Below, crazy driver Edwin Strout will have no mercy upon cute little dog Mickaylee Shaughnessy, should she be so unlucky as to cross his path!

Perhaps you are wondering what the show is like. We’ll give it to you in a nutshell: Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend, for much of its length, is like an animated cartoon onstage.*

Surreal comedy. Family-friendly, but very, very weird. Runs all four weekends of April, on Fri & Sat nights at 7, at the Bryant-Lake Bowl. For tickets, call 612.825.8949 or visit www.bryantlakebowl.com.

*Which totally makes sense. Winsor McCay, creator of the comic strip, was also a pioneer of animated film, and many of the tropes of animated cartoons can be traced directly back to Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend.

…at the Bryant-Lake Bowl during performances of Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend. Bring your appetite!

The above is an image of rarebit found on the Internet. What lands on your plate may not look exactly like this. But you’ll be eating it at the BLB, so it’ll be delicious!

DREAMS OF THE RAREBIT FIEND
based on the early 20th-century comic strip by Winsor McCay

April 4, 5, 11, 12, 18, 19, 25, 26
Friday & Saturday evenings at 7
Bryant-Lake Bowl Theater

A giant mosquito wants to play tag…
Two scarecrows speak lyrically of their love…
A man is turned into sausages and transported via telegraph…

Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend is the most surreal show Hardcover Theater has ever created.

The premise is simple: At bedtime, a man eats rarebit – a fried cheese dish – which gives him indigestion, which causes nightmares. Over and over again. And in those nightmares, anything can happen…

Check out the Wikipedia page for the comic strip:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_of_the_Rarebit_Fiend
It’s crazy stuff! And no one has ever put it onstage. Until now.

written & directed by Steve Schroer

featuring Ware Carlton-Ford, Eric Cohen, Jason Kruger, Mickaylee Shaughnessy, Alissa Shellito, and Edwin Strout

music composed & performed by Jamie Fassett-Carman

costumes by Lisa Conley

…God Rest Ye Scary Gentlemen 2?

Is it the same as last year’s show?
No. We’ve adapted four new stories, and this year the show is fully staged.

Who’s in it?
An excellent cast: Kyler Chase, Eric Cohen, Dawn Krosnowski, Jason Kruger, and Arnie Roos. Live music by Jamie Fassett-Carman, keyboardist and composer, who did the music for Pollyanna last spring. Costumes by Amanda Jaeger. Stage managed by Heather Baldwin.

What’s the flavor of the show?
Comedy. Lots of verbal wit, but plenty of physical stuff, too. It’s not really scary at all, though there are a fair number of dead body jokes. A family show even if you’re not the Addams Family.

What are the stories?

• “The Inexperienced Ghost” by H.G. Wells. Scaring people takes practice. For many of the stories we adapt, we have to make up new endings. Not this time – Wells gives us a great one.
• “Mr Tilly’s Seance” by E.F. Benson. An English gentleman does not allow sudden death to alter his plans. We apologize for the horribly anachronistic musical pun we’ve inserted into this piece.
• “The Black Poodle” by F. Anstey. Can a dog come back from the grave? Since we’re asking the question, you may infer that the answer is yes. Delightfully goofy.
• “Teig O’Kane and the Corpse,” an Irish folk tale. A wild young fellow finds it difficult to bury a body. No, he’s not a murderer – the Little People, for reasons of their own, have assigned him the task. Featuring puppetry, of a sort.

To the best of our knowledge, none of these stories has ever before been adapted for the stage (though Hardcover presented “The Inexperienced Ghost” in Reader’s Theater format seven years ago).

God Rest Ye Scary Gentlemen 2
a sequel to last year’s Christmas ghost stories show
with four new stories

Fri Nov 29 @ 7 pm
Sat Nov 30 @ 7 pm
Sun Dec 1 @ 6 pm
Sat Dec 7 @ 7 pm
Sun Dec 8 @ 6 pm
Sun Dec 15 @ 6 pm
Sun Dec 22 @ 6 pm

Bryant-Lake Bowl Theater, 810 W. Lake St., Mpls
$15      $12 in advance or with Fringe button       $6 kids 12 and under
For reservations, call 612.825.8949 or visit www.bryantlakebowl.com.

Dawn Krosnowski as Aunt Polly and Bethany Simmons as Pollyanna

Bethany Simmons as Pollyanna

(L-R) Cody Stewart, Leah Isaacson, Jason Kruger, Kelvin Hatle, and Dawn Krosnowski as the Ladies’ Aid Society.

Hardcover Theater presents
a defiantly unironic production of

POLLYANNA

March 28/29/30, April 4/5/6, April 11/12/13
Thursday/Friday/Saturday nights at 7
Bryant-Lake Bowl Theater

We know: It isn’t the most…obvious idea for a show. For an explanation, go here.

For reservations and tickets, go here.

Hope to see you at the show!