2.5 Minute Ride @ MN Jewish Theater Co.
By Tad Simons
It’s often assumed that when times are tough, theater companies lean on one-actor shows to save money. But when the one actor is Guthrie veteran Sally Wingert, ridding the stage of extra people just means it’s easier to focus on, and appreciate, Wingert’s extraordinary skills.
In the Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company’s 2.5 Minute Ride, by Lisa Kron, audiences have a chance to enjoy Wingert’s genius up close and personal. The theater at the Hillcrest Center in St. Paul only has a couple hundred seats, but it’s the perfect size for this play, which is set in the living room of a woman, Lisa, who is narrating a slideshow about her attempt to shoot a video of her aging father. The story cuts back and forth according to which slide pops up, and encompases three interrelated tales: a visit to Germany with her Holocaust-survivor father, her family’s trip to an amusement park to ride the rollercoasters, and her brother’s marriage to a woman he met on the Internet.
The intimate theater setting makes it feel as if the audience really is in Lisa’s living room, and the stories she tells—of her father, her brother, and her family—are classic tragicomic Americana. Her father, for instance, has every bodily condition that the sign at the amusement park says is a no-no—diabetes, high-blood pressure, heart condition, etc.—but he insists on doing the “Devil’s Drop,” which lasts two-and-a-half minutes and is where the title of the play comes from.
But what really propels the show is Wingert’s command of the stage. Her every move and gesture breathes imaginative life into the characters in the story, especially her imitation of the German father. Lisa is essentially just narrating a slideshow, but, as directed by Beth Cleary, Wingert makes you feel as if you are sitting in the living room of an old friend, listening to stories so quirky and sad they must be real. As the narrative cuts back and forth between the family in America and the visit to Auschwitz, a profound lesson in survival and tolerance also emerges, as well as a viewpoint on the Nazi holocaust that is quite unexpected from a persecuted Jew.
Funny, poignant, thoughtful and wise, 2.5 Minute Ride is a ninety-minute journey well worth taking.
2.5 Minute Ride continues at the Hillcrest Center theater, 1978 Ford Parkway, St. Paul, 651-647-4315, mnjewishtheatre.org
In the Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company’s 2.5 Minute Ride, by Lisa Kron, audiences have a chance to enjoy Wingert’s genius up close and personal. The theater at the Hillcrest Center in St. Paul only has a couple hundred seats, but it’s the perfect size for this play, which is set in the living room of a woman, Lisa, who is narrating a slideshow about her attempt to shoot a video of her aging father. The story cuts back and forth according to which slide pops up, and encompases three interrelated tales: a visit to Germany with her Holocaust-survivor father, her family’s trip to an amusement park to ride the rollercoasters, and her brother’s marriage to a woman he met on the Internet.
The intimate theater setting makes it feel as if the audience really is in Lisa’s living room, and the stories she tells—of her father, her brother, and her family—are classic tragicomic Americana. Her father, for instance, has every bodily condition that the sign at the amusement park says is a no-no—diabetes, high-blood pressure, heart condition, etc.—but he insists on doing the “Devil’s Drop,” which lasts two-and-a-half minutes and is where the title of the play comes from.
But what really propels the show is Wingert’s command of the stage. Her every move and gesture breathes imaginative life into the characters in the story, especially her imitation of the German father. Lisa is essentially just narrating a slideshow, but, as directed by Beth Cleary, Wingert makes you feel as if you are sitting in the living room of an old friend, listening to stories so quirky and sad they must be real. As the narrative cuts back and forth between the family in America and the visit to Auschwitz, a profound lesson in survival and tolerance also emerges, as well as a viewpoint on the Nazi holocaust that is quite unexpected from a persecuted Jew.
Funny, poignant, thoughtful and wise, 2.5 Minute Ride is a ninety-minute journey well worth taking.
2.5 Minute Ride continues at the Hillcrest Center theater, 1978 Ford Parkway, St. Paul, 651-647-4315, mnjewishtheatre.org
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