<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:bookman old style, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">NOVEMBER is
relevant and humorous<span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"> </span>at Lakeland</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">Roy Berko</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">(Member,
American Theatre Critics Association)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">--THE TIMES
NEWSPAPERS--</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Palatino;color:black">LORAIN COUNTY
TIMES--WESTLAKER TIMES--LAKEWOOD NEWS TIMES--OLMSTED-FAIRVIEW TIMES</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">--COOLCLEVELAND.COM—</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino">The dialogue writing
style of David Mamet, the author of NOVEMBER, which is now being staged at The
Civic Theatre at Lakeland Community College, is so unique that it actually has
a name all its own.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><span style="font-family:Palatino">Mamet speak</span></i><span style="font-family:
Palatino"> is a cynical, street-smart, edgy way of talking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In his writing Mamet often uses italics
and quotation marks to highlight particular words.<span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"> </span>The intent is to make the actors aware of how to stress
certain terms, and that many sentences won’t be completed, and in speaking his
ideas the performers need to overlap their speeches.<span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"> </span>A production of his works requires glib and fast-paced
speaking.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino">He doesn’t write pretty,
he writes blunt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He uses four
letter words, not to shock, but in the natural flow of speech.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He states things that many would find
outlandish, but, in reality, are truths (or his version of the truth) and
thought provoking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Ideas come from
the mouths of his characters, ideas that many think, but few say.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Many of his thoughts are outlandish,
laugh-out-loud, and obscene in words and connotation.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></div>
<div style="margin-top:.1pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:.1pt;margin-left:0in"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Palatino">NOVEMBER
opened on Broadway in 2008 to mixed reviews.<span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"> </span>The positive comments included: </span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Palatino">"savage
merriment . . . delightful . . . wild . . . brilliant."</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Palatino"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It was dubbed </span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Palatino">"vaudeville
meets current events.”</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Palatino"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino">The script is filled with
satirical stabs at American politics, the public, special interest groups,
women, and about everything else that Mamet’s darts happen to hit. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino">Meet President Charles
Smith, of Shaker Heights, Ohio, the most corrupt, inept, unliked scheming
buffoon ever to sit in the Oval Office. It's the final days of his bid for a
second term.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The country is a
mess, his poll numbers are "lower than Gandhi's cholesterol count"
and defeat is certain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He needs to
get money for his Presidential library, his political party won’t help, and
he’s so broke that he wants to take the sofa in the Oval Office with him when
he departs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino">Add to this his lesbian
speechwriter longing to marry her sweetheart on national television, a cynical
chief of staff, Thanksgiving turkeys awaiting to be pardoned, and a wife who
almost causes the third World War because she spreads the rumor that there is
going to be a nuclear attack on or by Iran, and you have the potential for
hysteria.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino">Unfortunately, the
Lakeland show, under the direction of Martin Friedman, doesn’t live up to the
potential of the script.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino">In the Broadway show
Nathan Lane, who played the President, was credited with being "glib and
jaunty" and “knowing exactly how to pitch such lines, with a time-honed
style that allows him to put the maximum spin on poisonous zingers and still
keep the audience on his side.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span>Though he puts out full effort, Robert Hawkes doesn’t have Lane’s comic
timing or bigger than life presence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino">Andrew Narten as Archer
Brown, Smith’s chief of staff, underplays the role.<span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"> </span>There is no Chaney evilness or Carl Rowe slithering
here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It would have helped.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino">Anne McEvoy is fine as
Clarice, the speech writer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>She
develops a consistent and believable character.<span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"> </span>Abigail Brace Allwein stays on the surface with little
character development as Turkey Gal and the same can be said for Robert McCoy
as Dwight Grackle, the Indian chief.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino">The show lacks precise
timing and doesn’t lead up to and stress the comic aspects of the lines.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It plays safe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It needs to be outrageous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The cast needs to let loose, thus
insuring the audience has fun.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>As
is, it’s smile material.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino">The Oval Office of the
White House is well depicted here, but the view out the window is wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Having worked at the White House, I’m
aware that the windows look out over the Rose Garden and the massive back lawn,
not at the Capitol Building which is miles away and east, not south of the
White House.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino">CAPSULE JUDGMENT:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>NOVEMBER is a script full of biting
satire and sharp dialogue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The
Lakeland production is humorous, but needed to be outrageously funny.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino">The show runs until<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>October 16 at the Performing Arts
Center at Lakeland Community College in Kirtland.<span style="mso-spacerun:
yes"> </span>For tickets call 440-525-7134.</span></div>
<div> </div><div> </div><div><i><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#8000FF">Roy Berko's blog, which contains theatre and dance reviews from 2001 through 2011, as well as his consulting and publications information, can be found at http://royberko.info. His reviews can also be found on www.coolcleveland.com and www.NeOHIOpal</font></i></div></div></body></html>