Minnesota Fringe Festival: Our Freaking Kids Show

Our Freaking Kids Show by Mainly Me Productions

Josh Carson is one of those writers who has the rare ability to both write jokes, and to hang those jokes onto a functioning narrative.

I commented after seeing their preview that the conversation between the characters was eerily familiar to me, after six years of working in children's theatre. Man, did the show as a whole bear that out. Pretty much all of the characters were instantly recognizable to me (in particular the overbearing stage mother -- as soon as she took the stage, all I could do was groan and think "Oh, man...I've met, like, ten of you.")

By far what impressed me most about the show was the willingness to place the adults and children on a level playing field (and this is woefully rare in children's theatre). Particularly in the realm of slapstick -- the adults are violently, hilariously cruel to the children, both verbally and physically, and this is mitigated by the fact that the kids are perfectly capable of dishing it out as well as taking it.

Funny to sit through, and of the shows that I've seen, the one I find myself inspired to continue quoting days later.

Phillip Andrew Bennett Low