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<h1><b><font size=6 color="#293546" face=Verdana><span style='font-size:24.0pt;
font-family:Verdana'>Dobama Theatre opens darkly ironic 'Receptionist'<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h1>
<h3><b><font size=4 color="#293546" face=Verdana><span style='font-size:13.5pt;
font-family:Verdana'>by <a href="mailto:tbrown@plaind.com"><font color="#405094"><span
style='color:#405094'>Tony Brown/Plain Dealer Theater Critic</span></font></a> <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h3>
<h3><b><font size=4 color="#293546" face=Verdana><span style='font-size:13.5pt;
font-family:Verdana'>Saturday March 14, 2009, 7:52 AM<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h3>
<p><strong><b><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Verdana'>REVIEW </span></font></b></strong><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><strong><b><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Verdana'>"The Receptionist" </span></font></b></strong><font
face=Verdana><span style='font-family:Verdana'><br>
</span></font><strong><b><font face=Verdana><span style='font-family:Verdana'>When:</span></font></b></strong><font
face=Verdana><span style='font-family:Verdana'> Through Sunday, April 5.<br>
</span></font><strong><b><font face=Verdana><span style='font-family:Verdana'>Where:</span></font></b></strong><font
face=Verdana><span style='font-family:Verdana'> Pilgrim Congregational Church, <st1:address
w:st="on"><st1:Street w:st="on">2592 West 14th St.</st1:Street>, <st1:City
w:st="on">Cleveland</st1:City></st1:address>.<br>
</span></font><strong><b><font face=Verdana><span style='font-family:Verdana'>Tickets:</span></font></b></strong><font
face=Verdana><span style='font-family:Verdana'> $15-$22. Call 216-932-3396 or
go to <a href="http://dobama.org/" target="_blank"><font color="#405094"><span
style='color:#405094'>Dobama.org.</span></font></a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>Since
the post-World War II white-collar revolution, the office and its bureaucratic
denizens have made fodder for entertainment. Think "Glengarry Glen
Ross," "The Apartment" and "The Office."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>Now
comes playwright Adam Bock with "The Receptionist," a quirky dark
comedy that asks: Would desk jockeys who work where torture is the
stock-in-trade behave the same as those who deal in widgets? <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>The
2007 play made its area debut Friday night at Pilgrim Congregational Church in
a production by Dobama Theatre. A 15-minute curtain-raiser in the same vein,
"H.R.," by <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Cleveland Heights</st1:place></st1:City>
playwright Eric Coble, opens the 90-minute evening. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><a name=more></a><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Verdana'>After a brief prologue about the joys of fly-fishing,
"The Receptionist" segues to the "Northeast office" of an
unnamed company where a typical workday morning is in progress. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>The
receptionist (Lissy Gulick, motherly, in ways good and scary) chats with
friends on the phone, brags about teacups she collects, dispenses personal
advice, makes pastry runs and occasionally even works. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>The
female second-in-command of the office (Jennifer Klika, sexy and sobby) arrives
late yet again, frets over being "in love with a narcissist," wants
to bed every man with two legs, and shares her secrets with all. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>Into
this quotidian milieu struts a stranger with wraparound shades and an
obsequious manner (Tom Woodward, inscrutably pleasant and evil) from the
"central office," who asks to see the boss. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>We
grow vaguely aware that something isn't kosher in this inner-scape of flat
screens and potted plants, and then the boss (Michael Regnier, laconic and
bellicose) walks in and casually says something about having had to break a
client's fingers yesterday. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>Tidily
directed with emphasis on the ironic by Dobama artistic director Joel Hammer,
the play suggests there are no innocents in an enterprise where somebody, on
the next floor up or the next office over, practices evil. Even the lady who
answers the phone is suspect. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>Think
about that next time you boot up, sign on and plug into the Monday morning
routine. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>While
we're on the subject of Dobama, it should be noted that while designer Michael
Roesch does a spectacular job in the limiting environs of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Pilgrim</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Church</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>,
this nomadic company has happier days ahead: It starts renovations in two weeks
on its new home, the old Cleveland Heights YMCA on <st1:Street w:st="on"><st1:address
w:st="on">Lee Road</st1:address></st1:Street>. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>Working
overtime<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>"H.R.,"
a light and tasty appetizer commissioned by Dobama, utilizes the same actors to
lampoon office behavior (and misbehavior) as four employees of the "<st1:place
w:st="on">Midwest</st1:place> office" face a threat as terrifying as
torture: a visit from human resources. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>Coble
neatly reverses gender roles. Gulick is the alpha dog this time and Regnier her
receptionist; Woodward is the airhead and Klika oddly scary. It's all agreeably
short and amusing. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>Coble,
the busiest of <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Cleveland</st1:place></st1:City>'s
strong contingent of playwrights, has been especially fully employed of late. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>In
addition to being on the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Board of
Education (a fate possibly more trying than torture or human resources), Coble
has this going on: <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>"Southern
Rapture," a comedy commissioned by Actor's <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City
w:st="on">Theatre of Charlotte</st1:City>, <st1:State w:st="on">N.C.</st1:State></st1:place>,
which opens Wednesday, April 15. It's about a controversial 1995 production in
the Carolinas' biggest city of <st1:City w:st="on">Tony Kushner</st1:City>'s
"Angels in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region>:
A Gay Fantasia on National Themes." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>A
<st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New York</st1:place></st1:State>
staged reading Monday, April 27, of the musical "The Tapioca
Miracle." Broadway veteran John Rando ("Urinetown") directs and
Broadway diva Karen Ziemba stars as a woman who sees the face of the prophet
Ezekiel in her pudding. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Verdana'>And
writing adaptations for Oregon Children's Theatre and the Cleveland Play House
Children's Theatre. He has a short script in Jubilee 2009, the international
debt-relief project, that goes up in two weeks. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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