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<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#293546'>''night
Mother' at Tri-C explores family, truth, life decisions<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#293546'>Published:
Friday, October 21, 2011, 7:08 AM <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";
color:#444E5C'>By <a
href="http://connect.cleveland.com/user/marjoriepreston/index.html"><b><span
style='color:#0C4790;text-decoration:none'>Marjorie Preston, Sun News </span></b></a><span
style='display:none'>Sun News</span> </span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#444E5C'><br>
<br>
</span><span style='font-size:7.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";
color:#444E5C'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:3.75pt;background:#F7F7F7;vertical-align:
top'><span style='font-size:7.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";
color:#444E5C'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#444E5C'>The
Cuyahoga Community College Eastern Campus Theatre Arts Department production of
“’Night, Mother” by Marsha Norman at the Tri-C East Studio
Theatre is a compelling family drama featuring two capable Cleveland actresses.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#444E5C'>It
tackles some of the challenging topics we face like family, truth, and life
decisions. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";
color:#444E5C;background:#F1F1F1'><img border=0 width=155 height=103
id="Picture_x0020_3" src="cid:image001.jpg@01CC9193.F5869640"
alt="theater masksC.jpg"></span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";
color:#444E5C'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#444E5C'>Aging
widow Thelma Cates (Joy Borland) lives with her adult daughter and caretaker,
Jessie Cates (Bernadette Clemens), an epileptic divorcee with no driver’s
license and no real outside interests. The two of them have lived an apparently
symbiotic relationship for years until the day we meet them – the day
that Jessie announces she is going to kill herself. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#444E5C'>Clemens,
as the mostly quiet, caretaker daughter, rides a roller coaster between
clinically explaining that she has simply decided to get off the bus a few
stops early (“It’s my stop. I’ve had enough”), dishing
on the neighbors, and clearing the air about old family secrets. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#444E5C'>When
her anger bubbles to the surface about 40 minutes in, it’s a clearing of
the air, except for the mess it leaves behind. Clemens’s honesty is
refreshing while we feel her pain. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#444E5C'>Borland,
as the wistful mom receiving instructions on where the mousetraps are and how
to clean the dryer’s lint trap, grasps at straws (“You’ll
blow your ear off”) and suggests her daughter perhaps take up shopping or
rearrange the furniture instead. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#444E5C'>Borland’s
desperation and bargaining in her daughter’s final moments is truly
heartbreaking. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#444E5C'>Director
Brian Zoldessy has cast two strong actresses in the roles. It is hard to see
the beautiful Clemens as an unappreciated ex-wife with low self-esteem, but she
transmits acutely the depth of her sadness, as her life revolves around her
mother and she doesn’t have any hobbies or passions in the world. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#444E5C'>Borland
is wonderfully suited for her role, though she appears young for it. Her
character claims to only have a few years to live and forgets which medications
to take, but the role does call for physically demanding moments of anger
punctuated by tossing down items, so he has found a very capable actress in Borland.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#444E5C'>Set
designer Ben Needham has created yet another tasteful, lovely set, both
familiar as a cozy, dusty rose-colored living area and yet strikingly similar
to Japanese screens with stark black outlines. Several wall panels have the
appearance of seeming to crack apart as black shadows like tree branches blot
them in perfect metaphor of the hairline cracks that have always existed in the
family structure. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#444E5C'>The
play may have lost some of its shock value since it won Marsha Norman the 1983
Pulitzer Prize for Drama, but “’Night, Mother” remains an
outstanding piece of theater. Some audience members may be reminded of the Who
lyric: “Hope I die before I get old,” as we question the seemingly
immovable truth that living a long life is admired and desired. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#444E5C'>And some
will be reminded that life is short, and that we ought to reach out to those we
love while we have a chance. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#444E5C'>Either
way, this quiet, intelligently-written tragedy will have you riveted. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#444E5C'>“’Night,
Mother” plays through October 23, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and
Sunday, October 23 at 2 p.m. Free parking is available in the B lot during
performances. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#444E5C'>For
tickets or more information, call (216) 987-2438 or visit <a
href="http://www.tri-c.edu/easttheatre" target="_blank"><b><span
style='color:#0C4790;text-decoration:none'>www.tri-c.edu/easttheatre.</span></b></a>
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#444E5C'>A gun
is shown and there are loud noises and adult themes in the production. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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