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Weekend Arts Roundup: Multilingual cabaret and Shakespeare riffs

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by Marianne Combs

May 28, 2015

Theatre Unbound's 'Hamlet'
Laura Mahler and Kathryn Fumie in Theatre Unbound's Hamlet
Richard Fleischmann/Courtesy of Theatre Unbound

MPR News Arts Reporter Marianne Combs joins Jill Riley and Sean McPherson to talk about a multilingual cabaret and two takes on Shakespeare classics, Hamlet and Twelfth Night.

Anything but English: A Multilingual Cabaret — With two different lineups for its two-night run, Anything but English: A Multilingual Cabaret features artists whose first language is, well, anything but English! The shows will present works about mother tongues, global appetites and the ways we are lost (and found) in translation. Anything but English: A Multilingual Cabaret runs May 29 and 30 at Patrick's Cabaret in Minneapolis.

Hamlet — Onstage at the JSB Tek Box at the Cowles Center, Theatre Unbound's production of Shakespeare's classic Hamlet features an all-female cast — a nice riff on Shakespeare's day when the performers were all men. The all-white, sparse staging allows for some beautiful lighting design and actors to be seen even when they aren't in the scene. If you haven't seen a Shakespeare play before, this would be a great introduction. Hamlet runs through May 31 at the Cowles Center in Minneapolis.

The Twelfth Night — Where Hamlet is in its last week of production and features an all-female cast, Mu Performing Arts' take on Shakespeare's brother-sister shipwreck classic opens this weekend and features an Asian-American cast. Over at the Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis, the actors transpose their own cultural references into the production. The Twelfth Night runs May 29 to June 14 at the Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis.

Marianne Combs joins The Current's Morning Show for the Weekend Arts Roundup every Thursday at 8:30 a.m. Read all the latest arts news from MPR News.