More Live Shows on Grand Forks Stages

Winter live theatre events in Grand Forks continue, with “Man of La Mancha” now playing at Central High School at 7:30 nightly through Saturday, plus a 2 p.m. matinee this Sunday, March 8. Tickets are $8 for adults and $4 for students and senior citizens.

Also opening this weekend is the Greater Grand Forks Community Theatre’s children’s theatre production of “Alice in Wonderland.” It plays Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Fire Hall Theatre in downtown Grand Forks and continues next weekend as well, with 7:30 p.m. shows March 13-14 and a 2 p.m. matinee March 15. Tickets are $15 for adults, $12 for students and senior citizens, and $10 for children age 12 and younger.

Last week, the UND Department of Theatre presented “Parallel Lives” in its basement “lab” theatre from Tuesday through Saturday, February 24-28. “Parallel Lives” is a two-woman show written and originally performed by Kathy Najimy and Mo Gaffney. Each played numerous different characters (male and female) in a series of skits dealing humorously with a variety of women’s issues. Some of the sketches are more effective than others, but as a group they manage to be alternately (and sometimes simultaneously) funny, thoughtful, and touching.

UND’s version, directed by Gaye Burgess, cast two additional actresses who switched off different episodes. The larger cast also allowed three or four characters to appear on stage at once in some scenes. Kimberly Mortenson and Alyssa Thompson started off the evening as two “supreme beings,” angels involved in the creation of human beings and debating various attributes to give the two sexes. A short time later both portrayed a couple of working class men in a sketch exploring how men might react if they had monthly menstrual periods.

A more bittersweet section, titled “Three Sisters,” dealt with family friction, featuring Kristina B. Syversen as one sister and Iben Haugen as the other two, all attending funeral services for their mother.

One of the funniest segments, “Las Hermanas,” had Alyssa Thompson and Kristina B. Syversen as two middle-aged women enrolled in a women’s studies class and attending a lesbian/feminist performance piece done hilariously by Iben Haugen and Kim Mortenson. Another strong piece was called “Silent Torture,” featuring Mortenson in a solo pantomime of a woman’s elaborate morning ritual between waking up and leaving for work.

The last three sequences of the show took a more serious turn from the earlier portions. “Futon Talk” was a fitfully amusing piece that had Syverson and Thompson as a man and woman who are both insecure in their relationship.

Then Thompson had possibly the most powerful and thought-provoking segment: a monologue piece as a woman protesting an abortion clinic while a shooting occurred inside. Its serious subject was handled both delicately and effectively in a hauntingly ambivalent manner.

The final sketch of the play was another darkly comic, bittersweet look at human relationships, with Mortenson as Hank, a drunken, depressed cowboy in a bar hitting on Haugen as Karen Sue, a tired, depressed alcoholic with a mind of her own, and Syverson as the bartender.

Variety is what college theatre is all about. “Parallel Lives” allowed the four actresses to demonstrate their impressive versatility in characters and accents, and gave the audience the opportunity to see a good example of modern theatre with minimalist use of setting and props.