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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">‘Veronica’s’ secrets
deliciously revealed in CVLT production<?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><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><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'; 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, 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,
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"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></I></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal
align=center><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; 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="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">on
11/9/12</SPAN><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; 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'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>All you really need to
know about Ira Levin’s play “Veronica’s Room,” currently on stage at the Chagrin
Valley Little Theater in Chagrin Falls, is that it was written by Ira Levin.
<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>The playwright is best
known for writing the 1960s psychological thriller “Rosemary’s Baby,” which
became a cult film classic.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>While
later works by Levin, such as “The Stepford Wives” and “Deathtrap,” dip into
that well for their inspiration and many of their disturbing storytelling
conventions, “Veronica’s Room” borrows—no, shamelessly absconds—each and every
facet of the film’s well-honed formula for creepiness. One need not squint or
wait for the light to be just right to see the blatant
parallels.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>True to form, “Veronica’s
Room” offers up a young naďve woman who has no clue what she is about to get
herself into.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The play supplies
solicitous and kindly old folks who are so down to earth and genteel that there
surely must be something terribly wrong with them.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Our heroine not only falls for their
ruse but continues to plummet ever deeper as the play progresses.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And, of course, there is that moment of
realization when it is very apparent that someone in the room is maniacally
insane but it is not quite clear just who that someone happens to
be.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>What was just revealed
are not secrets or storyline spoilers.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Not for “Veronica’s Room.”<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>In fact, the playwright himself goes to great lengths to explicitly
expose these now-classic ploys at the start of the play, as if offering a nod of
acknowledgement to those in the audience who recognize them and to bring those
who don’t up to speed. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>At the rise of the play,
it is 1973 and we are in the bedroom in an isolated suburban mansion outside of
Boston.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In walk Boston University
student Susan (Natalie Dolezal) and her date, Larry (Bendon Berns), who were
dining at a restaurant earlier that evening and approached by a kind, elderly
Irish couple (Lisa-Freebairn-Tarr and Craig Gifford).<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It seems that Susan bears a remarkable
resemblance to Veronica, the daughter of the family for whom they work.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Veronica died of TB more than thirty
years ago but her mother, now old and dying herself, is delirious and thinks
that a young Veronica is still alive and in her room.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Won’t Susan be a dear and
come back to the house, make believe she is Veronica for just a few <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>moments, and give the old woman one last
moment of joy?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yeah.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Right.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Let the games
begin.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>As the first act unfolds,
it is very tempting to stand, raise a fist at Susan and shout “Good lord, woman,
haven’t you seen ‘Rosemary’s Baby’?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Run, for Pete’s sake!”<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Your patience and due diligence will pay
off as the unexpected twists and turns in the second act will have even those
with a high thriller-IQ sucked into the vortex of this play and this fine CVLT
production of it.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Director Lauren Bryant
understands the rules of engagement for this play and, by drawing a thin and
increasingly transparent line between reality and insanity, has put together a
very entertaining thriller.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Lisa-Freebairn-Tarr and
Natalie Dolezal give particularly strong performances and keep the audience
guessing.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>While their assorted
histrionics at first seem over the top, given the in-your-face intimacy of the
River Street Playhouse, one quickly adjusts to the melodrama.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In fact, the music that underscores much
of this production helps transport the audience into this disconcerting world
and threaten to never let us out.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Another trick of the trade from “Rosemary’s
Baby.”<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 48.0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3><SPAN
style="mso-tab-count: 1">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Sit back or, more likely,
sit at the edge of your seat and enjoy the film, uh,
play.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">“Veronica’s
Room”</SPAN></I><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">
</SPAN><I><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">c</SPAN></I><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">ontinues
through November 10 at the Chagrin Valley Little Theatre’s River Street
Playhouse, 56 River Street, Chagrin Falls.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>For tickets, which are $10, call 440-247-8955 or visit <B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><A href=""><FONT
color=#0076a3>www.cvlt.org</FONT></A>.<o:p></o:p></B></SPAN></I></P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>