Ripe with physical comedy, award-winning Fringe favorites premiere their adaptation of Edward Gorey's "children's" book about an unlikely cat-and-doll duo who must overcome all odds to save a circus from ruin.

Sara Richardson
Role: Director
Sara is an actress and ensemble-theatre maker in the Twin Cities. Her absolute favorite thing to do is make physical and “dumb” comedy. Recent: Cabaret (as Sally Bowles, with Frank Theatre). Upcoming: Joice Rejoice with Kevin Kling and Open Eye Figure Theatre (8/12-8/21) and Mercy Watson to the Rescue (as Mercy, with CTC, 9/6-10/23). Many thanks to Live Action Set, the cast and crew.

Noah Bremer
Role: Actor- M. Zut-Alors
Noah is an actor, director, creator and instigator. He has worked with theaters including the Guthrie Theater, Children’s Theatre Company, The Red Eye Collaboration, Theatre de la Jeune Lune, the Soap Factory, Illusion Theater, Southern Theater, and Pillsbury House Theatre. As a director or actor/creator, he has collaboratively created more than 40 original theatrical works. He received an Artist Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board in 2005. Also that year, the Star Tribune and City Pages recognized his co-creation of Please Don’t Blow Up Mr. Boban, with the latter naming him Artist of the Year. Noah has studied theater at the University of Minnesota and at the Dell’Arte School of Physical Theater in California. He most recently played The Skywatcher, a lead character in Cirque du Soleil’s touring production of Varekai. Upcoming: directing Capital Crimes at The History Theatre.

Hans Hauge
Role: Actor
Hans lives in Minneapolis where he works as an actor and carpenter. Last fall he appeared in JonFerguson Theater’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and in June participated in the workshops for Ferguson’s upcoming The King is Dead. This fall he’s excited to be working with Sandbox Theater on The Mad Trapper of Rat River. Hans received a B.F.A. Degree in Acting from Emerson College. He is happy you’ve come to see the show.

Kimberly Richardson
Role: Actor- Zenobia
Kimberly co-created two plays, The Art of Seduction and The Nosdrahcir Sisters, with her sister-in-comedy, Sara Richardson. She also has worked with Shawn McConneloug, Jon Ferguson and Deborah Jinza Thayer, and is part of Ten Thousand Things Theatre’s artist core. This is Kimberly’s 6th show with Live Action Set since 2005’s Please Don’t Blow Up Mr. Boban. Kimberly holds a B.F.A. in Modern Dance from the University of Utah, and received a 2006 Sage Award for dance performance.

Dario Tangelson
Role: Actor- Fletcher
is an Argentinean-born performer, director and theater teacher who Dario first came to the United States on a Fulbright scholarship. In Argentina, he participated in theater, film and television, while teaching mask technique at the IUNA and Lanus universities. In New York he collaborated with ensemble theater companies such as International Wow, NTUSA, Flying Machine and Repertorio Español and continued his teaching work through the Museo del Barrio and The New School University. He moved to Minneapolis over three two years ago and has performed with Jon Ferguson, Mixed Blood, Live Action Set, Interact and the Guthrie. He has taught mask technique workshops for Macalester College and the U of M/Guthrie B.F.A. Program as well as workshops and acting classes through the Guthrie.

Emily Zimmer
Role: Actor
Emily has appeared in plays with many companies including Frank Theatre, Children’s Theatre, Open Eye Figure Theatre, Florida Stage and La Jolla Playhouse. She has performed in transit gardens and at Dixon Place in New York. She also collaborates with her fantastically creative household to create performances pieces that they share with audiences in the garage. She studied theater at Macalester College and clown with Pierre Byland.

