Finding solace on Lake Wobegon

November 9, 11:43 AMTwin Cities Performance Art ExaminerBrad Richason

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If evidence was needed of the tumultuous times in which we live, a glance through any newspaper would resolve any doubts. Plummeting financial markets. Skyrocketing costs of living. Record unemployment. Global instability. During such times it's a natural inclination to seek out places of solace. For many, that much needed solace continues to be found on Lake Wobegon, the mythical central Minnesota setting from which Garrison Keillor's weekly radio program, A Prairie Home Companion, is said to originate.

Those of us in the Twin Cities know that Lake Wobegon is a fiction and that the radio broadcasts are beamed out from - most commonly - the Fitzgerald Theater in downtown St. Paul. While downtown St. Paul is not without its charms, modern city life has only a passing resemblance to the pastoral setting of A Prairie Home Companion. Lake Wobegone is a place of idle concerns and simple pleasures. Or as Keillor himself states in the recurring News from Lake Wobegon segment, it is a place "where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average."

During each broadcast, Keillor and his talented cast of performers and musicians affectionately evoke the radio variety show, once the primary source of entertainment for rural Americans. In addition to regular features like the monologue News from Lake Wobegon and a spoof of episodic radio thrillers entitled Guy Noir, Private Eye, A Prairie Home Companion rotates a vaudevillian selection of musicians, comedians, and storytellers. A bluegrass band from Nashville could be followed by a New York City soprano backed by a country-singing trio from Canada.

Keillor and company are also satirists, but their jokes nudge far more than they cut. Their humor may parody small town life, but at the same time the show warmly embraces the subject. And while social conservatives might perceive a liberal slant to the more topical material, it's small town common sense that is presented as an attribute worthy of praise.

The eclectic mix of talent and the clever writing explains some of A Prairie Home Companion's appeal, but doesn't pinpoint why the show has such enduring pull. Attendance at live performances is consistently sold-out. Over 580 public radio stations broadcast the show to over 4 million listeners. A documentary entitled Garrison Keillor - The Man on the Radio in the Red Shoes is currently playing in theaters. And two years ago Robert Altman directed an adaptation of A Prairie Home Companion starring an A-list cast headlined by Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin.

For two hours, listeners can exchange the hectic pace of modern life for the easygoing bucolic mythology of rural Americana. The idyllic leisure of Lake Wobegon is an escapist fantasy of every frazzled city dweller. Not found on any map, Lake Wobegon exists in the collection imagination as a utopia of simplicity and goodness, the kind of place where the Saturday night highlight is a slice of fresh rhubarb pie.

It's reassuring to know that even during the most stressful of times, the peaceful solace of Lake Wobegon sits undisturbed, just a radio frequency or internet connection away.