REVIEW: Old Creamery serves up serious fun

Posted on Sep 10, 2009 by Diana Nollen.

By Diana Nollen

The Gazette

AMANA — Dontcha be minding the title. It’s a shurbetcha audiences will quickly embrace the quirky characters in “Don’t Hug Me,” playing through Oct. 11 at the Old Creamery Theatre, 39 38th Ave.

(Old Creamery Theatre photo) Cast members huddle around the karoke machine in the Old Creamery Theatre Company’s production of "Don’t Hug Me." The musical comedy stars (from left) Jeff Haffner of Cleveland, Ohio, as Kanute; Marquetta Senters of South Amana as Clara; James Fleming of New York as Gunner; T.J. Besler of Manchester as Aarvid; and Amber Snyder of Memphis, Tenn., as Bernice.

Billed on its Web site as “a love story with singin’ and stuff,” this comedy set in the dead of winter in the northwoods of Ely, Minn., had Thursday’s opening crowd howling with laughter.

All five cast members speak with a Norwegian singsong accent that adds to the merriment during a two-hour romp through the meaning of “it’s so cold …”

The action takes place in The Bunyan, a little bar sporting one of the best sets I’ve seen at the Creamery in recent memory. Nearly every square inch is used at some point, as well as all the rustic set decorations, from the antler coat rack to the deer rifle. The costumes are fun, as well, reflecting a northwoods/backwoods chic.

Marquetta Senters and James Fleming provide the bickering backbone as long-married couple and bar owners Clara and Gunner. He wants to sell the place and move to Florida. She wants to stay put.

The younger generation features shy Bunyan cook Bernice (Amber Snyder) and her lovable lunk of a fiance, Kanute (Jeff Haffner). Both play their parts with aplomb and provide the musical highlights of the show, with her “I Wanna Go to the Mall of America” and his “You’re My Woman.”

Trouble’s a brewing long before karaoke salesman Aarvid arrives, but he taps into their inner turmoils, bringing them all to a head. T.J. Besler is delightful at every turn as a master manipulator wrapped in nerd’s clothing.

The action is punctuated by songs in a variety of pop culture styles, as written by local folk hero Sven Jorgensen. “I’m a Walleye Woman in a Crappie Town” gets my vote for best song title ever. What makes these songs work is that the cast members sing them in all seriousness. A special nod goes to Fleming for his lovely ballad, “Last Night I Dreamed.”

Beneath it all runs an undercurrent of truth that everyone who’s ever been in a relationship can relate to.

This is one show that’s seriously funny.

ARTS EXTRA

What: “Don’t Hug Me”

Where: Old Creamery Theatre, 39 38th Ave., Amana

When: Through Oct. 11

Show times: 3 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays; 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 3 p.m. Sundays.

Tickets: $26.50 adults, $17.50 under age 30 through 1-(800) 35-AMANA, (319) 622-6194 or go to www.oldcreamery.com