[NEohioPAL]Berko reviews: MIDSUMMER NIGHTS DREAM, HELLO AGAIN, GROUNDWORKS, SUBSCRIBE NEOPAL

[Roy Berko]

GLTF SHIMMERS WITH SHAKESPEARE, "HELLO AGAIN"
TITILLATES AT BECK, GROUNDWORKS IS MASTERFUL,
SUBSCRIBE TO NEOPAL

Roy Berko

(Member, American Theatre Critics Association)

--THE TIMES NEWSPAPERS--

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


‘A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM’ IS A MUST SEE AT GLTF!

A group of 8th graders from Gross Point, Michigan
entered the Ohio Theatre for the opening night of
Great Lakes Theatre Festival’s production of William
Shakespeare’s ‘A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM.’   They did
not look like a happy group.  They left smiling and
laughing!   One of the boys shouted, "I love
Shakespeare."  Others quickly agreed.  What they
didn’t realize is that they had just experienced one
of the most creative, dynamic and fun productions of a
Shakespearean comedy that they might ever encounter.

Professional Cleveland theatre has needed an artistic
shot in the arm, and Charles Fee, who is also the
artistic director for the Idaho Shakespeare Festival,
has injected the North Coast at just the right time. 
Many theatres are in financial trouble and had to
cancel seasons.  The Cleveland Play House has been in
the doldrums and it looked like GLTF was going to be
among the missing if something wasn’t done to infuse
new blood into a worn-out workhorse.  Anyone who is
fortunate enough to see ‘A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM,’
which completes Fee’s first season at GLTF, will be
assured that GLTF is alive and well and in good hands.

Don’t go to see  ‘A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM’ to learn
about the world, or to think about war and peace.  Go
to be amused and delighted.  This is Shakespeare's
comedy of lovers caught in the magic web of a merry
mischief-maker, nothing less, nothing more. 

Probably composed in the 1590s, ‘A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S
DREAM’ is one of Shakespeare's early comedies.    It
was written as a light entertainment to accompany a
marriage celebration.  Most critics agree that if a
youthful Shakespeare was not at his best in this play,
he certainly enjoyed himself in writing it.

The main plot is a complex contraption that involves
two sets of couples (Hermia & Lysander and Helena &
Demetrius) whose romantic cross-purposes are
complicated by their entrance into the play's
fairyland woods where the King and Queen of the
Fairies (Oberon & Titania) preside and the impish folk
character of Puck plies his trade. Less subplot than a
brilliant satirical device, another set of characters
-- Bottom the weaver and his bumptious band  stumble
into the doings when they go into the enchanted woods
to rehearse a play that is very loosely based on the
myth of Pyramus and Thisbe.  Confused?  You won’t be
with Fee’s creative directing, which not only makes
the ideas clear, but adds the twist of having classic
Shakespeare meet the mod-classic Beatles.  

Songs by the Beatles have been seemlessly sprinkled in
to the plot.   Anyone who grew up with Beatlemania
will  be amazed and amused.  Anyone unfamiliar with
the Fab Four’s music will just get carried along. 
It’s a hoot!  And most importantly it adds much to the
visual and emotional landscape.

The cast is almost universally excellent.   Aled
Davies as Theseus, Sara Brunner as Helena, and Jeffrey
Hawkins as Lysander stand out.  Andrew May is a total
delight as Bottom.  He is rivaled by Tom Willmorth as
Puck for being the audience’s favorite.  Only Cheri
Lynne as Hippolyta disappoints.  Her lines are flat
and due to pronunciation and projection problems, she
is almost impossible to understand in many scenes.

Janiece Kelley-Kiteley’s choreography, Gage Williams
scenic design, Star Moxley’s costumes, Peter John
Still’s sound design, and Rick Martin’s lighting all
enhance the production.

As a line in the play states, "What fools these
mortals be." Anyone who doesn’t go to GLFT and see ‘A
MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM!’ is a fool.  It is theatre at
its finest.  Thank you Charles Fee.

For tickets to GLTF production, which runs through May
11,  call 216.241.6000 or 800.766.6048.


"HELLO AGAIN" TITILLATES AT BECK

When a theatre picks a play they have an objective in
mind.  It could be to purely entertain...make the
audience laugh, escape from reality.  It could be to
educate...give new insight into history or a
remarkable event.   In some cases, it is not that
clear.  Such is the case with ‘HELLO AGAIN’ at the
Beck Center for the Arts.   What, besides titillation
does this script offer?

