ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

Hit men and jilted lovers meet "Minnesota Nice" in award winning playwright C. Denby Swanson’s extremely odd and delightful Fargo-ish dark comedy, The Norwegians. A New York Times Critics Choice during both its off Broadway and off-off Broadway runs, The Norwegians follows two women scorned in Minnesota and the really, really nice gangsters - Norwegian hit men - they hire to whack their ex-lovers. Olive is a transplant from Texas and Betty is a transplant from Kentucky, but neither of them was prepared for the Norwegian men they would fall in love with there: the practical, warm, thoughtful, destructive, evil, jilting kind - who ultimately need to be killed. The Norwegians is the first outright comedy by playwright Swanson, a Texas native. In it, she applies film noir and mob movie genres to life in Minnesota, whose winters she endured for a few years. Her prior plays have mostly been dramedies. She explains the rest just had to have something funny in them to make the tragedy go down better. ("I tend to write about death," she says, "you have to put funny in them").

FunHouse Productions is delighted to present the Indianapolis premiere of this quirky revenge comedy as their first local production. Huge thanks to the folks at IndyFringe for making it possible! The production is directed by Ball State theatre and dance department faculty member Michael Daehn. Cast members are Craig Underwood (Gus), Karaline Feller (Betty), Luke Burris (Tor) and Kathleen Niemann (Olive). Costumes are by Patricia Daehn, sound design by Tucker Eckweiler, lighting by Tyler Sherwood and Andrew Walker. Adults tickets are $15, Students (college and younger) are $10. For tickets, call 317-525-9998. For more info, go to www.indyfringe.org or funhouse players.wix.com/home.