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<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"
class=MsoNormal align=center><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Ensemble’s ‘The
Normal Heart’ a passionate PSA <?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"><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; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">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; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">News-Herald,
Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times, 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; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">Member,
International Association of Theatre Critics <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; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><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; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">This
review will appear in the <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Times</I>
</SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">on
10/4/12</SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"><o:p><FONT size=3
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN" lang=EN><FONT
size=3>Premiering at New York’s Public Theater in 1985 amidst the initial
outburst of HIV-AIDS, gay activist and playwright Larry Kramer's “<EM><SPAN
style="FONT-STYLE: normal; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-style: italic">The
Normal Heart” was a force to be reckoned
</SPAN></EM>with.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"><FONT size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN>Autobiographical and taking no prisoners, the play indicted an apathetic
government, </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black">chastised an inactive
press too cowardly to cover the crisis, and condemned a medical community too
slow to respond.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It also called out
gay citizens and activists too divided to be a community, too closeted to raise
a collective voice, and too promiscuous to deter their own demise.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
lang=EN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"><FONT size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN" lang=EN>This
was a play about futility—a confrontational, desperate cry for help in the
darkness—that was </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: #061826">never meant to be a
subtle work or a great work of art.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>In fact, Kramer’s playwriting skills and </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN>theatrical sensibilities were not nearly as evolved as his conscience,
passion and frustration.</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: #061826" lang=EN> </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: #061826"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The play was meant to get your
attention.</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN" lang=EN>
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN" lang=EN><FONT
size=3>It still does.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Revived on
Broadway in 2011 and currently on stage at the Ensemble Theatre in Cleveland
Heights, “The Normal Heart” is still a disturbing work and, because the plague
has not gone away, the play’s rhetoric continues to bite.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As a now-historical marker of a medical
problem in its infancy and a sociopolitical movement at its birth, its poignancy
is immediate and penetrating.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN" lang=EN><FONT
size=3>“The Normal Heart” is also about as entertaining as a public service
announcement.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN" lang=EN><FONT
size=3>Speeches fill the script.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Most of the dialogue is utilitarian, serving to advance a talking point
rather than progress a storyline.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>When attention is paid to storytelling—such as the play-ending
wedding-on-a-deathbed scene—it feels as if emotional buttons are being pushed
with an oversized whack-a-mole sledgehammer.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN" lang=EN><FONT
size=3>There are, however, intriguing aspects of this play that were undermined
in the urgency of its original telling that now rise to the surface in this
Ensemble Theatre production.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>One is
the playwright’s revealing disclosure of his own failings as an activist, a
card-carrying homosexual, and a human being.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN" lang=EN><FONT
size=3>Brian Zoldessy, as Kramer's surrogate mouthpiece Ned Weeks—brings this to
the forefront with clarity and through a marvelous combination of awkward
self-consciousness, writhing vulnerability, and hard-driving intent.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>He is wonderful, and needs to be, for
Ned is the glue that binds the play’s pieces and parts and allows it to resemble
a coordinated narrative. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></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-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN>The show’s speeches, which on the page read like political pamphlets and
the information sheets stuffed into the Ensemble Theater playbill, pop on the
stage. This is due to the stellar performances by a very talented company.<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; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; 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-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN>Dan Kilbane as Mickey Marcus—Ned’s friend and fellow founding member of
the </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN>Gay Men's Health Crisis activist group—delivers his second act rant with
such helpless rage that audience members fight the urge to reach out to him for
support.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>David Bugher as Bruce
Niles—the group’s elected leader and a closeted businessman—offers a
heart-wrenching recognition of the epidemic’s toll on his life and on the gay
community.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As Emma Brookner, an
early AIDS physician, Derdriu Ring is riveting throughout the production but
particularly during her tirade that lambasts the medical community for
non-response to the disease.<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="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>Director Sarah May nicely balances these epic orations with more subtle
presentations by the other players, who show remarkable restrain and a genuine
understanding of this play and their part in it.<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; 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>They include Scott Esposito as Ned’s lover and first love, Jeffrey
Grover as Ned’s brother, and Jeremy Jenkins as a charming Southern activist and
provider of the play’s few light moments.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Richard Worswick and Benjamin Gregg serve in a variety of roles, which is
always a bit disconcerting in professional productions and is downright
disturbing in this play since they reappear on stage after playing someone who
has just died from AIDS.<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; 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-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN>Set designer Ian Hinz captures the simplicity of the original and
revival productions, with their multiple entrance ways between three white walls
and a few pieces of furniture creating a sense of location.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>However, rather than having words and
names of victims inscribed in relief, three mounted flat-screens—technology not
in existence when this play takes place—serve that function with significantly
less dramatic effect.<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; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"><FONT size=3><EM><SPAN
style="FONT-STYLE: normal; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN>“The Normal Heart” is propaganda art, of that there is no doubt, and
Kramer </SPAN></EM><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN" lang=EN>is most
certainly a man on a mission.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But,
over 25 years later, he has proven himself to be somewhat of a prophet as well
as a playwright.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> O</SPAN>ur nation’s
apathy toward AIDS still rules the day.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" 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"
lang=EN><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: #191919; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">“The
Normal Heart</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">”</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: #191919; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">
</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-font-style: italic">continues
through October 21 </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">at the Ensemble
Theatre.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>For tickets, which range
from $10 to $20, call </SPAN><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>216-321-2930 or visit <A href="http://www.ensemble-theatre.org/"><FONT
color=#0000ff>www.ensemble-theatre.org</FONT></A>.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>