Paul Fonfara
Role: Musician

Chris Hepola
Role: Musician

Steven Hobert
Role: Musician

Mark Ruark
Role: Technical Director
Mark has been involved in the Twin Cities theater scene since 2001 in many capacities, including: lighting, costumes, sound, music, scenery, props, stage management, acting, dancing and singing. He has collaborated with Live Action Set, Deborah Jinza Thayer’s Movement Architecture, Rosy Simas Danse, and many others. He is also currently the resident lighting designer for both Rhythmic Circus and Xelias Aerial Arts, and heads a sound collaboration project called Liars’ Conspiracy.

Eric Sharp
Role: Rehearsal SM/Props Designer/Production Asst.
Eric is extremely pleased to working on his second show with Live Action Set. He played Ibsen in Live Action Set’s, The Piano Tuner, a few years ago, and has been itching to get back in the room with these clowns ever since. When not appearing on stage around town he designs publicity for theatre including Barkada Theater Project’s, The Duties & Responsibilities of Being A Sidekick, also playing as a part of the MN Fringe. Huge thanks to Noah, Sara, and the rest of the LAS team for having me be a part of this crazy team. Eric holds a B.F.A. from Millikin University.

Joanna Harmon
Role: Producer
has been a part of Live Action Set’s production team since 2009. She Joanna is both an actor and producer of theater around the Twin Cities. As a performer, she holds professional credits from The Guthrie Theater and theaters in Southwest Florida, where she was raised. In the Twin Cities, she has performed with numerous companies often producing new work, including JonFerguson Theater, Red Eye Theater, Workhaus Collective, and the New Theatre Group. In 2005, she was awarded the highest level of honor in acting from the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts. She is graduate of the University of MN/Guthrie Theater B.F.A. Actor Training Program. This Fringe season, you can see her in The Magic of Jared Sherlock, performing a juggling duet with Mr. Sherlock himself.

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LAS in Fine Form
by Mickey Foley Follow this reviewer
Rating 4 kitties
Fletcher & Zenobia is the kind of witty, fast-paced, physical comedy that deserves high praise and a long run. The speed tramples some jokes, while others are drowned out by noise, but these are followed quickly by other jokes and amusements.

Ironically, Live Action Set's sterling reputation may hold the show back, as we're accustomed to the troupe creating theater of this caliber. It's easy to take their talent for granted, especially when you've seen as many of their shows as I have.

One talent I doubt I'll ever take for granted is Kim Richardson. If there's a better farcical actor on the planet, I'd like to meet them. She deserves a star on the Minnesota Walk of Fame. Her gift dwarfs that of Loni Anderson and Tippi Hedren.

Live Action Set, at the top of its game
by Florence Brammer Follow this reviewer
Rating 5 kitties
If you enjoy and appreciate this form of artmaking (and I sure do), it doesn't get much better. Whimsical, touching, colorful, charming, insert-your-favorite-flattering-adjective-here.

A bunch of clowns
by Sara Lahti Follow this reviewer
Rating 4 kitties
I enjoyed this show. The fast pace didn't leave me bored or at any moment felt myself drift from what was happening in front of me. Zenobia's performance was delightful!

Too quick a beat for the Show.
by Nick & Rosie Heille Follow this reviewer
Rating 4 kitties
Very fast paced show. A 60 minute show in 50 minutes. Show was so fast paced, some of the punch lines were difficult to hear. Difficult enough, so the punch lost some of its zap. Children enjoyed the show, especially the high wire act, whose background music was a bit less frenetic than the rest of the show‘s music. Maybe if the music’s beat were slowed down, like for the high wire act, it all would have been better received.

Thoroughly enjoyable
by James Lee Follow this reviewer
Rating 5 kitties
My two pre-school grandchildren loved the show. My four-year old granddaughter has now incorporated Kimberly Richardson into her imaginative play. She wants to be the beautiful, quirky, fun, approachable doll who is unbelievable in her gymnastic bows.

