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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Great Lakes Production of
<I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">The Seagull</I> soars<?xml:namespace
prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"
/><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><SPAN
style="COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Bob
Abelman<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT
size=3>News-Herald, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times, Geauga Times
Courier<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></I></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><SPAN
style="COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Member,
International Association of Theatre Critics <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></I></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><SPAN
style="COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>This
review appeared in the <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">News-Herald
</I>4/17/09</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face=Calibri
size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Tragicomedy is a high
wire act, a delicate balance of drama and comedy that can easily tilt one way or
another upon the currents of a director’s whims or an actor’s choices.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival’s
current rendition of <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">The Seagull</I>,
director Drew Barr and his talented troupe find a very comfortable
equilibrium.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">The setting
for Russian playwright Anton Chekhov’s 1895 play is the lakeside estate on which
the elderly Sorin (Dudley Swetland) lives with his nephew Konstantin (Kevin
Crouch), who is an aspiring playwright with visions of revolutionizing the
theatre.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>They are visited during a
summer hiatus by Konstantin’s mother Arkadina (Laura Perrotta), a highly
successful, high maintenance actress, and her lover Trigorin (Andrew May), a
famous novelist.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Other guests
include Dorn (Aled Davies), the urbane country doctor; Medvedenko (Ian Gould), a
timid schoolteacher; Nina (Gisela Chipe), the beautiful young daughter of a
wealthy neighbor from across the lake; and Shamrayev (David Anthony Smith), his
wife, Paulina (Lynn Allison) and their perennially depressed daughter, Masha
(Sara Bruner), who run Sorin’s farm. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Each
character in Chekhov’s play is, essentially, a wounded seagull, desperately
wanting to be someone other than who they are and someplace other than where
they happen to be, but are either incapable or unwilling to take flight.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Perhaps they are just weighed down by
all their psychological baggage, for everyone is desperately in love with
someone who is desperately in love with someone else.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It is from the dynamic tension generated
by these base emotions and lofty aspirations that the human tragedy and ironic
comedy of this play arise.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">In this GLTF
adaptation of Chekhov’s work, the first act lays bare the pervasive haplessness
and weighty frustration that consumes these characters.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It reveals every character’s misstep and
missed opportunity or, in the case of Konstantin’s botched suicide attempt, his
misfire.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">The second
act unfolds 10 years later and demonstrates how time intensifies and solidifies
life’s cruel twists and turns, which is best exemplified by Konstantin’s
successful effort to end his failure of a life.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Director
Barr layers this production with melancholy so gelatinous that these characters
appear to be expending all their energy engaging in the simple act of
self-expression and coexisting with one another.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>They so desire to retreat into their own
malaise that Barr allows them to turn their backs on one another, as the farm
manager Shamrayev does while watching the production of Konstantin’s latest
play, or rock back and forth in a dark corner, as Masha does while contemplating
her miserable marriage.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">All this is
complemented by Russell Metheny’s minimalist set design, Peter West’s lighting
and Kim Krumm Sorenson’s costumes, which provide enough to give audience members
a sense of time and place but not so much as to distract them from this intense
play and the fine, refined performances of its actors.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">In a
complete counterpoint to the brazen performances they deliver in <I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">The Comedy of Errors</I>, which runs in
repertory with this production, these actors are marvelously muted in their
presentation here.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Each character
is complex and fully developed, and each player takes great pains to bear the
full weight of his or her tragedy and squeeze out, with no apparent recognition,
his or her more comedic expressions.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Some really good acting is performed on this stage.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Over the years,
numerous companies have sought to gain new insight or offer new interpretation
of Chekhov’s work.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This GLTG
production of <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">The Seagull</I> does
not.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It is pure, streamlined and
takes flight.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">This is how Chekhov
is meant to be played.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>The Seagull <I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">continues in repertory with Shakespeare’s
</I>The Comedy of Errors<I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"> through May 3 at
PlayhouseSquare’s Hanna Theatre.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>For tickets, which range from $13 to $67, call 216-241-6000 or visit
<B><A href=""><FONT
color=#000066>www.greatlakestheater.org</FONT></A></B></I></FONT><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>