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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-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">GLTG makes mostly
magic of <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Mice and Men</I><?xml:namespace
prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"
/><o:p></o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Bob
Abelman<o:p></o:p></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-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">News-Herald,
Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times, Geauga Times
Courier<o:p></o:p></SPAN></I></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Member,
International Association of Theatre Critics <o:p></o:p></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-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></I></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">This
review appeared in the <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">News-Herald
</I>10/30/09</SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>John Steinbeck's
<I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Of Mice and Men</I> was written to be
read.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Since its
publication in 1937, this brilliantly penned novella has been turned into
dramatic stage productions, several films, an Off-Broadway musical and a
three-act opera.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>However, this
classic tale of enduring friendship between the big-bodied, soft-hearted and
slow-minded Lennie and his smaller, sharper and more worldly protector George is
all about the words. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Steinbeck's
words are simple yet powerful, poetic yet poignant.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>They are small, ordinary Everyman words,
yet they conjure expansive, colorful imagery about humanity’s search for a sense
of place and belonging in a cold, cruel world.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>The Geauga Lyric
Theater Guild presentation of the play, which opened last weekend, understands
this.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Under the kid-gloved
direction of David Malinowski, the play’s production values are basic, the
performances are straightforward and the staging is uncomplicated.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This allows Steinbeck’s words to speak
for themselves. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>George and
Lennie’s dream of a little piece of land, with horses, livestock, pet rabbits
and a garden of alfalfa, is revealed at the very beginning of the play.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So is the realization that there is no
chance that this dream will ever become reality.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Not for these men, who are itinerant,
down-on-their-luck, California ranch workers.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Not during this time, which is the Great
Depression.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Tim Coles, as
George, chews his dialogue carefully and thoroughly.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>By doing so, he effectively captures the
extreme loneliness and frustration his character endures from his unconditional
commitment to Lennie.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>At the end of
the play, when George must free Lennie and himself from their unbearable
burdens, Coles exudes a world-weariness that is palpable from the back row of
the theater.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>As Lennie, Wayne
Howell is a lovable, sympathetic man-child.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The character’s overriding goodness and
innocence, expressed through the play’s purposeful prose, comes through with
clarity.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Lennie’s subtle
intricacies and intimate connectedness with George, which must be relayed during
the silences between the dialogue, are not as clear. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 12.75pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">As the story unfolds,
the playwright unveils the trapped and tortured souls on the ranch—Candy, a
spiritually defeated, disabled old man, and Crooks, a solitary and physically
misshapen stable hand—who buy into George and Lennie’s alluring but unobtainable
dream and make it their own.</SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 12.75pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p></o:p></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 12.75pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Joe Petrolia and
Marvin Malloy give flesh to these characters and are wonderful.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The most moving scenes in the play
are when Petrolia’s Candy finally realizes the folly in the communal dream of a
homestead and when Malloy’s Crooks, a black man, exposes a form of isolation and
loneliness that even George and Lennie cannot imagine.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></SPAN><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN">Jim
Shannon, as the foreman, and Aaron Drews and Tony Spexziale, as
other</SPAN><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"> </SPAN><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN">farmhands,
also turn in fine performances.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>A dangerous
undercurrent ripples throughout the play, which originates from the ranch—a “bad
place” according to Lennie, who senses peril and tragedy from the get-go.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Scenic designer Sean Thompson has built
a wonderfully rustic set with bunkhouse and stable walls comprised of long,
vertical raw wood planks that appear to imprison the workers and suggest danger
around every sharp corner.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>The Boss’s evil
son, Curley, and Curley’s sexually charged wife personify this danger, although
neither Nate Earley nor Jacinda Sandness comes across as particularly evil or
seductive. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Their acting is a bit
stilted and, consequently, out of step with the language Steinbeck has provided
them. </FONT></SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT
size=3>As a result, there is little tension during the first act struggle
between Lennie and Curly, which sets the show’s dynamics in motion.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There is little suspense during the
second act encounter between Lennie and Curley’s wife, which leads to the
dramatic climax of the play.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>It is during
these and other emotionally charged scenes that director Malinowski’s soft touch
could have been a bit more heavy-handed.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Some classic tear-jerking moments come and go without incident, creating
a more somber <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Of Mice and Men</I> than
the playwright may have intended.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Still, this is a
fine GLTG production.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It does
justice to this remarkable story and the words produced by its Nobel
Prize-winning author. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">Of
Mice and Men</SPAN></I><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">
runs </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">through November 8 at
the Geauga Theater, 106 Water Street in Chardon.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>For tickets, which range from $13 to
$15, call 440-286-2255 or visit <A href=""><FONT
color=#0000ff>www.geugatheater.org</FONT></A>.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>