[NEohioPAL] Review of "Slowgirl" at Dobama Theatre

[Bob Abelman via NEohioPAL]

Slowgirl' is a brilliant example of the fine art of slow theater

 

Bob Abelman

Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning Journal

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics 

 
Dobama Theatre is at its best when presenting modest plays that rely on choice words and fine acting to do the heavy lifting.  Greg Pierce's "Slowgirl" - a sensitively drawn and delicately presented one-act contemplation on the healing of the human spirit - fits the bill in fine fashion.

 

When the play begins, Sterling (Christopher Bohan), a former American lawyer turned Costa Rican recluse, is visited by Becky (Miranda Leeann Scholl), the 17-year-old niece he barely knows.   She is awaiting trial for her participation in a tragic and traumatizing incident, and has come to the jungle to find some escape from the guilt and fear that has rocked her privileged and protected world.  He is there under similar circumstances, but their damaged souls and shared DNA are the only things the two have in common.

 

Sterling has retreated into himself, taking solace and finding sanity in the seclusion of the Central American dry forest.  He is most comfortable alone and, when forced to converse - with the hired help, the few locals who live down the road, or his niece - he tends to loiter, awkwardly, in the placating pauses between sentences.   

 

Becky's hyperactive verbosity lacks an off-switch.  And a filter.  Like so many contemporary American teens, she needs to fill any semblance of silence with rambling observations, random disclosures, and the sound and fury of her own voice.

 

The charm and much of the humor in this play is this conflict in communication styles, as Sterling desperately, uncomfortably and incompetently attempts to adjust to her full-fledged assault on his senses and Becky exasperatingly screams, "Jesus, would it kill you to finish a sentence?" 

 

But the real beauty of this piece is in the conflict resolution.  Not only do the two learn to talk together and trust one another, but Sterling enables Becky to look inward for peace and healing and she inspires him to come out from hiding, where his peace and healing awaits.  And that is where choice words and fine acting take over.



For more of this review, go to:  http://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/features/article_0e06e0bc-a4dc-11e4-94cb-73854b061657.html
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.neohiopal.org/pipermail/neohiopal-neohiopal.org/attachments/20150125/44760f9d/attachment.htm>