[NEohioPAL] Berko review: DON'T CALL ME FAT @ Cleveland Public Theatre

Roy Berko royberko at yahoo.com
Mon Oct 18 20:30:53 PDT 2010


Disappointing DON'T CALL ME FAT at CPT

Roy Berko

(Member, American Theatre Critics Association)

--THE TIMES NEWSPAPERS--

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

--cool cleveland.com-

Özen Yula is a Turkish playwright who has been in-residence in the Cleveland 
area for the past nine-months  under the sponsorship of the Cleveland 
Foundation's Creative Fusion Program.  His play, DON'T CALL ME FAT, is getting 
its world premiere at Cleveland Public Theatre.

Mr. Yula is an internationally acclaimed writer.  It was, therefore, with great 
anticipation that his “American” play was anticipated.  Unfortunately, the play 
and the production, which was also directed by Yula, were disappointing.

In order to fully understand the writing style, it helps to know that 
traditional Turkish writing, like that of many middle eastern and Arabic 
cultures, tends to center on parables, story telling, and statements which lead 
to open ended concepts with no specific conclusion being reached.  It is often 
melodramatic with tones of soap-opera over-exaggerated tragedy, often with a 
little farcical vaudeville thrown in.  DON'T CALL ME FAT  is true to that form.  
It is unrealistic, hard to accept as being a picture of “real” America, though 
the present ballooning weight of USAmericans, reliance on reality television to 
create “truth,” and our “fame for fifteen minutes” mentality, are real topics.  
It's the form and format which makes the script hard to appreciate.

The story basically concerns an excessively obese John Doe, who is so heavy that 
he cannot move from his bed.  He lives with Jane Doe, his sarcastic and nasty 
aunt and is attended to by Caregiver Tim, an African American nurse.  Into his 
life comes Psychiatrist Kathy Bengal, an aloof and manipulative health care 
provider, TV Producer Jordan who, with Bengal's help, convinces John to have a 
potentially life threatening operation in order to lose weight.  The second act 
is an account of the reality show which follows his operation.  Well, kind of.  
To reveal more would spoil the fragile plot.

The production is overly long, lacks clarity of direction, has some almost 
embarrassing scenes, and  contains graphics which make no sense.  When the lines 
describe fireworks, we see rains drops on Lake Erie.  The Lady Gaga segment does 
not contain any images of the flamboyant performer.  Maybe this was supposed to 
be part of the “come to conclusions on your own” approach. 

Kevin Charnas, John Doe, is quite slight, so the fat suit he was wearing was 
made ridiculous by his slender face and thin hands.  Again, an attempt at 
dichotomy? The acting was over-the-top.   The screaming, the high pierced 
yelling, the lack of clear character development, just added to the problems.  
Knowing the strong acting abilities of many of the cast members makes me believe 
that their performances were the result of the director's instructions.

Capsule judgement:   It would have been so polite to a guest to our city to 
praise the quality of the writing and production of DON'T CALL ME FAT, but to do 
so would have been disingenuous.   

The world premiere of  DON'T CALL ME FAT runs through October 30 at Cleveland 
Public Theatre.  For tickets call 216-631-2727 or go on line to 
www.cptonline.org.
 
Roy Berko's blog, which contains theatre and dance reviews from 2001 through 
2010, 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.)



      



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