Fringe Festival: Finds

Even for a veteran Fringer, the sheer scope of the 11-day theater/performance art blowout that is the Fringe Festival can seem daunting. Fret not. We sent a fleet of reviewers to unearth 20 of the best and most exciting entries in this year's fest. Whether you're jonesing for gay banditos (who isn't!), powerful transgender candidness or dancing dragons, the Fringe's 165 varied shows should satisfy on just about every front.

A self-effacing attitude pervades comedian Mary Mack's solo riff on her anxieties and dysfunctional family issues. She says she tried to be an alcoholic but kept getting full. She points out how she has the voice of a 5-year-old, yet has the body of a fourth-grader. A dazed and haunted facial expression is matched with quirky comments about New Age mysticism, repressed emotions of Minnesotans and her mother's pet raccoon. Though she rambles far too much, Mack is strangely effective and likable.JOHN TOWNSEND

In a North Carolina backwater, the NASCAR-loving Miller family encounters its worst nightmare -- invasion by the Gay Banditos. In mockumentary style, mom, dad and son describe the horror they witnessed when forced to listen to Nicki Minaj, among other indignities. They realize that the gays hide in plain sight, alien-style, while working on their nefarious recruitment agenda. Worse, the Millers start seeing the gayness in themselves -- how else to explain a sudden fondness for museums? This broad, funny satire deftly skewers paranoia, complete with Chick-fil-A. CYNTHIA DICKISON

Twin Cities Chinese Dance Center celebrates the Year of the Dragon with works drawing upon traditional, ethnic and contemporary influences. The opening number is a mystery (who were all those brightly costumed characters?) but a narrator guides the remainder of the show, giving context for dances demonstrating the variety, beauty and strength of the performers -- and the culture itself. Choreographer Zhang Huan Ru also enjoys kitschy fun: "The Auspicious Peacock," with its unrestrained preening and pop-up tail-feather skirts, is a guilty, Vegas-style delight. CAROLINE PALMER

It's hard to say just when Levi Weinhagen bruised his chin and began bleeding at last Thursday's opening of this comedy that he co-wrote and performs with Joseph English Scrimshaw. What is certain is that even as the straight man, he shows commitment to his hapless role. Plus, his injury comports with the show's mantra: "Comedy hurts." Weinhagen plays Walter, a talentless, square actor who needs to learn to fall down for a TV audition. Scrimshaw, a deft physical comedian, plays all the other roles, including Walter's nemesis. Scrimshaw slaps and tumbles his way to boatloads of laughs in a show that appeals to the children in us.ROHAN PRESTON

This infectious dance revue from Blue Umbrella Productions imagines a world where Nancy Sinatra and Janelle Monae are spiritual sisters, Jerome Robbins choreographed "West Side Story" to MC Hammer and Beyonc has a five-o'clock shadow. Director/choreographer Windy Bowlsby and her exuberant troupe borrow from Broadway, Bollywood, vaudeville and opera (classical and the Jerry Springer variety) for 14 numbers infused with energy and humor that will have audiences boogieing in the aisles. C.D.

This lighter-than-air sendup of television talk shows offers a parade of preening artists hosted by Laura Buchholz. Carolyn Blomberg turns in a delightfully wide-eyed performance as a 9-year-old memoirist, while Lori Crever and Nick Sahli are hilarious as a self-promoting helicopter mother and a bemused production assistant. There's a wealth of material here, including an overwrought aria by Momoko Tanno and a name-dropping duel between Buchholz and a guest musician (Mahmoud Hakima), but the pace could use tightening. LISA BROCK

CANDIDE

Voltaire's picaresque novel is epic in ideas as well as in globe-hopping scope. Nick Ryan's adaptation abridges the wild tale while successfully maintaining both Voltaire's witty satire and his intellectual debate. Four Humors Theater's production is as outrageous as the story. Director Jason Ballweber creates a broadly theatrical, anarchic experience. As the hapless Candide, Brant Miller is silly, but also sweet, giving the show an emotional punch. Playing multiple roles, Matt Spring, Ryan Lear, Christian Bardin and Anna Hickey dazzle. WILLIAM RANDALL BEARD

Nathan Schilz's musical adaptation of Kafka's tale works beautifully, with a score that fits the story and a script that preserves the literature. Especially strong are the young Anna Larranaga as Greta and Joshua Rees Hopkins as her doomed brother Gregor, the man who wakes up as a bug. Hopkins throws himself into the role, vocally as well as physically; we can actually hear his fingernails rake the stage. Maybe Hopkins slides slightly off his pitch from time to time, but give him a break. He's crawling on his belly. E.R.

