Minneapolis residents have a fresh cultural offering this weekend as playwright Marcie Rendon brings her long‑awaited drama “Sweet Revenge” to the stage of Red Eye Theater. The world premiere runs from Friday, Oct. 9 through Saturday, Oct. 17, with performances at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Admission follows a pay‑what‑you‑can model, and free tickets are available for those who need them.
From Drawer to Stage
Rendon, a native of northern Minnesota, first drafted the script over two decades ago. The story lingered in a drawer, centered on an inner‑city Native American family living next to an ice‑cream‑truck serial killer. While attending a writing retreat, a new character—Granny Josephine—appeared on the page, and the narrative finally clicked.
Granny Josephine, a survivor of an American Indian boarding school, now shares a modest apartment with Maggie, a middle‑aged mother juggling bills and caring for two grandchildren. When a serial‑killer investigation reaches their building, Maggie is thrust into a chaotic hunt, blending crime‑fiction thrills with the everyday challenges of urban life.
Rendon’s Creative Roots
Rendon’s love of crime novels—she calls them “airport novels”—draws inspiration from authors such as Lee Child, John Sandford, Stephen King and Jonathan Kellerman. Her own Cash Blackbear series, launched in 2017, follows a young Ojibwe woman solving murders on reservations across North Dakota and Minnesota.
Her theatrical journey began in the late 1990s with a workshop at Spiderwoman Theater, the nation’s longest‑running Indigenous theater company. “I grew up in northern Minnesota and didn’t know that real theater existed,” Rendon recalled. “Seeing those women on stage showed me that theater was a possibility for someone like me.”
Production Team and Community Impact
“Sweet Revenge” is produced in partnership with Mni Giizhik Theatre Ensemble and Exposed Brick Theatre. Director Sequoia Hauck and assistant director Samuel Osborne‑Huerta guide the cast and crew in bringing the story to life.
Rendon hopes the play will give Minnesota audiences a clearer view of what it means to navigate daily life under the shadow of generational trauma. “Things can be absurd, and in the Native community there’s a lot of humor,” she said. “Sometimes the only response to hardship is to make a joke, laugh, and move on.”
Indigenous Peoples’ Day Weekend Activities
Beyond the theater, the Twin Cities are hosting a weekend of Indigenous cultural events. In Maplewood, the Battle Creek Recreation Center and Regional Park will hold workshops on corn‑husk dolls, hand drums, candles, and herbal medicine. The Saturday festival includes a youth basketball tournament, Native food trucks, an arts market, and a career fair. Sunday offers a 5K run, a one‑mile walk, powwow dancing lessons, nettle weaving, and quilling workshops.
St. Paul’s East Side will host the first Hmong & Lao Heritage Festival on Saturday, Oct. 10, at Tou Ger Picnic Island in Phalen Regional Park. The event honors late Hmong‑American artist Tou Ger Xiong, who was killed in Colombia in 2023. Attendees can enjoy a fashion show, traditional dances from Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos and Japan, and a variety of Asian street foods.
Practical Details
Red Eye Theater is located at 2213 Snelling Ave., Minneapolis. For the play, tickets are available on a pay‑what‑you‑can basis, with free tickets distributed on a first‑come, first‑served basis. More information about the production can be found at exposedbricktheatre.ticketspice.com/sweet-revenge.
The Indigenous Peoples’ Day events in Maplewood and St. Paul are free to the public. Schedules and additional details are posted on the respective Facebook event pages.
Original reporting: Sahan Journal — read the source article.
