Tucked away in a jewel box theater, the performers of Minneapolis’ Open Eye Theatre are preparing for their upcoming show, “LIZZIE: The Rock Musical.” It’s a modern retelling of the infamous American true crime case, the trial of Lizzie Borden, that opens Oct. 9.

“LIZZIE: The Rock Musical” is a punk rock retelling of the folkloric Borden Murders, written ten years ago by Steven Cheslik-deMeyer, Tim Maner and Alan Stevens Hewitt. Now at Open Eye, under the direction of Joel Sass, Borden’s story is being shared with a new audience by a four-member cast and a live band.

The story of Borden garnered attention in 1882, after the double homicide of her father, Andrew Borden, and her stepmother, Abby. Borden was accused of the brutal axe murders but was ultimately acquitted after a short trial in June 1893.

Nearly 200 years later, her case still invites interpretation.

“It’s a direct juxtaposition to the time period that its set in,” said actor Lux Mortenson. “The Victorian era is famous for being really button up and prim. And this show tears that all apart.”

Mortenson will be portraying the titular Lizzie Borden and has worked previously with Open Eye in their rooftop musical performances of “Log Jam,” “Loch Mess” and “Hairball!” at the Bakken Museum.

“Stepping into the role, it’s a very interesting thing because on the one hand, you are portraying a real person. But this show looks at Lizzie Borden through a folk hero lens, or even a folk anti-hero lens,” Mortenson said. “It’s not as rigid.”

The cast will be familiar to Open Eye audiences, with performances from Mortenson, Abigail Olson, Marley Ritchie and Grace Hillmyer. The show is led by director and set designer Joel Sass, a veteran of Open Eye Theatre and the theater’s producing artistic director.

“It’s a great place to be as a creator because it takes this notorious true crime of the century story and allows a lot of very contemporary considerations to be woven through it,” Sass said.

One contemporary aspect of the story is its costuming design by Samantha Fromm Haddow. Her designs blend traditional Victorian silhouettes with punk and modern influences. The costumes feature corsets and belts, mirroring the restrictive and suffocating nature of Borden’s time.

“These women are really confined and covered throughout the course of the musical; they just kind of explode into your face,” Haddow said. “There’s this stripping away of confinement, as they’re acting out of their normal roles.”

“LIZZIE: The Rock Musical” will be Haddow’s first project at Open Eye.

“Part of the joy of working with Open Eye, it’s much more collaborative,” Haddow said. “We’re all in this together.”

The show treats Borden’s story as a Greek tragedy, like Medea or Clytemnestra; a conscious choice made by the original creators, asking the audience if they can accept the brutality.

“You’re without an easy place to sit in terms of deciding for yourself whether the violent act is justified,” Sass said.

The Open Eye Theatre was founded in 2000 by Susan Haas and Michael Sommers to serve audiences and artists with unique programming, including live performances, intimate plays and musicals and puppetry.

“We exist to develop primarily Minnesota-based artists and those who are emerging and looking for well-produced opportunities to develop their professional skills,” Sass said. “No matter what type of performance art lover you are, there’s a layer of our programming that would appeal to you.”

‘LIZZIE: The Rock Musical’

What: A punk-rock retelling of Lizzie Borden’s life

When: Oct. 9 through Nov. 2

Where: Open Eye Theatre, 506 E. 24th St., Minneapolis.

Tickets: $35-$15 via openeyetheatre.org

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Funny thing about Roald Dahl. Describe one of the English author’s macabre tales to a parent and they might be horrified that their child would be exposed to such a story. But the kids are usually just fine with it.

That has a lot to do with the sense of playfulness with which Dahl permeated his children’s books, and “The Enormous Crocodile” is a prime example. No story of his was more clearly designed for younger readers, yet the central figure is a beast intent upon eating a child.

Siobhan Athwal, left, and Ryan Crellin-Simpson in “The Enormous Crocodile,” a musical adaptation of Roald Dahl’s children’s book from England’s Roald Dahl Story Company, which will receive its U.S. premiere at Children’s Theatre Company. The production will run through Nov. 23, 2025, at the Minneapolis theater. (Glen Stubbe / Children’s Theatre Company)

But fear not: The theatrical adaptation currently being presented at Children’s Theatre Company’s smaller street-level space is wonderfully fun for all ages. Sporting a clever script and marvelously imaginative puppets, it’s an hour-long, smile-inducing delight.

Friday night marked the first U.S. performance of a production that comes to us from England, where it was co-produced by Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre and Leeds Playhouse. Overseeing the staging is the Roald Dahl Story Company, which, interestingly, is owned by Netflix. But there’s nothing corporate about what’s onstage at CTC: It still has the homespun air of a performance in the park, intent upon engaging with the children in the audience and throwing in some funny easter eggs for the adults, too.

Yet don’t mistake its groundlings-friendly feel for a lack of professionalism, as the résumés of several among its cast and crew list stints with two of the world’s great theater companies, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre of Great Britain. Be it in the varied characterizations, colorful choreography, rapid-fire costume changes or a dazzling design scheme, this is a slick staging.

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The story is a simple one: The largest crocodile in the jungle has decided to consume a child for lunch. That seems an unlikely option until a troop of “Jungle Juniors” arrives for a campout in the wild. But the other anthropomorphized animals overcome their fears to save the kids.

