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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"><b>MIDDLETOWN, a
fine absurdist comedy at Dobama</b> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">Roy Berko</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Palatino;color:black">(Member, American Theatre Critics Association, Cleveland Critics
Circle)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">MIDDLETOWN,
Will Eno’s absurdist comedy, has been characterized as, “</span>a piece that's
a bit like Thornton Wilder's <span style="text-transform:uppercase">Our Town</span>
if it had been penned by Dr. Seuss and edited by Samuel Beckett.”<span style> </span>It’s a perfect description.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This is a profoundly wise script.<span style> </span>In fact, that is probably why this isn’t a play for
everyone.<span style> </span>As a woman behind me
said to her companion at intermission, “I don’t understand this.”<span style> </span>They walked out of the theatre and
didn’t come back for the second act.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Eno is not your run-of-the mill writer.<span style> </span>He knows language well.<span style> </span>He uses language well.<span style> </span>He wrings meanings out of phrases that,
on the surface, appear too abstract for understanding.<span style> </span>His explanation of the parallel between
people and rocks is far too complex to discuss here, but as two of the
characters talk, and one makes a sculpture piece out of pieces of rocks, the
concept becomes crystal clear.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">To grasp Eno’s flow, you have to know the characters.<span style> </span>There’s a quixotic-like librarian, a
very confused handyman in search of the purpose in life, a pregnant young wife whose
husband is like the invisible man, a thoughtful doctor, a well-meaning nurse,
an over-compensating town cop, a former con who is a mechanic, a landscaper,
and a town guide who seems to know nothing about the town.<span style> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">As in OUR TOWN, the days of the play are not unusual days.
they are ordinary, like the lives of most people.<span style> </span>The existences of the people of MIDDLETOWN all intersect,
like the streets on the map on the floor of the theatre, in random, yet
patterned ways.<span style> </span>Their journey
takes them from the public library to outer space, from their homes to the
hospital.<span style> </span><span style> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Eno, in the words of his characters, asks, “How does this
whole thing [life] work?”<span style> </span>and
“What do you want out of life?”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">MIDDLETOWN inhabits empty space, and, like many absurdist
plays, asks why we exist, while showing how out-of-kilter life really is.<span style> </span><span style> </span>There is only the asking of questions, not the giving of
answers.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Dobama’s production, under the focused direction of Joel
Hammer, wrings all it can out of the script. <span style> </span>The cast is universally fine, not a weak actor in the bunch.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">As the Public Speaker, Robert Hawkes, like the stage manger
in OUR TOWN, explains to us the rules of engagement between the audience and
the actors, in a long but very funny opening speech.<span style> </span>He pops in again as a ground control NASA director, a man, and
a doctor.<span style> </span>This blending of
characters is the nature of the play.<span style>
</span>As in life, most people are interchangeable.<span style> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Jason Markouc, the obsessive town cop with some anger
issues, Fabio Polanco, the mechanic who borders on being mad, Emily Demko as
the ineffective town guide, Maryann Elder as a female tourist and female
doctor, and Mark Mayo as a landscaper, are all character correct.<span style> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Carly Germany, as Mrs. Swanson, a town newcomer and pregnant
mom, develops a meaningful characterization.<span style> </span>Tom Woodward, as a confused, frustrated, self-doubting handy
man, is excellent, as is Laura Starnik, the town librarian, who has her thumb
on the pulse of MIDDLETOWN.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Laura Carlson’s creative scenic design works well, as does
the lighting design by Marcus Dana and the sound design of Richard Ingraham. <i style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">CAPSULE JUDGEMENT: </span></i><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">If you don’t like to think, <i style>MIDDLETOWN may not be a play for you.<span style> </span>But, for anyone willing to put in a
little effort, this thought provoking absurdist comedy, is your thing.</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">MIDDLETOWN runs
through March 18 at Dobama.<span style> </span>Call
216-932-3396 for tickets.</span></p>