other things change in their way of life that create a permanent shift in all of their lives.The greenery of the set blends with the surrounding greenery, with a hearth, bed, and low walls creating a cozy home on stage. It all makes your heart ache in the most beautiful way.
Four of the five shows we saw were in the Hill Theatre, a 1000-seat amphitheater built into the hillside, with the most beautiful approach to a theater I've seen - a walk through the woods (bug spray provided, but not needed this weekend). I was so impressed by how the four different set designers (click on show titles above for full credits) created such different worlds, from the garden of a French country estate, to a Chicago recording studio, to a seaside town, to an Irish country home, in the same space. The unique set pieces fit into the existing structure like puzzle pieces, often incorporating the nature seen behind and to the sides of the stage. Nature is the best set designer, and the APT designers know how to enhance it and blend into it. The actors are unmiked and clearly heard in the space, and the lighting design works with the natural lighting, creating different experiences at different times of the day.
I'm coming to you at the end of their season. Ma Rainey has already closed, Ring Around the Moon closes on the 20th, and the remainder will close at the end of September. But there are still tickets available if you want to make a spontaneous drive to Wisconsin. Or stay tuned for the announcement of next season, and start making plans to visit them in 2025. American Players Theatre is an unexpected and idyllic setting for theater, and the theater that they present in this magical place is truly exquisite. If you're a fan of theater and you live in the Midwest (and if you're not, why are you reading this?), you owe it to yourself to make a visit to APT at least once, and see for yourself how magical it is.