[NEohioPAL] Berko review: TREMONT (Actors' Summit)

[Roy Berko]

‘TREMONT’ probes into
Cleveland’s past at Actors’ Summit
 
Roy Berko
 
(Member, American Theatre
Critics Association)
 
--THE TIMES NEWSPAPERS--
 
Lorain County
Times--Westlaker Times--Lakewood News Times--Olmsted-Fairview Times  
 
COOLCLEVELAND.COM
 
The city is on a search
for its identity.  In the past year
at least three theatres have probed into areas of the municipality.  Jewish Community Center’s Arts Program
examined ‘CLEVELAND HEIGHTS.’  Dobama probed into the area’s historical immigration with ‘THE CLEVELAND
PLAYS.’  And, on May 15 they open
‘THE CLEVELAND PLAYS:  II’ about
the effect of the present mortgage crisis on nine Clevelanders.  Not to be outdone, Actors’ Summit
premiered ‘TREMONT,’ a play by locals Robert Thomas Noll and Pamela Noll.  It examines the results of white flight
of first generation Europeans from the Tremont area, near the steel mill area
on the shores of the Cuyahoga River.  
 
The play is set in the
Silver Bush Bar, a small neighborhood watering hole with a long time group of
regulars, a clientele that has quickly abandoned the area and moved on to
Parma.  We meet Eva, a daughter who
spent her life taking care of her now deceased parents, at the expense of her
own happiness.  She is working and
living in the bar out of fear of living in the family home which has been
broken into and ransacked.  The bar
is owned by Zolton, the son of the bar’s founder, who is an older man who
professes love for the younger Eva.  An elderly couple, the Popovich’s, are regular customers, but soon may
be going southwest with the rest of the central Europeans seeking a safe
place.  There’s Tree who has lost
his job but  gains something else.  The final character is Eva’s brother,
Andre who has reappeared after a long absence with a hidden agenda.
 
Unfortunately, the play
isn’t well written. The first act basically goes no place, filled with “old”
people mockery.  The second act at
least has a somewhat meaningful conflict between the siblings.  The conversations are often forced, the
jokes aren’t that funny, and the overall effect is a somewhat pleasant, but
quickly forgettable script. 
 
The production has the
air of community theatre performance, rather than a professional theater
presentation.  Whether this is the
shallow script or the lack of acting depth is up for conjecture.
 
Sally Groth displays that
she is  properly tortured by Eva’s
past.  As the Popovichs, Jean and
Glenn Colerider adequately walk the line between mental presence and early
senility.  Bob Keefe, with accent
coming and going, never becomes quite believable as the bartender.  Geoffrey Darling (Tree) is given the
impossible task of trying to create a real person out of an unrealistically
written character.  He gets the
laughs, but looks foolish in the process.  Only Peter Voinovich comes off as real.  Again, the script gives him a character that is much closer
to believable, and he takes the role and develops it well.
 
CAPSULE JUDGEMENT:  ‘TREMONT’ is a lightweight script that
gets an acceptable production at Actors’ Summit.  It’s one of those shows that you may enjoy while watching,
but quickly forget that you saw it.


For tickets to
‘TREMONT’  call  (330-342-0800) or go to
actorssummit.org.  Actors’ Summit
is located at 86 Owen Brown Street, Hudson.  
 Roy Berko's blog, which contains theatre and dance reviews from 2001 through 2009, 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 subscribe visit http://mailman.listserve.com/listmanager/listinfo/neohiopal.)