The Guthrie theater, one of Minnesota’s many prestigious art entertainment centers, is still going strong after over 60 years in business. Its founders, Tyron Guthrie, Oliver Rea, and Peter Zeisler let their legacy live on with every performance that has graced the theater’s stage. The performances always leave the audiences coming back for more, ever since the first show in 1963. Today, theatergoers see a mural of Tyron Guthrie welcoming them at the entrance, putting a face to a name behind one of the biggest cultural contributions to the state.
Tyron Guthrie was a significant theater arts director in the 1920s and 1930s. He began his career with the BBC, becoming one of the first writers to create plays for radio performance. Among them being, the Romance of Canada, a series of radio plays for recalling epic moments in Canadian history. Guthrie later directed outstanding renditions of operas, such as a realistic version of Carmen at Sadler’s Wells and the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
In 1959, Guthrie put out a small paragraph in the drama page of the New York Times, inviting cities to help him construct a resident theater company. He envisioned a theater focused on conducting great works of literature, while also cultivating its artists, and audiences. Guthrie felt that Broadway had more priority mandating shows that must be immediately successful at high ticket prices.In the theater industry today, theaters produce shows in ways that will best please overall, as opposed to productions seen at the Guthrie. Tyron Guthrie had hoped to bring the most spectacular of the theater arts beyond broadway. Seven cities responded to the paragraph, including Minneapolis, which stood out to Guthrie, as he claimed it was in “the heartland of America”, and there was enthusiasm for the theater in the upper Midwest. After many fundraising projects, and a few years of construction, the Guthrie opened its doors in 1963, where audiences marveled at its first production of Hamlet.
In 2023, the Guthrie theater had a second run of Hamlet to celebrate 60 years, and it was met with much praise. Critics proclaimed that it was “Tremendously entertaining” and “Ultimately thrilling.” To this day, the Guthrie continues to live up to its overall purpose of bringing fantastic Broadway shows to Midwest audiences, at reasonable prices, with tickets starting as cheap as $35. This can be seen earlier in their 2024 season, with an adapted version of Dial M for Murder.
Dial M for Murder is one of the most well known thriller plays of all time. In 1952, audiences in New York filled to Broadway, eager for the drama and betrayal it assured. In 1954, those same audiences filled the movie theaters for the premier of the movie adaptation, brought to screen by Alfred Hitchcock himself, also known as “the master of suspense”.
The play is set in the ‘50s, in the living room of the Wendice’s flat in London. With a cast of six, including Margot and Tony Wendice, the play starts off on a drab melancholy evening, with Margot and her friend Maxine chatting over a glass of whiskey. It is later revealed that the two had an affair behind Tony’s back. However Tony knew, as he preaches to an old college mate, Lesgate, a convicted criminal, during scene two. With greed and revenge, Tony then blackmails Lesgate into murdering Margot for a considerable sum.
The character of Maxine was originally male, named Mark, but that was changed for the 2024 adaptation. The play does not disappoint. There are so many plot twists, as the characters manipulate each other to try to unravel the lies.
Some affordable and promising shows for the upcoming 2024 season are as follows:
“On Beckett”, a tribute to the literary legend Samuel Beckett. It is a one man show, Beckett being directed and performed by Bill Irwin. Critics say it is a nonstop verbal and physical comedy.
“Richard the Second, Henry the Fourth, and Henry the Fifth”, Directed by Joseph Haj, is a three play event that will immerse audiences into Shakespeare’s drama about the examination of power.
“Skeleton Crew”, Directed by Austene Morisseau, is an acclaimed American drama that touches on the effects of the Great Recession in 2008. It takes place in the once glorified “motor city”, in which an auto factory faces foreclosure, affecting the employees who have invested so much faith into they’re company.
“Little Shop of Horrors”, Directed by Alan Menken, Is a delightful comedy musical about a florist shop on skid row. In an attempt to save the shop from closing, Seymore, the shop’s employee, finds an exotic flytrap in hopes it will boost business.
“English”, Directed by Sanza Toossi, is a play with humor and heart. It takes place in Karaj, Iran, about an educator named Marjan that courageously helps her four students pass an all English language test, and what they learn about each other in the process is even more valuable.
For more information, or to buy tickets, visit the Guthries website: guthrietheater.org
