[NEohioPAL] Berko review: NOVEMBER @ Civic Theatre/Lakeland Community College

[Roy Berko]

NOVEMBER is
relevant and humorousat Lakeland
 
Roy Berko
 
(Member,
American Theatre Critics Association)
 
--THE TIMES
NEWSPAPERS--
LORAIN COUNTY
TIMES--WESTLAKER TIMES--LAKEWOOD NEWS TIMES--OLMSTED-FAIRVIEW TIMES
 
--COOLCLEVELAND.COM—
 
The dialogue writing
style of David Mamet, the author of NOVEMBER, which is now being staged at The
Civic Theatre at Lakeland Community College, is so unique that it actually has
a name all its own.  
 
Mamet speakis a cynical, street-smart, edgy way of talking.  In his writing Mamet often uses italics
and quotation marks to highlight particular words.  The intent is to make the actors aware of how to stress
certain terms, and that many sentences won’t be completed, and in speaking his
ideas the performers need to overlap their speeches.   A production of his works requires glib and fast-paced
speaking.
 
He doesn’t write pretty,
he writes blunt.  He uses four
letter words, not to shock, but in the natural flow of speech.  He states things that many would find
outlandish, but, in reality, are truths (or his version of the truth) and
thought provoking.  Ideas come from
the mouths of his characters, ideas that many think, but few say.  Many of his thoughts are outlandish,
laugh-out-loud, and obscene in words and connotation.
 
NOVEMBER
opened on Broadway in 2008 to mixed reviews.  The positive comments included: "savage
merriment . . . delightful . . . wild . . . brilliant." It was dubbed "vaudeville
meets current events.”
 
The script is filled with
satirical stabs at American politics, the public, special interest groups,
women, and about everything else that Mamet’s darts happen to hit. 
 
Meet President Charles
Smith, of Shaker Heights, Ohio, the most corrupt, inept, unliked scheming
buffoon ever to sit in the Oval Office. It's the final days of his bid for a
second term.  The country is a
mess, his poll numbers are "lower than Gandhi's cholesterol count"
and defeat is certain.  He needs to
get money for his Presidential library, his political party won’t help, and
he’s so broke that he wants to take the sofa in the Oval Office with him when
he departs.  
 
Add to this his lesbian
speechwriter longing to marry her sweetheart on national television, a cynical
chief of staff, Thanksgiving turkeys awaiting to be pardoned, and a wife who
almost causes the third World War because she spreads the rumor that there is
going to be a nuclear attack on or by Iran, and you have the potential for
hysteria.
 
Unfortunately, the
Lakeland show, under the direction of Martin Friedman, doesn’t live up to the
potential of the script.  
 
In the Broadway show
Nathan Lane, who played the President, was credited with being "glib and
jaunty" and “knowing exactly how to pitch such lines, with a time-honed
style that allows him to put the maximum spin on poisonous zingers and still
keep the audience on his side.”  Though he puts out full effort, Robert Hawkes doesn’t have Lane’s comic
timing or bigger than life presence.  
 
Andrew Narten as Archer
Brown, Smith’s chief of staff, underplays the role.  There is no Chaney evilness or Carl Rowe slithering
here.  It would have helped.
 
Anne McEvoy is fine as
Clarice, the speech writer.  She
develops a consistent and believable character.  Abigail Brace Allwein stays on the surface with little
character development as Turkey Gal and the same can be said for Robert McCoy
as Dwight Grackle, the Indian chief.
 
The show lacks precise
timing and doesn’t lead up to and stress the comic aspects of the lines.  It plays safe.  It needs to be outrageous.  The cast needs to let loose, thus
insuring the audience has fun.  As
is, it’s smile material.
 
The Oval Office of the
White House is well depicted here, but the view out the window is wrong.  Having worked at the White House, I’m
aware that the windows look out over the Rose Garden and the massive back lawn,
not at the Capitol Building which is miles away and east, not south of the
White House.
 
CAPSULE JUDGMENT:  NOVEMBER is a script full of biting
satire and sharp dialogue.  The
Lakeland production is humorous, but needed to be outrageously funny.  
 
The show runs until  October 16 at the Performing Arts
Center at Lakeland Community College in Kirtland.  For tickets call 440-525-7134.
 
 
Roy Berko's blog, which contains theatre and dance reviews from 2001 through 2011, 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 www.NeOHIOpal
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