Minnesota Fringe Festival: There is no escape

Loans from on high: "St. Christopher of Financial Aid" at the Fringe

​You can't swing a dead cat (or walk a live dog, apparently) this time of year in Minneapolis without running into someone about to take the stage of the Minnesota Fringe. Last night I was walking my pooch to Jefferson School in Uptown when I saw three men and a woman rehearsing some sort of antic farce.  I saw a familiar face in Christopher Kehoe (he's hard to miss: he's very tall), and another in Mahmoud Hakima, so I took a seat and watched. Turns out the four were getting in a little last-minute practice before performing at Improv-a-Go-Go at the Brave New Workshop.

But after about ten seconds of conversation I solidified the information that both Kehoe and Hakima have one-man shows at this year's Fringe. Hakima's is called Can Michael Come Out and Play?; it's about cultural assumptions, miscommunication, and the lovely experience of being suspected of terrorism.

Kehoe's show is called St. Christopher of Financial Aid. It's puroprted to be a story of human connection arising from the allocation of money for higher education. St. Christopher plays at Theatre in the Round (opening night is this Friday at 10:00 p.m.). Michael is at the Playwrights' Center. The opener is Saturday at 1:00 p.m.

And while we're whetting our appetite for gorging on all things Fringe, here's another preview video, this time for The Damn Audition: