Saturday, June 13, 10pm - Midnight
Walker Art Center, Cargill Lounge

Rain Taxi "Revue" and the Walker Art Center present a one-of-a-kind event for 2015's Northern Spark! Author Michael Friedman and local players (dubbed for this one night as the Rain Taxi “Revue”) will perform short scenes from his new book, Martian Dawn & Other Novels. An omnibus collection of Friedman’s hilarious 2006 cult novel Martian Dawn and two equally off-kilter new works, Are We Done Here? and On My Way to See You, this trio of short novels tackles stardom, science fiction, movies, love affairs, twins, French people, writing colonies, parenting, missionaries, murder, and holograms—and that’s just for starters!

The Rain Taxi "Revue" players are: Bill Gamble, Dylan Hicks, Anne Labovitz, and Mo Perry.

Friedman has converted scenes from his novels into “playlets” for this one-night only performance, and these brief vignettes will be performed in three different mini-sets between 10 pm and midnight at the Walker Art Center’s “Freight Elevator Theater” (Cargill Lounge). The settings for the “playlets” include a space station, an artist’s studio, a doctor’s office, the Minneapolis landmark Nye’s Polonaise Room, and more! Join us during your Northern Spark wander for a late night of literature made strange—you might wake up on Mars.

“Like soft-porn ‘Pop’ holographs crossed with Simenon, Socrates and reality TV produced by a punk Ivy Compton-Burnett, Michael Friedman’s novels are analytical, fun to read and profoundly nourishing. He takes fiction seriously by not taking it seriously. Post-fiction, post-poetry, Friedman’s buff concoctions offer bliss for hyper-aesthetic grownups: low-stress foreplay, high-brow tickling and Zen giggles.”
—Wayne Koestenbaum

“Michael Friedman’s metrosexuals are direct descendants of characters in Ronald Firbank and Ivy Compton-Burnett. Their wisecracking rises consistently to the level of poetry.”
—John Ashbery