Returning favorites: Rhino Productions

by Matthew A. Everett • June 16, 2008 • One advantage of clearing out the pre-Fringe Top Ten list every year is that it forces me to go looking for ten (or twenty) new sets of artists to get excited about, and broaden my horizons as an audience member.

Another advantage is that I have a stockpile of past Top Tenners I can recommend along with the newcomers, covering a little more ground each year as the collective group of old and new grows ever larger.

Here’s a returnee from my original pre-Fringe Top Ten list back in 2003.

Single White Fringe Geek (and Mom) is the blog of Matthew A. Everett, one of four bloggers covering the Minnesota Fringe Festival for the Daily Planet.

Rhino Productions

2003 – The Hobbit
2005 – Spare Parts

This year…

Hey, I’m Talking Murder Here

The prelimary blurb…

“Three twisted tales of revenge and murder. Set in an unexpected future and featuring a bewildered clone, a homicidal robot and a couple of talking dogs. Rod Serling eat you heart out!”

While the collective title, to be honest, leaves me cold, I’ve seen the scripts in development and quite enjoy them. The writer/producer/director Mic Weinblatt is part of my current writing group.

It’s a trio of pieces, one for two men, one for two women, one for all four actors, all very clever and funny. All involving death, but not the way you expect them to. They play with the notion of what constitutes life, and death; murder, and mercy. They also work perfectly fine as fluffy entertainment if you don’t want to trouble yourself with deeper meaning.

There’s a sci fi twist to two of them that kind of comes out of left field in a way that I found really satisfying. The final one continues a mini-trend in this year’s Fringe of actors pretending to be dogs (the other one I’m aware of is, of course, mine).

One of the actors, Kara Greshwalk, is a big booster of new work, and someone I hope to work with one day on my own scripts (or rather, one that isn’t thrown together in less than 24 hours), so naturally I want to come out and support her in return. I’m working them into my own schedule, so of course it’s

Recommended

U of M Rarig Center Proscenium stage

August 1 at 10pm
August 4 at 8:30pm
August 5 at 5:30pm
August 6 at 8:30pm
August 8 at 7pm

Entering his sixth year of blogging about the Minnesota Fringe Festival (and bringing Mom along for the ride as a guest reviewer), Matthew A. Everett is also a local playwright and three-time recipient of grant support from the Minnesota State Arts Board. Information on Matthew and his plays can be found at matthewaeverett.com.