Author: rakemag

Most would agree that finding humor in 9/11 seems nigh-impossible. But humor is too essential—to the human condition and to our need to cope with the enormity of the disaster—to discard entirely. That Craig Wright found a way both to be funny and to face the great darkness at the heart of 9/11 is remarkable; that he wrote the script the week after the towers fell is nothing short of amazing. Events, briefly, is a 9/11 romantic comedy that concerns a blind date on 9/12, and mixes heavy drama with such absurd touches as a sock puppet that role-plays Joyce Carol Oates. This bold concept opened to mixed reviews in New York last year (perhaps largely because of Heather Graham’s performance in the lead role). But between director Bain Boehlke and the Jungle’s long relationship with Wright—they’ve produced every one of his previous works—there’s probably no other theater with a better understanding of how to stage Wright’s work. Wright setting his play in Minneapolis is an added bonus—here, perhaps, is the first significant theatrical work about 9/11 to come from a Midwestern perspective. 2951 Lyndale Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-822-7063; www.jungletheater.com

If you want to catch a rising star, this is a good place to look. The venerable Second City comedy troupe, in business since 1959, is easily America’s most prolific source of comedy talent. Besides Belushi, Candy, Murray, Radner and the rest of the Saturday Night Live and SCTV crew you probably already know about, Second City’s given us folks like Alan Arkin, Robert Klein, and more recently, Mike Myers and Tina Fey. The young comics that’ll be working their improv magic at the O’Shaughnessy might be unknowns now, but in five years, they might be starring in the next Blues Brothers. (Or the next It’s Pat, but let’s hope not.) 2004 Randolph Ave., St. Paul; 651-989-5151

The Jungle and Craig Wright aren’t the only theatrical team tackling 9/11 this month. The Illusion’s Northern Lights project, in fact, is an admirably ambitious affair, staging eleven plays that grapple with the meaning of that pivotal event of our time, all newly commissioned and selected from among eighty contenders. The works include Newsday columnist Jimmy Breslin’s drama about a man haunted by the disappearance of a neighbor he barely knew, and a selection of Minnesota playwrights, including Anne Dimock’s Woman Bakes American Flag Cake—a tweak of the Onion’s 9/11 issue. 528 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis; 612-339-4944; www.illusiontheater.org

Considered one of Chekhov’s best—if shortest—plays, The Cherry Orchard’s mix of comedy, tragedy and romance in in turn-of-the-century Russia is still relevant, given the hardships that continue to plague the country. Madame Ranevskaya leaves her no-good husband in Paris and returns to her homeland estate to tend to its beautiful orchard. She struggles with money, unable to give up her lavish habits, and soon feels the pressure of the feudal system shifting around her. In a twist of irony, the son of the peasant who used to tend the land now might buy it out from under her—taking the cherries and leaving her the pits. Chekhov masterfully juggles a huge cast of characters, each flawed and heroic in his or her own way, so the audience must suffer and sympathize equally with each one. Theater in the Round’s set—it’s round, you know—facilitates this by offering perspectives from all angles. 245 Cedar Ave., Minneapolis; 612-333-3010; www.theatreintheround.org

The publication of political books is coming so thick and fast that you’d be forgiven for wondering if a recent NEA study, the one about the decline of reading in America, just plain got it wrong. Among them is the paperback release of Molly Ivins’ best-selling Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush’s America, with an author tour cannily timed to add to the heat under Bush’s (seemingly fireproof) ass. The policy-oriented sleuthing of Ivins and co-author Lou Dubose connects the struggles of average people over the past forty-three months to actions taken—or withheld—by the Bush administration. An elderly Philadelphian who died of listeriosis illuminates USDA policies regarding the meatpacking industry; a high-school student in Texas gets “Bushwhacked” twice by No Child Left Behind rigamarole; and a single mother represents millions of pre- and post-9/11 unemployed who fell through the cracks during the great jobless recovery. In these and more than a dozen other tales as witty as they are well-researched, the authors pointedly note that culture wars, smoking, lifestyles, religion, etc. are all distractions from the basic fight at hand: “It is about who’s getting screwed, and who’s doing the screwing. And anybody who tells you different is lying for money.” Additional nuggets of common sense will surely be dispensed at the reading. Galleria, 3225 W. 69th St., Edina; 952-920-0633; www.bn.com

