Art Hounds: Pennyroyal, art collector art, and a play about the last passenger pigeon on earth
A stylistically flexible indie rock band, absurdist theater about a passenger pigeon trying to ward off extinction, and a view of art patronage at a Minneapolis gallery, all caught the hounds attention this week.
Minneapolis theater maker Victoria Pyan can't decide what was more stimulating about Swandive Theatre's "An Outopia for Pigeons": the amazingly cluttered set, or the eccentric, hilarious performances of the actors. The original play, by local playwright Justin Maxwell, is about Martha Washington, the last passenger pigeon on earth, who teams up with Cotton Mather and Charles Bronson, the vengeful sperm whale, to save her species. At the People's Center Theater in Minneapolis through Nov. 22.
The Soo Visual Art Center's latest exhibition "Collect Call," exalts the spirit and patronage of eight different local art collectors, and Minneapolis photographer Erik Thomsen found it to be thoroughly satisfying. "Collect Call" focuses on what's contained in those collections and in some cases how the collector's tastes and buying habits evolved or changed directions. At Soo VAC through Nov. 17.
Pennyroyal has occasionally been described as the best local band you've never heard of, and St. Paul arts writer Ira Brooker agrees with that assessment. Ira says frontwoman Angie Oase has a magnetic stage presence and the band is musically conversant in a number of different styles. Pennyroyal will be celebrating the release of its new album, "Baby, I'm Against it," at Icehouse in Minneapolis, Nov. 19.
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