<span style="color:rgb(204,0,0)"><br></span><br><br>
<style>
<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:Arial;
panose-1:2 11 6 4 2 2 2 2 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:Times;
panose-1:2 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:Cambria;
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:Palatino;
panose-1:2 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-ascii-font-family:Palatino;
mso-fareast-font-family:Times;
mso-hansi-font-family:Palatino;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
p.MsoNoSpacing, li.MsoNoSpacing, div.MsoNoSpacing
{mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
@page Section1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;
mso-header-margin:.5in;
mso-footer-margin:.5in;
mso-paper-source:0;}
div.Section1
{page:Section1;}
-->
</style>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style>THE NORMAL HEART @
Ensemble: emotionally moving, expertly performed </b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Roy Berko</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">(Member, American Theatre Critics Association)</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Each night during the 2011 Broadway revival of THE NORMAL
HEART, Larry Kramer, the author of the script, stood outside the theatre to
distribute a letter to members of the audience.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:#eeece1"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">The letter stated:<span style> </span></span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman"">Thank
you for coming to see our play.<span style> </span>Please
know that everything in THE NORMAL HEART happened. These were and are real
people who lived and spoke <span style="background:white">and died, and are
presented here as best I could.<span style>
</span>Several more have died since, including</span> [the character named] Bruce,
whose name was Paul Popham, and Tommy, whose name was Rodger McFarlane and who
became my best friend, and Emma, whose name was Dr. Linda Laubenstein of New
York University Medical Center. She died after a return bout of polio and
another trip to an iron lung. Rodger, after building three gay/AIDS agencies
from the ground up, committed suicide in despair.<span style> </span>On his deathbed at Memorial, Paul called me (wed not spoken
since our last fight in this play) and told me to never stop fighting.<span style> </span>(To read a copy of the letter go to: <i style><a href="http://www.playbill.com/news/article/150172-Letter-from-Larry-Kramer-Distributed-Following-Normal-Heart-Performances">http://www.playbill.com/news/article/150172-Letter-from-Larry-Kramer-Distributed-Following-Normal-Heart-Performances</a></i>)</span><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman""></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"">Reading that letter sums up the power and
emotional development of this 1980s play about AIDS.<span style> </span>1980?<span style> </span>Why go
back and dig up all that stuff?<span style>
</span>The times have changed.<span style> </span>The
diagnosis of AIDS is no longer a death sentence.<span style> </span>There is the cocktail.<span style>
</span>It appears that a vaccine is on the horizon.<span style> </span>Oh, how wrong that thinking is.<span style> </span>Without Larry Kramer, and his band of activists,
organizations such as <i style>The New York Times</i>
and The Center for Disease Control would not have acted.<span style> </span>The money for research for defining and
dealing with the illness would never have come forth from the homophobic
President, Ronald Reagan, or the purported closeted gay Mayor of New York.<span style> </span>This is history, real history, which
needs to be kept alive.<span style> </span>Theatre
represents the era from which it comes, that the 1980s is the era of AIDS.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"">As a counselor at both the Whitman Walker and
Chase Braxton clinics in Washington DC and Baltimore, during the height of the
AIDS crisis, I can attest to the frustration and sadness of sharing with those
tested that they had been confirmed with the disease.<span style> </span>Counseling gave way to making funeral plans, dealing with
sharing the news with parents, family and friends, making arrangements for
Meals on Wheels, and securing volunteers to help when hospitals, social service
agencies, and the various governments cast a blind eye, or refused to give
service to those with the disease.<span style>
</span>This experience parallels the machinations of Kramers script.<span style> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"">The play, which originally opened off-Broadway
in 1985, was revived in 2004, and again in 2011.<span style> </span>The later production, which recently ended its run, received
last years Tony as Best Revival of a Play.<span style> </span>Largely autobiographical, the well written script is filled
with rage, exploration, and, believe it or not, humor.<span style> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"">It centers on one man, Larry Kramer (named Ned
Weeks in the play), and his attempt to break a conspiracy of silence,
indifference, hostility, and homophobia, and to gain acknowledgement and
funding as his friends mysteriously die.<span style>
</span>His enemies are not only the political establishment, but the conservative
and fearful members of the gay community, who refused to speak loudly in order
to protect their jobs and their privacy.<span style>
</span>Weeks, a gay Jew, preferred, and still prefers, loud public
confrontations to quiet diplomacy.<span style>
</span>That difference of how to confront the plague is at the heart of the
history of AIDS and the play.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"">Ensembles production, under the razor sharp eye
of Sarah May, is mesmerizing.<span style> </span>Its
</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Palatino">long, but never fails to grab and hold the viewers attention.<span style> </span>The performances are top notch.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Palatino"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Palatino">Brian Zoldessy gives an award winning performance as
Ned.<span style> </span>He is Ned, he doesnt portray
Ned.<span style> </span>Not for an instant does he
waiver from a clear characterization.<span style>
</span>He is properly enraged, shy and driven.<span style> </span>Wow!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Palatino"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Palatino">Derdriu Ring as Dr. Brookner, the New York doctor who first
confronted the illness and then fought the brave battle, against horrific odds,
to treat and do research, is Zoldessys equal in creating a real person.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Palatino"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Palatino">Scott Esposito is excellent as Felix, the lover who helps
Ned get in touch with feelings other than guilt and rage.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Palatino"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Palatino">Jeremy Jenkins (Tommy), Dan Kilbane (Mickey), and David
Bugher (Bruce), members of the AIDS Task Force, and Jeffrey Grover as Ben,
Neds brother, all are character correct.<span style>
</span>Richard Worswick and Benjamin Gregg, who each portray three roles,
complete the excellent cast.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Palatino"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Palatino">After seeing the show, it is impossible to read Kramers
2011 letter and not be incensed by the lack of action of governments, including
our own, regarding the epidemic.<span style>
</span>It heightens the already negative thoughts about the money gouging of pharmaceutical
companies.<span style> </span>It shockingly
illuminates the awareness of the number who have died because of the lack of
social action and of those who were denied service until it was realized that
AIDS was not a gay disease, but a universal illness.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Palatino"><br></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="text-autospace:none"><i style>CAPSULE
JUDGEMENT: THE NORMAL HEART is an absolute must see production.<span style> </span>The message is important.<span style> </span>The quality of the script
impressive.<span style> </span>The production is one
of the highlights of this theatrical season!</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">THE NORMAL HEART runs Thursdays through Sundays
until October 22 at Ensemble Theatre, housed in Coventry School, 2843
Washington Blvd, Cleveland Heights.<span style>
</span>For tickets call 216-321-2930 or go online to <a href="http://www.ensemble-theatre.org">www.ensemble-theatre.org</a> </p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">There are talkbacks scheduled to discuss the
present status of AIDS.<span style> </span>These will
be done by local experts in the field on 9/30, 10/5, 10/14, and 10/19.</p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">Larry Kramer recently appeared on Dee Perrys
AROUND NOON (WCPN-FM).<span style> </span>To hear the
interview click on this link <span style><a href="http://www.ideastream.org/an"><span style="color:#1a3773">www.ideastream.org/an</span></a></span></p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><span style="color:rgb(204,0,0)"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br></p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br></p><p class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle"><br></p>
<br>