Truly smart poetry, with its seductive surfaces, sometimes risks the hollow note. But the poems in Earthling, the first book from Minneapolis poet Steve Healey (just published by Coffee House Press), display a heart that beats with the iambic resonance of a credible soul. Intelligent, playful, and fast-moving, they also contain a sense of genuine wonder and the power to astonish again and again; when least expected, Healey reaches deftly down into the achingly human: “Something sharp and soft, / a turning corner that didn’t say good-bye, / there’s a reason for being gone.” These are poems with a sensibility of quiet humor, startling inversion, and depth: “A backwards escape artist, the way clothes / wear us, it takes detergent to wash us out.” Healey reads from Earthling as part of the Rain Taxi Reading Series. 110 5th Ave. S.E., Minneapolis; www.soapfactory.org

One of our favorite second novels is Wilton Barnhardt’s Gospel, a rollicking, world-spanning adventure starring a couple of hapless and deeply flawed archaeologists. Reading The Egyptologist, the second novel by Minneapolis-born Phillips, brought back good memories of Gospel, perhaps only because of a superficial similarity in setting and the fact that both books are damn good reads. The intricate plot of The Egyptologist revolves around a naively delusional tomb raider named Ralph Trilipush (try anagramming that), who disappears in 1922 while searching for the burial site of Pharaoh Atum-hadu, whose name is spelled in pornographic hieroglyphics and may be a hoax. Clueless Ralph, however, seems less interested in his expedition than in designing the cover of the best-seller he plans to write when he becomes famous. Author Phillips has a chameleonic prose style and caustic sense of humor, which is especially potent in the book’s surprising ending. His facility with puzzles—not surprising in a five-time Jeopardy! champion—only makes the book more intriguing. 1500 Grand Ave., St. Paul; 651-646-2665; www.boundtoberead.com

Ellroy. Tough-guy writer. L.A. noir. Calls himself Demon Dog. Uses short sentences. Not even complete ones. Sounds tougher that way. (Not faking toughness—see here? In new book? Page 115. Right—his mug shot.) Sure, he wrote L.A. Confidential. Still, not his fault about Kim Basinger winning Oscar when she can’t act. New book, this Destination: Morgue! thing—some nonfiction, some short stories. Some old but most new. Three new novellas, that’s good. Plus screeds on death penalty, boxing, Robert Blake. Better read it. Otherwise Ellroy might get mad. What, you gonna make something of it? I’m talkin’ to you! Available September 14

“Be on the alert to recognize your prime at whatever time of your life it may occur.” So once said the author of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Spark has enjoyed quite a prime herself, having just published her twenty-second novel. The Finishing School is a story of literary competition and love affairs set at an eccentric Swiss school called College Sunrise. This is a place where the rich send their wayward offspring who haven’t yet found a more traditional institution of higher learning, and it’s where novels are written (or not), and where jealous rages about said novels abound. By all reports, the aging Spark has not lost her ability to tap into the perverse, and even heading into her tenth decade, her legendary wit and insights into human psychology are as sharp as ever. Available September 21

Wisconsin author McCown follows up his previous War Memorials with this marvelously sardonic satire of seat-of-the-pants, renegade journalism. As a boy in Alabama, Taylor Wakefield watches his no-count cousin commit a murder—and then later suffers a humiliating defeat in the National Spelling Bee by screwing up the word “responsibility.” When, years later, his cousin accuses an innocent man of the killing he’s responsible for, Taylor’s long-suppressed moral outrage finally erupts, and he uses his meager position as a forecaster on a small, syndicated TV station in Birmingham to try to subtly clue in his viewers to the truth. Available September 1