Employing an Afropop-tinged score by Ahmed Abdullahi Gallab and a witty script and lyrics by Suhayla El-Bushra, there’s cleverness around every corner. For example, the story begins at a dental clinic where the crocodiles are having their teeth cleaned by birds. The Cockney crocs and Scottish birds introduce us to the idea that this cast will use a plethora of (all easily understandable) accents, most humorously the French-flavored snails.

Each animal is an imaginative amalgam of human and puppet. The title character is a stage-length beast built around a rolling chair on which the imperiously expressive Taya Ming sits and dreams up serving suggestions for her meal of children.

Blocking her path to this repast are Nia Stephen’s towering elephant; Ryan Crellin-Simpson as an endearing hippo who farts when frightened; Alison Arnopp as a vainly insecure avian showgirl; and Siobhan Athwal pulling impressive double duty as a monkey straight off a nightclub dancefloor and the adult troop leader.

Speaking of that troop, they’re the funniest puppets of all, bearing adult heads and child bodies. Their appearance was one of many instances in which laughter rang out from both adults and children at the opening night performance. Throw in some clever, catchy songs and you have the makings of a very enjoyable family theater outing.

Roald Dahl Story Company’s ‘The Enormous Crocodile’

When: Through Nov. 23

Where: Children’s Theatre Company, 2400 Third Ave. S., Minneapolis

Tickets: $79-$25, available at 612-874-0400 or childrenstheatre.org

Capsule: Imaginative and tuneful, it’s great all-ages fun.

Rob Hubbard can be reached at wordhub@yahoo.com.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Top running back Darius Taylor was not listed on the Gophers’ unavailability report, setting up his return against No. 1 Ohio State on Saturday night.

The Gophers only listed two safeties as out against the Buckeyes — Aidan Gousby and Garrison Monroe — for the prime-time game at Ohio Stadium.

Taylor is the U’s most dynamic tailback, and the 6-foot, 215-pound junior missed the Rutgers and California games due to an apparent hamstring injury suffered early in the 66-0 win over Northwestern (La.) State on Sept. 6.

Taylor’s return is welcomed after Minnesota rushed for only 35 yards on 18 carries in the 31-28 win over Rutgers last weekend. Fame Ijeboi has 12 carries for 37 yards, and Cam Davis had three totes for eight yards.

Taylor has 33 carries for 161 yards and caught five passes for 45 yards across two victories over Buffalo and Northwestern State.

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Work is underway to build a new island in the Mississippi River near Hastings, a $10 million project aimed at preserving the lock-and-dam system that allows some 10 million tons of goods to be shipped along the river every year.

The human-made, arrowhead-shaped island represents a unique project on the Upper Mississippi, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

“It’s really exciting for the team to see this being constructed,” said Nick Castellane, a project manager with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. “We’ve been working on it for a number of years.”

About seven years ago, planning began on the project, due to longtime erosion along the embankment near the pool of water of Lock and Dam No. 2. The embankment itself was built with the portion of the dam in the 1930s.

As Castellane tells it, the size of Pool No. 2 allows for two miles of “wind fetch,” with wind building up speed across the water, causing waves to batter the embankment. Crashing ice every spring as the river clears also contributes to erosion along the embankment.

Modeling from the Army Corps engineer team shows that the new island should provide some shield for the embankment from those external factors.

If not for the island, the embankment would continue to erode, Castellane said, and once enough erosion occurred, the river could overflow its banks and reduce water levels in that portion of the lock-and-dam system, impacting barge navigation and recreational boating.

Long-term solution

During the planning stages, three ideas emerged. The Army Corps could pile heavy rock — “rip rap” — on the embankment, spending $1 million or so every three to five years and in the hope that it would hold off additional erosion.

Or construction crews could try to build out the embankment edge, creating a larger buffer, but that plan would impact waterflow patterns.

Planners felt both of those plans seemed to only provide temporary fixes, and the island emerged as a more long-term solution, expected to have more than a 50-year lifespan.

The locks and dams were installed nearly a century ago on the Upper Mississippi River so that boats hauling freight up and down the river could have easier passage.

How does the lock-and-dam system work? The upper river is divided into sections called pools, where a fixed amount of river is held back by a dam. This system creates a minimum 9-foot channel in the Upper Mississippi River. Each corresponding lock acts like a water elevator, bringing boats up or down to the water level of the next pool. Another analogy would be a staircase of water that boats and barges climb and descend.

Native ecosystem

Earth is currently being moved to build a 30-acre island in the Mississippi River near Hastings, Minn. A rendering shows the vegetation plan of the island, which is being created to curb erosion along an embankment on the pool near Lock and Dam No. 2. Work is about halfway complete, according to the Army Corps, and is expected to continue through 2027. (Courtesy of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers)

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The island is about halfway complete, Castellane said, as project timelines are set to continue construction into summer 2026, with plans set for grass seeding in the fall of 2026 and, if the grass becomes established, tree planting in 2027.

Crews are currently mechanically dredging sediment from the river to build the new island. Castellane said upon completion, the aim is for the new land to provide a native ecosystem for plants and wildlife — hoping that the emergent wetland of the center of the island attracts frogs, snakes, turtles and birds.

“With the Mississippi Flyway being a major migratory route, we anticipate seeing a lot of avian wildlife,” Castellane said.