[NEohioPAL] Berko review: Cleveland Plays, Part I, Migration (Dobama)

[Roy Berko]

Dobama has nice idea, but script by committee doesn’t
work 
 
Roy Berko

(Member, American Theatre Critics Association)

--THE TIMES NEWSPAPERS--

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

--coolcleveland.com--

Cleveland is in the doldrums.  The Cavs didn’t win the
championship; the Indians can’t hit; foreclosures keep
piling up; schools are in chaos;  flight from the
“Best Location in the Nation” continues, the on-again,
off convention center/medical mart seems to be on
hold.”  My oh my, how can we perk the place up?  I
know, let’s put on a show!

And, that’s what Dobama decided to do, put on a show
to build some pride in the city.  Not one show, but a
series is planned with the encompassing title of, ‘THE
CLEVELAND PLAYS.’  They are now presenting  ‘PART I: 
MIGRATION.’  Good idea.  Unfortunately, like a lot of
things in Cleveland town, the dreams worked better
than the execution.

The script goes in too many directions and lacks a
unified voice.  Eric Coble, Nina Domingue and Eric
Schmiedl are award winning playwrights.  They know
this city well.  All of them have the best intentions,
but never developed a thread to wind its way through
the concept.  Note, I did not use the word story,
because there really isn’t a story. 

There are a lot of local places mentioned:  Solon,
Slavic Village, Cleveland Heights, Mt Pleasant,
Lakewood, Rocky River, Hough, Beachwood, Buckeye, East
Cleveland, Euclid.  There are Cleveland landmarks
noted like Malley’s and Shaker Square.  Even people’s
names are thrown in, such as Manny Barenholtz, the
developer of Walden in Aurora.   There is a good
general overview of how we got here, thanks to the
confused Moses Cleaveland, who comes back to “lead us
out of here” and complains because we misspelled his
name.

Wait, why is Clevealand, who lead us into this area,
leading us out?  That’s never made clear.   Also not
made clear is why Lenny (George Roth) is spray
painting the city.  And, why is pregnant Nisha (Nina
Domingue) so intent on photographing people and places
in the area, with no means of support, refusing to
move to Columbus, where her husband has been offered a
job?

There are some good performances.  Courtney Schloss
takes on many roles with great success.  George Roth
looks and acts totally confused (is this great acting
or the lack of coherent lines?), Nina Domingue is the
usually competent Nina.  On the other hand, Robert
Williams (as Domingue’s husband) presents flat lines
and Michael Regnier keeps changing accents and doesn’t
really develop a clear characterization as Moses
Cleaveland.

Steve Schultz’s projection design gives us some
interesting views of the city and a lot of porches to
observe.
 
CAPSULE JUDGEMENT:  Nice idea Dobama.  Good attempt to
get us out of our doldrums.  Too bad it didn’t
work
the Cavs still lost, the Indians still can’t hit,
and the mortgage crunch continues.  Maybe Part II will
be better. 

For tickets call 216-932-3396 and leave a message or
go on-line at  www.ticketleap.com. 


Roy Berko's blog, which contains theatre and dance reviews from 2001 through 2008, as well as his consulting and publications information, can be found at http://royberko.info
      
His reviews can also be found on www.coolcleveland.com and NeOHIOpal (to subscibe visit http://mailman.listserve.com/listmanager/listinfo/neohiopal.)