[NEohioPAL]Berko review: ARMS AND THE MAN (Actors' Summit), Groundworks error, funding for the arts

[Roy Berko]

‘ARMS AND THE MAN’ highlights Shaw’s message at
Actors’ Summit

Roy Berko

(Member, American Theatre Critics Association)

--THE TIMES NEWSPAPERS--

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

George Bernard Shaw’s ‘ARMS AND THE MAN’ is presently
in production at Actors’ Summit.

A director of ‘ARMS AND THE MAN’ has a decision to
make.  Should the play be staged as a comedy or as a
no-holds-barred farce?  The former approach allows
Shaw’s lines to carry the humor and create the
message.  The latter allows the audience to have a
whale of a good time laughing at the outlandishness of
the actors, the setting, overblown concept, and even
the costumes. 

When the Shaw Festival of Canada produced the show
earlier this year, the director did it as a
no-holds-barred farce.  The characters were much
bigger than life.  The lines were so broadly presented
that everything short of holding up “laugh now” signs
was present.   

The result was that Shaw’s messages, including women’s
rights (“People don’t live up to their ideals.”), the
ridiculousness of the upper classes (“Everything I
think is mocked by everything I do.”), the stupidity
of war (“War is a sham, like love.”), and the
absurdity of existence (“Life’s a farce.”) were often
not on the surface for all to grasp, but the audience
had one heck of a good time.

A. Neil Thackaberry, the director of the Actor’s
Summit production, decided to follow Shaw’s own words,
“Life isn’t a farce,” and present the play as a
comedy.  In general, the languid pace and Shavian
message-centered-approach worked well.

The story concerns Raina, the wealthy young daughter
of a rich Bulgarian nobleman and her relationships
with a pompous, weak-minded yet extremely handsome
military bumbler, as well as the “Chocolate Soldier,”
an intelligent, charming mercenary who is befriended
when he sneaks into her bed chamber in order to avoid
being killed by her countrymen.  Through a series of
unbelievable and silly incidents, everything turns out
exactly as it should.

The production is blessed with some wonderful
performances by Alicia Kahn, Dana Hart, Dorothy Silver
and Reuben Silver.  

Kahn creates her Raina as a spoiled, dreamer of
fairy-tale love, who is also a pragmatist.  She is
both charming and delightful in creating a consistent
characterization.  

Hart, as Captain Bluntschli, is right on key as the
clever mercenary, who, like his beloved chocolate
creams, is crusty on the outside, but soft on the
inside.  He creates an appealing  “chocolate soldier.”
 

The Silvers, as always, texture their characters as
Raina’s parents, with meaningful double-takes and
delightful character development.

On the other hand, Joe Bishara as the supposedly
arrogant Sergius, just isn’t pompous and self-puffed
up enough.  He looks the role, but plays at being
Sergius, rather than being the character.  His
inconsistency is the major weakness of the production.
 Sally Groth as Louka, the servant, is adequate, but
doesn’t have the spark, the incendiary characteristics
needed to make her more royalty than servant.

Working on a limited budget, Mary Jo Alexander’s
costumes are quite representative of the era, but lack
of the quality to make for total believability.  The
set was not of the opulence that would be expected by
the “only family in Bulgaria to have a library.” The
humor of the “only library” was ruined because the
room was missing books.  There should have been a few
clearly highlighted volumes to draw the irony of
Shaw’s stressing the literary storage area.  (This is
another of Shaw’s hits on the inept educational system
and showmanship rather than actual edification of the
upper classes.)

CAPSULE JUDGEMENT:  Actors’ Summit’s ‘ARMS AND THE
MAN’ makes for a pleasant evening of theatre, which
has a languid pace that cuts down on the gaiety, but
does increase understanding of Shaw’s concepts, making
it a production worth seeing.

‘ARMS AND THE MAN’ runs through November 19.  Call for
tickets now at 330-342 0800.   The theatre’s next
production is ‘A CHRISTMAS SURVIVAL GUIDE,’ a musical
which combines new and old holiday songs to be staged
from November 30 to December 23.  This is to be
followed by Peter Parnell’s ‘QED,’ the story of Nobel
Prize winning physicist Richard Feynman.

GROUNDWORKS CORRECTS AN ERROR

This notice is from David Shimotakahara, Artistic
Director of Groundworks Dancetheater, one of
Cleveland’s shining dance companies:  “We made a silly
error with our postcards.  The Trinity performance
dates are listed as Nov. 11-19 and in fact they are
Nov. 17-19 only.  Sometimes you just shoot yourself in
the foot.”  

Those who haven’t seen Groundworks, should!  Those who
have, here’s your chance to see them again in a new
program!   See you at Trinity Cathedral, 2230 Euclid
Avenue, Cleveland, November 17-19.  For tickets call
216-691-3180.

FUNDING FOR THE ARTS

Congratulations to the arts community and Eric
Fingerhut, the campaign’s leader, for their (our)
successful passage of Issue 18.  For the first time in
history, Cuyahoga County will be providing public
funding for the arts!  



Roy Berko's theatre blog, which includes reviews of all recent plays, can be found at http://royberkinfo.blogspot.com  
      Information regarding his consulting and publications and older theatre reviews can be found at www.royberko.info.  
      Roy's theatre and dance reviews appear regularly on NeOHIOpal, an on-line source.   To subscribe to this free service via the World Wide Web, visit http://lists.fredsternfeld.com/mailman/listinfo/neohiopal.


 
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