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<P
style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"
class=MsoNormal align=center><B><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN>Con-con’s ‘Devil Boys’ offers hilarious, boundary-shattering
parody<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"
/><o:p></o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"
class=MsoNormal align=center><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"
class=MsoNormal align=center><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Bob
Abelman<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"
class=MsoNormal align=center><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">News-Herald,
Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times,<o:p></o:p></SPAN></I></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"
class=MsoNormal align=center><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">The
Morning Journal, Geauga Times Courier<o:p></o:p></SPAN></I></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"
class=MsoNormal align=center><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Member,
American Theatre Critics Association <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"
class=MsoNormal align=center><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></I></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"
class=MsoNormal align=center><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">This
review will appear in the <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">News-Herald
</I></SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">on
5/18/12</SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P
style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"
class=MsoNormal align=center><B><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"
class=MsoNormal><B><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"
lang=EN>Parodies are far from original fare, borrowing shamelessly from more
sober source material and then exploiting it for their own ill-gotten
gains.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>They can, however, be
genuinely fun affairs if they take creative risks, plenty of liberties, and no
prisoners.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"
lang=EN><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"
lang=EN>Such is the case with the weird and wonderful “Devil Boys >From Beyond,”
currently in production at convergence-continuum in Tremont under Clyde Simon’s
devil-may-care direction.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"
lang=EN><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"
lang=EN>Buddy Thomas and Kenneth Elliot’s play, which ran off-Broadway after its
2009 premiere at the New York International Fringe Festival, is an unholy union
between the 1940s screwball comedy and the campy 1950s sci-fi drama.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"
lang=EN><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"
lang=EN>More specifically, the “Devil Boys” revolves around an alien invasion
ala </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Robert Wise's “The
<SPAN style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">Day the Earth Stood Still,” where
strangers from a strange world take over the bodies of their human hosts ala
</SPAN>Don Siegel's “<SPAN style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">Invasion of the
Body Snatchers.”<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></SPAN>Florence
Wexler and Dotty Primrose, two dumpy, dissatisfied housewives in backwoods
Lizard Lick, Florida, have a life-altering experience after a space ship
crash-lands in their backyard and unloads muscle-bound men from
Pluto.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">The invasion has caught the attention
of the <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">New York Bugle</I> newspaper,
where hard-boiled editor Gil Wiatt assigns fast-talking, no-nonsense star
reporter Mattie Van Nuren and her lovable, alcoholic, ex-husband photographer
Gregory Graham to cover the story. They're followed to Lizard Lick by gossip
columnist Lucinda Marsh, who plans on stealing the scoop.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>All this is an amusing mashup of
storyline elements from Howard Hunt’s “His Girl Friday” and characters types
found in Frank Capra’s “M</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN" lang=EN>r.
Smith Goes to Washington.” <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN>“His Girl Friday” is actually an adaptation of the play “The Front Page”
that converted the fast-talking reporter from a male to a female.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In like albeit lampooning fashion, the
authors of “Devil Boys” give all the female roles to men in drag.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>They give them all the best business and
naughtiest lines as well. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN" lang=EN>As
parodies go, this is a good one for the source material is recognizable but an
awful lot of fun is had at its expense.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Set in 1957,
“Devil Boys” turns the Red Scare and period fears of alien invasion brought on
by space exploration into comedic commentary on the issue of same-sex
marriage.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It does so with tongue
firmly planted in some other guy’s cheek—which is convergence-continuum’s
trademark—and is more fodder for our entertainment than transgender or gay
rights agenda-setting.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN>As productions go, this is good but could be better.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Director Simon cast Mattie Van Nuren as
an actual female, which serves as an interesting counterpoint to the broad,
grotesque-in-a-good-way portrayals turned in by cross-dressing </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Zac Hudak as Lucinda,
Grey Cross as Florence, and Jonathan Wilhelm as Dotty.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>However, Amy </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN>Bistok-Bunce tends to mimic rather than fully embrace the character-type
created <SPAN style="COLOR: black">by </SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Rosalind
Russell</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN">
<SPAN lang=EN>and Jean Arthur in the 1940s.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Bistok-Bunce is a pleasure to watch, but
she would be grand if her Mattie was given more moxie. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN>The same can be said for </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Tim Coles as the hard
boiled newspaper editor (played over easy) and Michael Prosen as the lovable
alcoholic (played too pathetic).<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>They need to be more over-the-top and truer to their characters’
film-based archetypes to better blend with the show’s more exaggerated
performances, including those of Clint Elston and Geoffrey Hoffman as the
shirtless extraterrestrials.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>As with most con-con
productions, scenery and set pieces are spare.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Curtis Holland’s lighting, Lisa Wiley’s
sound design, and Deana Cechowski’s costuming do just enough to bring to mind
the cheap look and even cheaper special effects of B-movie thrillers. <SPAN
style="COLOR: #444e5c"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">“Devil Boys” is the
third in con-con’s three-play series “Cosmic Conundrums Curiously Considered,”
which address big issues in a different, cutting-edge, engaging manner.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It <I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">continues through June 2 at the Liminis
Theatre in historic Tremont.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>For
tickets, which range from $10 to $15, call 216-687-0074 or visit <B><A
href=""><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal"><FONT
color=#0000ff>www.convergence-continuum.org</FONT></SPAN></A>.<o:p></o:p></B></I></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>