[NEohioPAL]BERKO REVIEWS:CHERRY DOCS, ALLEGIST'S WIFE, DA FUNK

[Roy Berko]

CHERRY DOCS AT HALLE, ALLERGIST’S WIFE AT DOBAMA,
NOISE/FUNK AT STATE

Roy Berko

(Member, American Theatre Critics Association)

--THE TIMES NEWSPAPERS--

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


CHERRY DOCS EXAMINES HATE AT THE HALLE


The lights come up on a representation of the scales
of justice.  Each side of the scale looks like a
prison...bars pointing to the ceiling encircling a
confining platform.  In each area we will soon meet
and experience two men who are very alike, and very
different.  The combatants are a skinhead perpetrator
of a vile hate crime (Mike) and his Jewish legal-aid
lawyer (Danny).  Two men who are troubled by their
pasts and have different paths to their futures.  We
will observe them going through belief changes.  We
will see them, as one of the lines states, "go through
the eye of the needle." 

The play?  David Gow’s CHERRY DOCS.   The place?  The
Halle Theatre.  
The title?  Cherry Docs are red colored sturdy shoes
with steel covered toes that are so endangering that
they can kick though a wall.  They are the "boot of
choice" for the Nazi-attitude group known as
skinheads. 

On the surface the play concerns murder and hate.  It
uses the analogy of life being a fabric made from
threads to tie the themes together.  That analogy
allows us to see how Danny’s liberalness and
spirituality become woven into his latent prejudices
and ambitions.   As these threads weave together he
begins to crumble. On the other-hand, the punk, who
once said to his lawyer, "In an ideal world I'd see
you eliminated," comes to realize that his cloth of
evil must become a fabric that includes tolerance.

Many of the speeches are direct addresses to the
audience, making us participants in Danny’s insistence
that the young offender helps construct his own
defense in order to  "stand up" and be accountable. 
It also allows us to be involved in their personal
transitions.  We share in the epilogue, a cutting from
The Book of Daniel, which proposes that like Daniel
the world must reach toward righteousness.

Reuben Silver’s direction is on-target.  He has taken
the play from staged reading last year to a full-blown
production.  This was a real challenge.  The play has
little action, is basically a duet of words, and
sometimes is too talky, complete with three epilogues.
To make it an involving experience took inspiration.

Scott Plate, complete with shaved head and body
tatoos, is unbelievably good as the skin-head.  He
creates a character the audience must hate, yet by the
conclusion, comes to understand.

Joel Hammer’s Danny is involving , but, at times, his
rage lacks motivation, sometimes caused by the
weakness of the script.

Tony Kovacic’s scene design is excellent, as are Casey
Jones’ musical interludes which transition moods
clearly from scene to scene.

CHERRY DOCS asks a simple, but harrowing, question:
Can we eliminate hate?  Though the play doesn’t answer
the unanswerable question, it does make us think.

Tickets to CHERRY DOCS, which runs about 1:40 with no
intermission, and will be playing until February 2,
may be obtained by calling 216-3872-4000, extension
274.  


ALLERGIST’S WIFE IS FUN AT DOBAMA


Though an audience hit in New York and on tour,
reviews of the script of THE TALE OF THE ALLERGIST'S
WIFE, now on stage at Dobama, were not all glowing. 
Comments ranged from "it isn't a very good play, but
it's an extraordinarily funny one" to "Busch is one of
the only writers who can use his potty mouth to
produce such a clean comedy.  Think a combination of
Neil Simon and Jackie Mason" to "fun production, bad
script."

The plot centers on Marjorie Taub, a frustrated
pseudo-intellectual in a deep depressive slump. Her
therapist has died, she has had a destructive episode
in a Disney store where she started smashing
figurines. Her husband Ira, who recently retired as an
allergist so he could run a clinic for the homeless,
is full of compassion but doesn't know what to do.
Marjorie's mother Frieda is no help either, as she is
primarily concerned with her own gastric functions.
Marjorie and Frieda have been fighting for most of
their lives and their duels are generally the best
parts of the play.

Then one day a childhood acquaintance of Marjorie's
appears.  According to her tales she was buddies with
everybody from Princess Diana to Pat Nixon to Andy
Warhol.
Is she real or Marjorie's fantasy?

The ending is quick, does not resolve any issues and
leaves the audience feeling somewhat baffled, yet
entertained.

Dobama’s production has a lot going for it.  The cast
is generally on target.   Jeanne Task swings the
pendulum of emotions with ease.  One minute she is
depressed, the next maniac.  Greg Violand plays the
serious pawn with purpose.  Laura Perrotta is
outstanding as the friend who is both hard to believe
and impossible to ignore.  Myrtle Silverman has the
right presence for the self-put upon mother.  Rajiv
Punja is fine as the doorman.

Jeff Herrmann has built one of the best sets in
Dobama’s history thanks to donations from the Interior
Design Center, Carpet Mart, Murray Plasco and Heights
Floral Shoppe.   Without the upscale appearance the
play would have visually faltered.

THE TALE OF THE ALLERGIST'S WIFE is a fun evening of
theatre.  Unfortunately, due to numerous opening-night
line fluffs, the pacing of the show falters and some
laughs are lost.  Hopefully this will smooth out as
the production runs longer and the players become
comfortable with their lines and get used to working
with the difficult task of comedic timing.

The show runs through February 9.   For information
and tickets call 216-932-3396.


NOISE, FUNK DAZZLES AND SIZZLES AT STATE

If you didn’t get to see BRING IN ‘DA NOISE, BRING IN
‘DA FUNK in its short four day visit to Cleveland, you
missed one of the most sizzling, dazzling, exciting
dance shows ever!

Much of the credit for the excitement centers on
Savion Glover, the preeminent percussive dancer in the
world.  He has not only choreographed this show, which
tells the history of African-Americans from slavery to
the present through dance, specifically tap, but he
starred in the touring production which graced the
State Theatre.   He and his cast of amazing dancers,
drummers and singer-narrators exploded.  

The show is talking with taps, talking with song,
talking with words, talking with percussion.  The
beat, the talk, the story emerges from a pool of light
falling upon a single slave and grows into a story
that examines slave auctions, families ripped apart,
lynchings, the underground railroad, freedom, movement
of people north, and riots.  It is visualized through
the development of tap dancing, music, song and a
little narration.  It covers the music of the likes of
Eubie Blake and Satchmo and Josephine Baker and the
dancing of Chuck Green, Jimmy Slyde, and Buster Brown.
 

The most outstanding segment of the evening was Savion
in front of a mirror, dancing and dancing and dancing,
his reflections shooting out into the eyes of the
audience!  Second only to that was the creative
drumming of Jared and Raymond playing percussion
without the use of drums.  Cans, legs, the taps on the
shoes, pots, pans and chains became the instruments of
‘da beat.

The audience was on its feet howling at the end with
well deserved screams of joy!  WOW!


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