Fringe Shorts: Glorious Noise and Thirst Theater
Jaime Kleiman reviews and previews Rik Reppe's current Fringe show and the panoply of sharp wit and good writing that is Thirst Theater.
“Glorious Noise” by Rik Reppe
Loring Playhouse
Mon. Aug., 8 at 7 p.m.,
Thurs., Aug. 11 at 10 p.m., Sat., Aug. 13 at 7 p.m., Sun. Aug. 14 at 2:30
p.m.
For advance tickets, call 612-604-4466 or visit www.uptowntix.com
“I’m an airhead,” Rik Reppe tells the audience in the first two seconds of
his “Glorious Noise,” but he’s anything but. The creator of the hit Fringe
show “Staggering Towards America,” Reppe uses a similar technique – traveling
cross-country searching for substance both within and outside of himself –
to great effect here. Jake Endres doubles as music director and right-hand
man, and Leah Cooper’s fluid direction takes a well-written script and gives
it warmth and clarity. Reppe uses live song to explore the “emotional
topography” of different characters, and through his story, illuminates our
own travels towards greater understanding.
Reppe plays – by my count – over seven characters in the course of an hour,
recounting true stories of domestic violence, patricide, unrequited love,
and the psychology of battered women. All of the tales are bound together by
the idea that music is a catalyst for accessing the inner spirit. Reppe’s
clear love of humankind – and of America – is a touching homage to the power
of the soul and the glorious noise within it. FYI, the show was sold out, so
you may want to buy tickets ahead of time.
And a Preview of “Thirst Theater: Where Curtain Call Meets Last Call”
THIRST at Joe’s Garage (upstairs patio)
Monday, August 8,
Wednesday, August
10, Thursday, August 11,
Friday, August 12,
Saturday, August 13.
All shows
at 10 p.m. Call 651-209-6799 or
www.uptowntix.com for tickets.
I am not going to lie to you. Every Thirst performance starts at ten p.m., and the show is ninety minutes long, and I am, sadly, not capable of staying
up that late anymore. I wish I was, but I’m not. So I don’t know if I’m
going to be able to see Thirst, which is a real shame, because some of the
Twin Cities’ hottest playwrights – who also happen to have sizzling national
careers – have written new short plays for it. It’s also a shame because
Thirst uses some of the Twin Cities’ best Equity talent to act out the new
scripts.
The award-winning playwrights – Alan Berks, Cory Hinkle, Rosanna Staffa,
Dominic Orlando, Bill Corbett, and Trista Baldwin – participate in Thirst
because it’s a professional yet casual atmosphere. The rest of the year, it
happens on Monday nights at Joe’s Garage, and every week there are brand-new
plays. For the Fringe, the six scripts remain the same every night (so you
don’t need to try to catch every show).
Last night, the line to get into this popular event snaked from the upstairs
patio at Joe’s Garage down to the sidewalk outside, making for a late night
with high expectations. You can read more about THIRST at the Fringe Festival website (see link below).
Or better yet, go see for yourself
what everyone’s been talking about.