Creative from top to bottom
by Dwayna Paplow Follow this reviewer
Rating 5 kitties
I had to check out the "Bring your own venue" concept. Staged with lawn chairs and benches, the indoor/outdoor setting at Mill City was both a blessing and a curse. This show certainly benefits from having their "own" space and due to necessary constraints at other venues, this production value soars. Highlights include a lovely live band, charmingly crafted masks and props, and using every inch of the space to transform scenes. The big downfall is cavernous acoustics. The actors work hard to overcome this, and the physical comedy is really what propels the story.

With that said, I was simply smitten with the combination of the weather, a packed house, hilarious wigs, and the talented ensemble playing a motley crew.

where was gorey?
by Mark Browning Milner Follow this reviewer
Rating 2 kitties
this was basically a clown show, and after seeing "four clowns" at the gremlin this was a paler experience in comparison. and poor edward gorey in all his sardonic splendor was somehow completely lost in translation. some good performances, and the band was a nice touch, but this was a disappointment.

Good Goofy Fun
by Sophie Kerman Follow this reviewer
Rating 4 kitties
A totally energetic ensemble that wants to put on a show for you! With a colorful, childlike joy that's obviously great for kids, the company also manages to entertain its adult audiences with some great physical comedy and clown routines. I would guess that it's much harder to act the roles of a so-so circus performer (as Fletcher and Zenobia are) than a good one; a lot of the actors' skills are in hiding how talented they really are. A few moments can be a little cloying, and the show takes a few minutes to pick up steam - but once it does, there's no stopping that train.

Playful and fun
by Leah Weaver Follow this reviewer
Rating 4 kitties
My four-year-old and I had a lot of fun at this show! As others have mentioned, the cavernous Mill space led to some problems with sight lines and acoustics. It was a little difficult to follow at first, too. But once the show got rolling, it was a lot of fun!

A Good Show In A Complicated Venue
by William Marth Follow this reviewer
Rating 4 kitties
Having seen this group at Convergence last month I was looking forward to seeing what they'd do with more than ten minutes of stage time.

Fletcher & Zenobia was high energy, filled with a ton of physical humor. Plenty of funny lines and dialogue, as well, but not sure how much of that I missed, as Mill City, while a space that provides an unique atmosphere with plenty of opportunities for play, was also loud and echoing, drowning out many of the more subtlely-spoken jokes.

The kids in the audience seemed to be enjoying it, although the pacing is so fast and frenetic that I have a feeling they liked the costumes and sound effects more than the story itself.

For: People who love good physical comedy
Not for: The hard of hearing

Great for kids, good for adults
by Sam Choo Follow this reviewer
Rating 4 kitties
Great use of space & fantastic live music set the scene for this frenetic physical comedy. A few moments seemed confused between slapstick and slap-dash, and some lines were lost to the space, surroundings ambi, and low projection. But, I really enjoyed it and the kids had a fun time.

Circus Fun at the Mill
by Joe Luis Cedillo Follow this reviewer
Rating 4 kitties
Enjoyed the staging of this circus within a show and really liked the physicality of it. Actors did a great job of shaping space and bringing great sense of fun to the whole affair with wacky animal masks and costume changes (watch for the gentleman refusing his dress). Great direction in making the work really in a site-specific manner including a great moment of daring. I’m not at all familiar with this particular story, and it was more Gorey tongue-in-cheek, wry humor than dark Addams Family-like sensibility I expected. As adaptations of children’s books for theater goes, this hit on all levels in appealing to me as an adult and theater practitioner plus the children I saw all were absorbed and responding to the spectacle.

Fletcher & Zenobia
by Jane Johnston Follow this reviewer
Rating 5 kitties
I loved this show! I'd see it twice. It's inventive and high speed and feeds your inner child. PS the original book is out of print and pricey.

Delightful
by Bill Cassidy Follow this reviewer
Rating 4 kitties
I could probably watch this group of actors doing thier taxes and find it amusing. The imaginative use of props and physicality added to the story. While there issues with sight lines and outside noise, I enjoyed the incorporation of the architecture.

One-Ring Circus
by Carl Swanson Follow this reviewer
Rating 2 kitties
It felt like the old Borscht Belt joke about food: The jokes were bad, and I could hardly hear them!

