Eelpout

by Paul William Kruse

Sven Svensen and Ole Olsen have been best buds since kindergarten, and they put up with Lars Larsen because his daddy has a pretty nice ice house. When Ole up and decides to marry Lena Lingen, Sven feels like he’s losing his best friend. In a drunken morning of manly mishap, Sven and Ole question their thirty-year friendship as they wrestle with what a man is supposed to want. Maybe there’s more to living than...

Sven Svensen and Ole Olsen have been best buds since kindergarten, and they put up with Lars Larsen because his daddy has a pretty nice ice house. When Ole up and decides to marry Lena Lingen, Sven feels like he’s losing his best friend. In a drunken morning of manly mishap, Sven and Ole question their thirty-year friendship as they wrestle with what a man is supposed to want. Maybe there’s more to living than what our daddies knew.

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Eelpout

Recommended by

  • DJ Hills: Eelpout

    Simultaneously side-splitting hilarious and deeply tender. A comedy of errors intertwines with heartfelt conversations about love versus companionship. This play is a beautiful ode to the Midwest, queerness, and complicated expressions of masculine affection. Moments of exciting theatricality demand that this play be produced for a live audience--for which I will be first in line to grab a ticket!

    Simultaneously side-splitting hilarious and deeply tender. A comedy of errors intertwines with heartfelt conversations about love versus companionship. This play is a beautiful ode to the Midwest, queerness, and complicated expressions of masculine affection. Moments of exciting theatricality demand that this play be produced for a live audience--for which I will be first in line to grab a ticket!

  • Asher de Forest: Eelpout

    I was lucky enough to be in the room for a workshop of this--the great Minnesota-man comedy I didn't know I'd been waiting for--and I dream of seeing it fully staged in all its screwball, absurd, queer in every sense of the word glory. Under the hilarious surface, this play gets the sadness of midwest bros, and also the sweetness, the poetry of their speech, and the too often unexplored space for their desires beyond what seems set for them. All this guy praise isn't to ignore the women and the fish, all of whom I will not spoil!

    I was lucky enough to be in the room for a workshop of this--the great Minnesota-man comedy I didn't know I'd been waiting for--and I dream of seeing it fully staged in all its screwball, absurd, queer in every sense of the word glory. Under the hilarious surface, this play gets the sadness of midwest bros, and also the sweetness, the poetry of their speech, and the too often unexplored space for their desires beyond what seems set for them. All this guy praise isn't to ignore the women and the fish, all of whom I will not spoil!

  • Nick Malakhow: Eelpout

    Hilarious, fantastical, and poignant piece exploring love, friendship, masculinity, queerness, and how one's identity is tied to place and home. The theatrical vocabulary and world of this piece is so distinct and consistent throughout, and the heightened world is established quickly and escalated well so that it doesn't seem out of the ordinary for anthropomorphized fish to start talking and an uber-theatrical dream ballet-orgy-murder to occur. Beneath the bombast and intensity, Sven and Ole's relationship is recognizable in its yearning and ache. The moment between Sven and Lena at the end...

    Hilarious, fantastical, and poignant piece exploring love, friendship, masculinity, queerness, and how one's identity is tied to place and home. The theatrical vocabulary and world of this piece is so distinct and consistent throughout, and the heightened world is established quickly and escalated well so that it doesn't seem out of the ordinary for anthropomorphized fish to start talking and an uber-theatrical dream ballet-orgy-murder to occur. Beneath the bombast and intensity, Sven and Ole's relationship is recognizable in its yearning and ache. The moment between Sven and Lena at the end is wonderful. It's also freaking hilarious.