Another delightful romp through the witty, funhouse-mirror-mind of Joseph Scrimshaw. The Anger Pony; Beer Can-Mouth Man; Special Agent Bob Jackass of the Bureau of Alcohol, Taxes and Feet; men without pants ... welcome to Joseph's nightmare. For all its absurdist insanity, the show has both heart and message, examining glass-half-empty yang as it smashes against the yin of people finding, and accepting, happiness as life is willing to offer it. We learn that there is a path to reclaiming our "song" and, ultimately, finding our "happy face." BRIAN LEEHAN

Tamara Ober has a history of creating top-notch Fringe shows, and "Sin Eater" is no exception. Here she plays Glory, who seeks out the menacing title character at her dying war-veteran father's behest. Ober delivers a searing performance that delves into the most frightening regions of the soul. She howls from the darkest reaches of her gut, dances like her life depends on it (because it really does) and pulls the audience along on Glory's adventure, with a view from the inside out. This work will haunt you. C.P.

GRAYDON ROYCE

Jackpot. If you can get to only one Fringe show, make sure it's this must-see tearjerker by New York actor John Grady. He moves between (poorly lit) areas of the Patrick's Cabaret stage as he talks about Abby, his life-saving therapy dog. Man and dog spend 13 years together, sharing and surviving many crucibles. In the end, Abby gets terminally ill and Grady has to make a tough decision about her fate, and his. In his gray suit, Grady, who has played raconteur Spalding Gray onstage, delivers with moving honesty and heart-rending simplicity.R.P.

Christopher Kehoe wrote a brilliant, nonstop satire around an intergalactic, interspecies "Romeo and Juliet." Along with skewering that style of postmodern, high-concept production, he juxtaposes the Shakespeare with perspectives from a variety of wild characters. Kehoe wrote the best role for himself as an effete critic indulging in arrogant verbosity. Dawn Brody as a professor spewing a militant feminist interpretation is equally hilarious. For all the comedy, Kehoe ends the piece with a celebration of the transformative power of theater.W.R.B.

Poor, hapless Bruce Schwartz -- everyone thinks he's a great guy, but his endless screwups keep getting him fired. While perusing the want ads, Bruce finds an unlikely career as a diamond thief's apprentice. This is a genuinely funny and endearing show about a lovable loser attempting to find his place in the world, and inadvertently helping a hardened thief to find a heart he didn't know he had. As good as the script is, the show is carried by the delightful ensemble performances of Brant Miller, Tim Hellendrung and Debs Halloway. B.L.

You think you've got problems -- try being born the wrong gender. Rebecca Kling delivers a frank and sometimes verbally graphic tour de force of her journey from a she who's a he into the "she" she's meant to be. You'll discover that the concept of gender is a little more slippery than you realized. Through powerful original prose, poetry and movement, Kling educates and entertains. Definitely not for the judgmental or those squeamish about graphic language and verbal imagery. A powerful and important story and message. B.L.

When a woman is incarcerated for a public outburst, waves of protest sweep the land. Police state tactics are called upon to suppress social unrest. Playwright/director Mark Rosenwinkel chillingly speculates on unconstitutional interrogation techniques used against the woman and ordinary people who have been close to her. A first-rate cast penetrates sharply conflicting emotions in an unsettling dispute over the proper use and abuse of power. Rosenwinkel dreams the nightmare of what happens when a democratic republic morphs into an undemocratic national security state. J.T.

A beautifully written and acted show about old wounds, dark places and what we do to heal ourselves. A successful CFO in the family business, Polly finds she can no longer live the life her father dictates. A Craigslist ad brings her together in an abandoned theater with Moira -- a woman full of life, and further along in her healing than Polly, but with her own untold history of pain. The female "Fight Club" that ensues is funny, touching and cathartic. Nora Montaez and Georgia Hallman are outstanding. B.L.

20% Theatre offers a touching and piercingly focused staging of nine short dramatic works on gender nonconformity and ambiguity. Most are monologues about prejudices suffered by people who do not and/or cannot adhere to standard social codes for masculinity and femininity. Imagine waking up after napping on a bus, only to be confronted by an aggressive traveler who demands to know not who you are, but what you are. In a contrasting piece, a young butch lesbian's parents embrace her gayness before she even comes out. J.T.

What: 164 shows, and more than 800 performances in an 11-day festival. When: Thu.-Fri. beginning at 5:30 p.m., last show 10 p.m.; Sat.-Sun. beginning at 1 p.m. Ends Sunday. Where: 14 venues in Minneapolis, one in St. Paul. Tickets: $12 individual shows. Must purchase $4 Fringe button. Multi-show passes available. Find showtimes and venue locations at 1-866-811-4111 or www.fringefestival.org.