Knowing the kind of physicality Live Action Set is capable of, this adaptation felt frenetic and rushed, without the clarity or articulation to let Gorey's dark tongue-in-cheek jabs shine. The Bring-Your-Own Venue didn't particularly help them, as sitting a few rows back, all the action lower to the ground was lost to sight, the rumble of outside noise often drowned out the performers and not to mention, there was a large girder partially blocking the view. Although there were some sharp & funny moments with M. Zut-Alors’ patter and Kimberly Richardson’s tightrope act, I came with high hopes and left with a twee headache.

playful
by Robyn Hendrix Follow this reviewer
Rating 4 kitties
fun, goofy, adorable, great for kids and adults, cute, playful. celebration of the ingenuity of a childlike imagination. not quite as to-the-heart and deep with meaning as some of the other live action shows I've seen which I guess is why it's not quite 5 kitties for me.

Charmingly Fun Fun
by Todd Bruse Follow this reviewer
Rating 5 kitties
This show is classic audience inclusion. It's like we get to be in on the joke of creating this "Gorey" reality. I so enjoyed seeing this group of actor artists and their stylized high energy attack of cartoon-like story telling. With the simplest of props, colorful bits of costume suggestion and the player's determination to play with our adult disbelief, they created an entertaining and boisterous frolic.
The perfect 3 piece orchestration created a soundscape that offered transportation to the circus while acting as the musical component for the action alla Carl Stalling.
Bring yer kids if you got em (the kids sitting just in front of me occasionally burst into squeals of delight) and leave your reality behind for an hour.

infectious fun
by Daniel Pinkerton Follow this reviewer
Rating 5 kitties
Edward Gorey is sui generis. I love his books. This staging of one of the few stories he actually wrote for children captures the droll spirit of his work, and yet it manages to have its own personality, too. Live Action Set brought imagination, charm, and an amazing physical theatricality to the story. I laughed and laughed. Hats off to the company and director Sara Richardson. Also to Steve the accordionist, playing "Lucille" (that's the name in silver letters on his accordion).

Hope the rest of the 2011 Fringe is this good!

30 minutes was more than enough
by P.E. Kinter Follow this reviewer
Rating 1 kitty
The one kitty is for the actors, who did the best they could with this scrambled mess. If you've ever had 6-year-olds put on a "play" for you that went on and on with no point, you have seen the equivalent of F&Z save the circus.

Madcap Chaos
by Cole Sarar Follow this reviewer
Rating 5 kitties
And yet... such well orchestrated, hilarious, madcap chaos. Each of the players does a wonderful job, the props are perfect, the script charming.

A Must-See
by Gonzo Group Follow this reviewer
Rating 5 kitties
Wonderful. If you're looking for theatricality, you'll find it here! And bring the kids!

Half panto, half farce
by Deb Gunther Follow this reviewer
Rating 2 kitties
OK, first, I have to say I love Edward Gorey. His works are understated and droll, and darkly offbeat. This production transformed "offbeat" into "incomprehensible farce". It was high-energy, full steam ahead from beginning to end, with every line shouted and every gesture overstated. The band was very good, and the costumes were cute. The acoustics were frankly awful, with the Mill City museum conducting tours (loudly) 20 feet away. All in all, I'd ask for less bombast and more nuance in a Gorey show. Go see it if you love Vaudeville. Otherwise, give it a miss.

Surrealistic comic relief
by Jason Dalrymple Follow this reviewer
Rating 4 kitties
Anything written by Edward Gorey is bound to have some tilt your head and say "Wha?" moments. This show turned every "Wha?" into joyous laughter. Combining strong acting, amazing feats of slapstick and physical comedy prowess, and the timely soundtrack from the talented 3-piece band, this show delivered a wonderful adaptation of the Gorey story. The cast and crew used what was a challenging space to their advantage for an altogether fun, quirky hour of laughs.