Ten nameless characters pair up in ten different
scenes of supposed sexual pleasure and/or despair. 
One character from each scene moves on to the next. 
The play begins in 1900 with a Prostitute soliciting
an unwilling Soldier. The next scene takes place in
the 1940s, and the Soldier, afraid of dying in the
war, tussles with a sympathetic Nurse.  Next, the
Nurse becomes a 1960's dominatrix over her patient, an
upper-class College Boy.  In the 1930s, the College
Boy reappears as the oft-impotent partner of an
adulterous Young Wife who can only have relations with
him in seedy, out-of-the-way places.   And, so it
goes.  The show ends with a tableau forming in the
background, with all the couples singing "Hello Again"
over and over in a supposed recognition of love's
inescapable pull.  

The concept sounds intriguing.    The play is not
intriguing.  

Don’t fault director Scott Spence or his hard working
cast.  They try, but it is just not enough.  This is
not to say that the production itself is flawless.  
The music is often too loud, drowning out the singers.
 While Curtis Young (the Soldier), Maggie Wirfel (the
Young Wife), Ryan Bergeron (The Young Thing) and Rob
Albrecht (the Senator) all have excellent voices, some
of the other cast members are vocally weak.  Some of
the set changes are very long, slowing down the
intermissionless show.

If you are going to see HELLO AGAIN because you’ve
heard it is a sex romp, you might be pleased,
especially with the "Playboy" body of Tricia Bestic
and the appealing physical charms of the other female
cast members.  If you are looking for male physical
charms, you’ll be disappointed, as most of the guys in
the cast are not candidates for "Playgirl."   If you
are going for the musical score, forget it.  "Zei
Gezunt," "I Gotta Little Time," "We Kiss," "Rock With
Rock," and "The Bed Was Not My Own" never made it to
the top 50 list.  If you are looking for new sex
techniques, you’ll also be disappointed.

‘HELLO AGAIN’ plays at the Beck Center for the Arts,
17801 Detroit Avenue in Lakewood through May 18.  For
tickets, which range from $19 to $16 call 216-521-2540
or go on line to www.beckcener.org.  The theatre
insists that this is an Adults Only Please"
production.

GROUNDWORKS DANCETHEATER IS MASTERFUL

David Shimotakahara, the Artistic Director for
Groundworks Dancetheatre is a Cleveland treasure.  The
Pilgrim Congregational Church in Tremont is a
historical treasure.  When the two came together for
the Landmarks Series, the results were masterful.

Pilgrim Congregational Church began as a Sunday school
in 1854.  It moved into its "new" building in 1870. 
Not only is the edifice a restored masterpiece, but
the church has been a very important part of the city.
 The first visiting nurse, the West Side’s first
library, the area’s oldest Boy Scout troop have all
been part of its pastorate mission.  It is worth a
trip to visit this Richardson Romanesque style
building which is Cleveland’s foremost example of the
Akron Plan of church architecture.  Don’t miss the
twin Tiffany windows.

The Groundworks program, which was presented over two
weekends, were all pieces choreographed by
Shimotakahara.   "A Person" which has been the
choreographer’s own piece, was "loaned" to Amy Miller
for several of the performances.  It was fascinating
to watch Miller’s strong and dynamic performance
contrast to the Asian perfectioinistic and stylistic
moves of Shimotakahara.  Both worked well, in
different ways.  It might be fascinating in the future
to have both interpretations on the same program.

"Ephemeral," a world premiere piece matched the
extremely tall Mark Otloski with the petite Felise
Bagley.  The two worked perfectly in tandem, writhing,
twisting, running, interweaving.  Their powerful
bodies were in complete sync with Gustavo Aguilar’s
atonal music.  Dennis Dugan’s lighting enhanced the
fine performances of the dancers and musicians.   The
piece was so effective that the audience sat in quiet
admiration after the last movement before breaking out
in enthusiastic applause.

Sometimes Shimotakahara forgets that the mind can
absorb what the seat can endure and lets his works go
on a little too long.  Such was the case with "Heart
and Vine" the closing offering.  Since Aguilar and
Shimotakahara create the music and the dance, this
extensive length could be avoided.  Do not get the
idea that the piece was poorly choreographer, or the
music errant, or the dancing poor.  None of these is
true.  Everything except the length was masterful. 
Dancing to jazz, plaintive sounds, honky tonk, mellow
beats, oriental music and a cacophony of sound, the
piece was a blending of moods.  Bagley, Miller,
Otloski and Shimotakahara portrayed well the intended
action/reaction, letting go, finding rest, moving
forward and letting go some more.  

Groundworks next performances will be at the Alma
Theatre in Cain Park on June 27th and 28th.  For
tickets or information call 216-371-3000.

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LISTEN TO ROY BERKO ON "ACTION TALENT LIVE," FRIDAY,
1-2 PM, WERE-AM.  GIVE AWAYS, FREE TICKETS AND FUN
AWAIT YOU!


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