MPR News Arts Reporter Marianne Combs joins Jill Riley and Sean McPherson (in for Steve Seel) to talk about a couple of theater productions that provide historic insights, one of which Marianne says is "something I've never seen the likes of before."

The Reagan Years — At the Playwrights' Center, this production by Workhaus Collective is written by local playwright Dominic Orlando and it is set set in the late 1980s. The story centers on four college buddies who are about to graduate and the ambiguous morality that goes with those years. Reviews describe it as "A gripping and unpredictable evening" and "A subtly ironic portrait of the ethos of an era." Marianne says it might be a good show "for those who want to look back, maybe not so sentimentally, on the late '80s." Productions run through Saturday.

Quiet As It's Kept — This performance looks at African American cultural history, and it features vocal performances by Thomasina Petrus together with modern dance and figure skating. "It's something I've never seen the likes of before," Marianne says. "I'm pretty fascinating by it." Shows are Friday and Saturday at the Victory Memorial Ice Arena 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.

Related

• Playwrights' Center
• Victory Memorial Ice Arena