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<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal
align=center><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>The bile is out of
balance in CVLT’s ‘God of Carnage’<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></B></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal
align=center><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT
size=3>Bob Abelman<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal
align=center><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT
size=3>News-Herald, <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Chagrin</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">Valley</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> Times, Solon Times, Geauga Times
Courier<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></I></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal
align=center><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT
size=3>Member, International Association of Theatre Critics
<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal
align=center><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></I></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal
align=center><FONT size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">This
review will appear in the <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">News-Herald</I>
</SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">on
10/5/12</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Not since <SPAN
style="COLOR: black">Edward Albee’s 1962 drama “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”
have proper adults behaved as abominably as they do in </SPAN>Yasmina Reza’s
90-minute comedy of conflict “God of Carnage,” currently on stage at the Chagrin
Valley Little Theatre.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black"><FONT size=3>Alan (David
Malinowski) and Annette (<SPAN class=A0><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Evie Koh)</SPAN></SPAN> Raleigh’s
11-year-old son has hit Michael (<SPAN class=A0><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Mark DePompei) </SPAN></SPAN>and
Veronica (<SPAN class=A0><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Dawn
Hill) </SPAN></SPAN>Novak’s 11-year-old son with a stick while playing at the
park. The grown ups---well-educated and well-to-do New York professionals—have
gathered in the Novak’s tastefully-appointed living room to discuss logically
and with grand civility how best to deal with the boys’ bad behavior.
<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Soon the couples nitpick
over words, such as how to define the assault (“armed,” after some discussion,
is reduced to “furnished”) and how to categorize dessert (“So, clafouti?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Is it a cake or a tart?”). <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>They then disagree on what constitutes
proper parenting and begin arguing over what their children should do to right
the great wrong.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Awkwardness turns
to tension and tension slowly escalates to
agitation.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>If Blake Edwards (“Pink
Panther,” “The Great Race”) had written this play, a massive pie fight would
ensue. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Reza offers no such release,
for her cultured creatures continue to toss verbal barbs and one participant
tosses her cookies.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The playwright
then adds alcohol to the mix and things turn really ugly.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Intellect and inhibition
give way to protective instincts, primal behaviors trump social norms, and
soused self-righteousness supersedes everything.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Soon, the couples pair off, then the men
align themselves against the women, and everything culminates in a survival of
the mis-fittest<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>free-for-all.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>At least that is how the
play’s hilarity-at-another’s-expense is intended to unfold.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It did so in the 2009 Tony Award-winning
production on Broadway as well as last April’s critically acclaimed production
at Dobama Theater in Cleveland Heights. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It does not in this CVLT production.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Forced out of his
director’s chair and onto the stage as a <SPAN style="COLOR: black">last-minute
cast replacement, an understandably distracted (and genuinely heroic) Malinowski
mismanages </SPAN>the play’s mayhem. <SPAN
style="COLOR: black"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black">The problem is that the
tension between the Raleighs and the Novaks begins too early in the play and
a</SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">t too high a decibel,
opening with an onset of animosity rather than feigned amiability.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As a result, the slow burning agitation
that is cleverly woven into bits of precise dialogue ignites prematurely and
burns way too hot.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The characters’
escalating anxiety and build-up of bile peaks early and reaches a histrionic
plateau that leaves the actors with nowhere else to go.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>The dark comedy suffers
accordingly.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Worse, all this
accentuates a significant flaw in the play itself.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As t<SPAN style="COLOR: black">he
playwright did in “Art” and “Life x 3,” the illusion of intellectual depth in
“God of Carnage” leaves those craving it a tad dissatisfied when the play
dissipates into relative nothingness at the end. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Without the intended mounting tension
reaching its crescendo come curtain, the CVLT audience is left with only a
talented cast to admire.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white" class=MsoNormal><FONT
size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN>As high-end attorney Alan, </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black">Malinowski is a pleasure
to watch as his singular focus on business </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN>and total indifference to everything else turns into boyish
attentiveness when the smell of battle arises. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white" class=MsoNormal><FONT
size=3><SPAN class=A0><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Evie Koh,
as Alan’s well-mannered and highly rational wife, becomes delightfully unbridled
once the rum kicks in.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In fact, she
is increasingly interesting as her character becomes progressively
inebriated.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; 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" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white" class=MsoNormal><FONT
size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN>Although </SPAN><SPAN class=A0><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Dawn Hill</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN">
<SPAN lang=EN>seems less comfortable letting loose, she is marvelously uptight
at the start of the show and wears an air of superiority as if it were precious,
heirloom jewelry.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white" class=MsoNormal><FONT
size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN>Veteran community player </SPAN><SPAN class=A0><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Mark DePompei</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN">
<SPAN lang=EN>has mastered the art of quiet indignation, which he gets to
display at regular intervals throughout this play.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Despite some dialogue that shows his
character’s rough edges, DePompei still manages to make Michael accessible and
absolutely engaging.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black"><FONT size=3>Despite its
shortcomings, this CVLT production gives life to “God of Carnage.” <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Just not enough
laughs.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">“</SPAN></I><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black">God of
Carnage</SPAN></I><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">”</SPAN></I><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">
</SPAN><I><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">c</SPAN></I><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">ontinues through October 20 at the
Chagrin Valley Little Theatre, 40 River Street, Chagrin Falls.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>For tickets, which are $12 to $16, call
440-247-8955 or visit <B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><A href=""><FONT
color=#0000ff>www.cvlt.org</FONT></A>.<o:p></o:p></B></SPAN></I></FONT></P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>