Amazons and Their Men

The hall of mirrors is always firmly in place whenever an artist strives to create when her or his nation is at war. What hasn't been sorted out here in the homeland are the precise implications between our cultural life and our on-again, off-again rhetoric of wartime footing. Leave it to Walking Shadow, a small company with an increasingly distinguished pedigree (last year's incisive Fat Pig, this spring's smartly political The American Pilot, and 2008 Fringe blockbuster Shakespeare's Land of the Dead) to take a shot. Jordan Harrison's short comic interlude is inspired by the life and work of Nazi iconographic filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, who famously ironed out the contradictions of her own time by creating beautiful works that celebrated the despicable. It tells the story of a woman filming an epic about an Amazon warrior falling in love with Achilles, though much of the pertinent action takes place when the cameras aren't rolling. Playwright Harrison has carved out a niche exploring the dynamic between the surfaces of life and the narrative mythos that has a stubborn habit of poking through. Director Amy Rummenie offers a final note of recommendation: "For a play dealing with issues of the Third Reich, it's awfully funny," she says. As always, we'll take our laughs where we can find them. For tickets call 612.375.0300.
Thursdays-Saturdays, 7:30 p.m.; Sundays, 3 p.m.; Mon., Oct. 20, 7:30 p.m. Starts: Oct. 17. Continues through Oct. 26, 2008