[NEohioPAL] Review of "John" at Dobama Theatre

[Bob Abelman]

It’s red herring season in Annie Baker’s ‘John’



Bob Abelman

Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning Journal

Member, American Theatre Critics Association



Within Annie Baker’s 106-page script for “John,” which takes just over three hours to perform, there is one line within its first few pages that seems to speak on behalf of the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright regarding the disposition of her 2015 play.



“I can only do build-up to scary, not scary itself.”



The play revolves around Elias Schreiber-Hoffman and Jenny Chung, a young Brooklyn couple on the brink of a breakup who stop at an eerie bed & breakfast in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania one cold November evening. The line is spoken by Elias late at night, as he tries to tell Jenny a scary story to ease her anxiety about the spooky Civil War-era house with its creepy dead-eyed doll collection, peculiar innkeeper, and copious shadows.



Mid-way through his story he stops and admits his shortcoming as a storyteller.  While this signifies one of the many ways Elias fails to satisfy Jenny’s needs, it also tips off Baker’s cruel and clever intentions as a master storyteller to offer a traditional ghost story without the ghosts.  



For more of this article, go to www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/bob_abelman/
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