[NEohioPAL] Berko review: THE BIG MEAL @ Dobama

[Roy Berko]

*•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••Compelling THE BIG MEAL at Dobama*

Roy Berko
(Member, American Theatre Critics Association, Cleveland Critics Circle)


Dan LeFranc’s THE BIG MEAL is a ninety-minute comedy-drama about life,
death, meeting, dating, marriage, child-rearing, the importance of casual
comments and interactions, and the quickness of existence.

Nicole is a waitress in a non-descript restaurant someplace in America.
Sam enters, they interact, go on a date in which she informs him that she
isn’t into commitment and “I don’t really wanna’ know about your life, and
I don’t want you to know much about mine.”

Things quickly happen.  In less than five minutes of stage time, Sam
produces a wedding ring, the non-commitment becomes a bonded relationship,
they form a family.  We are set into a pattern of flow in which five
generations of a family are revealed, from a flirtation to a final goodbye,
in one setting…the restaurant in which Nicole and Sam originally met.

The play is an extraordinary story of an ordinary family whose tale turns
out to be events to which others can easily identify.  It’s pretty hard to
watch without thinking of your family’s meals, who was there, and what went
on.

The eight actors play all of the reincarnations of members of the family
that ultimately grows from the union between Sam and Nicole.

The average theatre-goer usually knows little about the format for scripts
or the challenges that directors face in staging certain plays because of
the dictates of a play’s author.  Usually, this maters little.  In the case
of THE BIG MEAL, now on stage at Dobama, having this knowledge adds to the
appreciation of what director Joel Hammer and his talented cast confronted
in performing the play.

Play scripts are usually vertical pages onto which the name of a character
is printed followed by his/her lines.  Then another character’s name,
followed by her/his lines.  The format continues throughout the script with
the assumption that one line will follow another.  That works for most
plays.  It doesn’t work for THE BIG MEAL.  LeFranc has two, three or more
characters talking at the same time.  That’s a normal life pattern,
especially at mealtime.  The flow here is not one speaks, another speaks.
It’s usually lots of people talking at the same time.

The problem for LeFranc was how to indicate these constant overlaps on
paper to clue the director and actors.  A man of the 21st century, he
turned the page on the side, used a spread sheet, and had the names of the
characters along the top of each column and their lines below.  Sounds
easy?  Yes, to format, but the challenge for director Joel Hammer was, “How
do actors know when to speak, how to react to the cacophony of words, how
to convey that they are often a person who in one scene was a daughter or
son and is now the son or daughter or mother or father of the person he/she
just was?”

Hammer and his cast miraculously found the key.  The process is so natural,
so well conceived and developed, that the play becomes a series of reality
scenes rather than theatrical stagings.

Hammer also needed to clue audiences as to when one character died without
having death scenes.  He eliminated the use of all food, except in rare
instances.  The “angel of death” delivers real food meals only to a person
who is about to die.

The cast is universally excellent.  Bob Goddard is exceptional portraying
all the older men.  He is especially effective as Sam, now in advanced
stage dementia, staring off into space with blankness on his face and
unresponding eyes.

Anne McEvoy clearly develops each of the older women. As the aged Nicole,
we emotionally experience her meeting her newest great grandchild before
succumbing to life’s final stage.

Tom Woodward is clear in his two incarnations, texturing each to make for
clarity of characterization.

Ryan Vincent and Emily Kenville each are given the difficult the task of
portraying all of the children…from young, through tweens and teens.  Each
does so with complete professionalism and realism.

Derdriu Ring portrays each of the mid-range women with conviction and
clarity of character.

Geoff Know and Llewie Nuñez, the original Sam and Nichol, transfer
personages effectively making it clear that they have taken on new personas.

Scenic designer Laura Carlson’s restaurant set works well.  Rob Peck’s
lighting design helps isolate scenes and helps move the plot along.

*CAPSULE JUDGEMENT:  THE BIG MEAL is one of those special theatrical events
when the script, the directorial concept, and the acting effectiveness all
blend together to make for a “must see” theatrical experience.  BRAVO!*

THE BIG MEAL runs through January 5, 2014  at Dobama Theatre.  Call
216-932-3396 or http://www.dobama.org for tickets.

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