The Rake, Minneapolis

”A Cupboard Full of Hate Off-Leash Area at Old Arizona Center for Performing Arts, January 4 - February 4”

One of the most beguiling shows of the past year, A Cupboard Full of Hate, is a thoroughly Frenchified thing, performed in a style that's light on dialogue and heavy on visual tricks. Off-Leash Area's artistic director, the Paris-schooled Paul Herwig, plays a fitful old geezer who so vigorously hates the world that he locks himself in a cupboard, where he passes eternity inventorying and reordering his stock. While that may not seem like the kind of heartwarming fare that befits a bone-chilling January evening, rest assured this show does inspire a few cathartic chortles. And it's beautiful! Silent film starlets, little girls, and other figments of the old man's imagination emerge from claustrophobic, Joseph Cornell-style memory boxes.