[NEohioPAL] Review of "The 10-10 Festival" at CVLT

[Bob Abelman]

No perfect 10 but Festival entertains

 

Bob Abelman

News-Herald, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times, Geauga Times Courier

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics 

 

This review appeared in the News-Herald 7/17/09

 

Watching one-act plays is like dining exclusively on hors d'oeuvres.  When they are good, they only whet the appetite for something more.  When they are bad, it is tempting to spit into a napkin and move on to something else.  

 

Currently on stage at the Chagrin Valley Little Theater's intimate River Street Playhouse is a panoply of theatrical canapés entitled The 10-10 Festival-10 original, 10-minute one-act plays.  This is the CVLT's first attempt at such an endeavor.  Expect some expectoration, but this collection of largely homegrown tales makes for an entertaining evening.  

 

The thing about 10-minute one-act plays is that they are really one-scene plays.  As such, their quality is hard to gauge.  In a mere 10 minutes of theater, a really good play is capable of carrying mediocre performances and really good performances are capable of getting lost in a mediocre play.  

 

When a great play gets paired with great performances, however, magic happens.  Such is the case with "Girl Story," a comedy by Cleveland Heights native Jonathan Wilhelm.  Wilhelm is one of the more accomplished playwrights represented in The 10-10 Festival, and it shows.

 

In "Girl Story," two buddies engage in disclosure about their imperfect marriages over beer, a brawl and a ballgame.  The writing is superb-crisp and caustic-and direction by Don Knepper enhances the action.  Actors David Malinowski and Mark DePompei, as the buddies, are brilliant and flat-out hilarious.

 

In fact, both gentlemen deliver the goods in every one of their performances.  Malinowski and a very gifted Natalie Dolezal are wonderful in Mansfield native Domenick Danza's "When You Lose a Friend," a clever piece about a man and his over-dependency on his very personal computer.

 

DePompei is paired with Noah Budin and Lisa Tarr in George Freek's takeoff of the play "Waiting for Godot."  Despite DePompei's fine performance, "After Godot" is rather slow and awkward, due in part to co-director Yvonne Pilarczyk's inert staging and uninspired performances by Budin and Tarr. 

 

Interestingly, Tarr delivers a beautifully toned-down, very touching performance as a waitress in Stanley Toledo's plodding "The Bachelor," where she encounters a teenager who tries to grow up too soon, played with charm by Ted Cogan.  Budin is absolutely superb in Parma native John Busser's "Dr. Wu Has Been Eliminated," a burlesque comic book comedy sketch.  It also features the playwright as a moronic assassin who is a partner of the equally moronic Budin.

 

As an actor, Busser is excellent and rises above the material in both Noell Wolfgram Evans' "Afterparty," in which he and Corinne Halberg break up after a friend's baby shower, and Chagrin Falls resident Rollin DeVere's "On Wings of Song," a silly little SNL skit about the love life of bugs.

 

Beachwood native Robert Fortlage's "A Walk in the Park" is amiable but goes nowhere, even though it features the very talented Don Edelman and Wini Kovacik as an older couple pondering the intricacies of their long-term relationship.  Neither actor excels here, but Edelman is a delight as a would-be gentleman caller in Wilhelm's heartwarming "Let Me Tell You Something."   Kovacik delivers a fine one-woman performance in Susan Apker's touching but mundane "Two for Tea."   

 

The 10-10 Festival is not dinner theater, but it does offer a variety of bite-sized entertainment.  Individual tastes vary, but there is bound to be something for everyone in this smorgasbord of one-act plays.

 

The 10-10 Festival continues through July 25 at the Chagrin Valley Little Theatre's River Street Playhouse, 56 River Street (adjacent to the main CVLT building), Chagrin Falls.  For tickets, which are $8, call 440-247-8955 or visit  www.cvlt.org.
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