[NEohioPAL]BERKO REVIEW: OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY (ENSEMBLE)/DANCE AT CPT

[Roy Berko]

OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY AT ENSEMBLE, DANCE CLEVELAND AND
CPT COLLABORATION

Roy Berko
	
(Member, American Theatre Critics Association)

--Times Newspapers--

Lorain County Times--WestlakerTimes--Lakewood News
Times--Olmsted-Fairview Times


OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY DOESN’T CASH IN AT ENSEMBLE

In these days of corporate greed, insider trading,
Martha Stewart-like stock manipulation, Enron and
Adelphia cheating, it is entirely appropriate that
Ensemble Theatre chose to present OTHER PEOPLE’S
MONEY.

Jerry Sterner’s black comedy centers on corporate
raider Larry "the Liquidator" Garfinkle, who gobbles
up companies faster than the doughnuts he keeps in his
office and limo. He is pure predator; a gross troll in
a classy suit.

Written in 1989, OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY turns on the
conflict between good and evil, David and Goliath.  
It pits the bad guy Liquidator, who wants to acquire
the New England Wire and CableCompany and to plunder
its assets and shut it down, against Andrew Jorgensen,
the company’s patriarch.  It matches small-town
business ethics against corporate America’s "Greed Is
Good."   How do we stave off Larry at the pass?  Enter
Kate Sullivan, the daughter of Jorgensen’s long time
mistress.  Kate is an attractive young attorney not
above sexual politicking and muckraking.  Can she
convince Jorgensen that he needs to play the corporate
take-over game?  In the balance hangs the fate of
1,200 factory workers and the old-fashioned way of
doing business.   

Will Larry the Liquidator wipe out another nice guy
from the landscape of free enterprise?   As much as
we’d like to think the answer is "no," the real answer
is, "sure." 

If only the production qualities had reached the
script’s level.  In the hands of the right director
and cast, this play would be an audience pleaser. 
Ensemble’s production never catches fire.  Except for
Michael Raum portraying Garfinkle in a wonderfully
evil, nebbish-not-a-real-nasty guy way, the cast seems
to be walking through their performances.  They never
quite get emotionally involved.   The situation is not
helped by numerous line glitches, forgotten ideas,
static characterizations, and some awkward staging.  
Everything from the costumes, to the set which doesn’t
fit the script’s description, just miss their mark.  

To be successful Sterner's play requires a black-comic
sensibility to fire the plot, Ensemble’s version lacks
this.   It’s worth attending OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY to
see Raum and gobble down a Gilly’s "Not Just Donuts"
at intermission.  (In the original play Dunkin Donuts
was bannered.  In Cleveland, it’s Gilly’s, located in
Little Italy which gets the eating honors.) 
Hopefully, as the rest of the cast gets more
comfortable with the material, the production will
blossom into a unit that brings full meaning to the
play.

OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY runs at Ensemble Theatre, located
in the Civic on Mayfield Road in Cleveland Heights,
until December 8.   For tickets, which range in price
from $13 to $20,  call 216-321-2930.

DANCE CLEVELAND AT CLEVELAND PUBLIC THEATRE WORKS WELL

Dance Cleveland needs a place to present its smaller
visiting companies.  Cleveland Public Theatre has the
Bolton Square Theatre in various stages of
restoration.  They can use the added income from
someone using the facility.  CPT’s space lends itself
perfectly to dance.  It allows the audience to be
close to the action.  It has excellent lighting and a
very danceable floor area.  Dance Cleveland and CPT
have formed a working relationship that works well for
both organizations.

The most recent cooperatively presented works were
Gina Gibney Dance presenting TIME REMAINING and
Creatch/Company staging STUDY FOR A RESURRECTION.  The
companies were an interesting contrast.  Gibney’s all
women's group works for grace and emotional resonance.
 Creatch’s male ensemble strives for gymnastic,
intellectual and powerful achievement to explore and
celebrate the sensibility and energy of men.

Gibney’s evening-length project centered on the power
of time and how it erodes and is renewed.   Based on
the concept that there is a time for every purpose,
the dancers moved in synchronized patterns, blending
flowing movements and costumes.  The performers
created visual images of support, separation and
motion.  It is interesting that there is kind of
charisma that gently demands attention.  These are not
big, powerful, audience involving movements.   She
creates a balance between dance and stillness when the
body's lines grab the eye and allows the viewer to
fill in meaning.  Gibney creates exquisite, sensitive
choreography.   
	
As one critic has put it, "Gina Gibney has established
herself as a poet of modern dance today."  The
CPT/Dance Cleveland sold-out audience was very
appreciative of the quality of the dancing and the
creative talent of the choreographer.
	
Creatch/Company, a six men ensemble, employs a form of
movement entitled contact dance.  It uses the body to
paint relationships between people.   STUDY FOR A
RESURRECTION incorporates 13th to 16th century sacred
music sung by a fine male ensemble who set the mood
for the piece and over look and later entwine within
the dancers to create a unit of music and dance.  

The brotherhood of dancers creates images of bible
stories, art works and AIDS influenced images. 
Dancing in loose fitting costumes, and sometimes in
the nude using gossamer cloth to enhance the visual
look of the human form, much like Michelangelo did in
his paintings and sculputures, the dancers intertwined
by moving underneath, on top of, wrapping around,
pushing, rolling together, staring at, jumping and
catching each other.    

The performance was well received by the audience, but
repeating the same movements and sounds for over an
hour, in spite of the quality of the dancing and
singing, created monotony.  The program would have
been stronger if another form of choreography was
introduced to parallel the contact dance.

For information about future Dance Cleveland
presentations 216-631-2727,

(Roy Berko can be heard on WERE--1300 AM--1-2 PM
Fridays discussing entertainment issues.)


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