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<p class=""><b style><span style="font-family:Palatino"><span style="color:rgb(255,0,0)"></span><br></span></b></p><p class=""><b style><span style="font-family:Palatino">STRUCK examines the brain and strokes at Cleveland
Public Theatre</span></b></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Palatino">Roy
Berko</span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Palatino">(Member,
American Theatre Critics Association & Cleveland Critics Circle)</span></p><p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino">STRUCK, now on stage as
Cleveland Public Theatre is an interesting piece, much in the vein of Arthur Kopits
WINGS, which had a startling production at Beck Center starring Dorothy Silver,
in which the ramifications of a person having a stroke is investigated.<span style> </span></span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino">As I tell my psychology
students, the brain is a marvelous, but fragile thing.<span style> </span>It is the intellectual center of our
very being.<span style> </span>It is constantly
in the process of changing, through a process known as coring.<span style> </span>This is what accounts for
teenagers seemingly out of the realm of reality, as they respond, I dont
know, when asked why they did something.<span style>
</span>In reality, as their mind destructs and rebuilds, they arent in logical
control.<span style> </span>The mind also has
neuroplasticity.<span style> </span>It may be able to
be remolded, be retrained.<span style> </span>This
ability allows individuals who often learn to write with their right hands, if
they are a lefty and the limb is injured, to make the adjustment, or to learn
again after amnesia hits.<span style> </span></span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino">What happens when a
person has a stroke?<span style> </span>The
incredibly complex ensemble known as the brain goes haywire.<span style> </span>Thought processes, which happen
daily as we think and speak, get interrupted.<span style> </span>Normal tasks such as remembering what has happened in the
past, thinking in the present, or projecting into the future become difficult,
if not impossible.<span style> </span>What
happened?<span style> </span>What is happening? </span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino">STRUCK is the tale of Tannis
Kowalchuk who, in 2011, suffered a stroke.<span style> </span>Since then, she has been on the road to recovery, which has
led her on a search to discover not only what caused the physical problem, but
what it means to be human.<span style> </span>The
play leads us into her own mind and its attempts at recovery.</span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino">The story is not told in
a sequential format.<span style> </span>There is no
beginning, middle and end, per se.<span style>
</span>We are not privy to her recovery, though we are participants in her journey
into the world of stroke patient.</span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino">As often happens with devised
theatre, text, lighting, video, sound and digital effects blend to make the
whole.<span style> </span>It is more presentation
than focused story telling.<span style> </span>The
runway stage, with the audience on both sides of the action, is a whirr of
curtains, projected visual images, sounds, flashing lights, and the words of
the actors.</span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino">STRUCK, a 70-minute,
intermissionless, world premiere, coproduction of CPT and the National Cultural
Laboratory, is well conceived and performed, though it is more affect then
effect.<span style> </span>The video/sound/photography
of Dana Duke and Big Twig Studio and the work of video/digital artists Brian
Calazza and Brett Keyser, help develop Kowalchuks angst, as does Stephen
Arnolds lighting.<span style> </span></span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino">Brett Keyser, who CPT
regulars know from his performances in DARWINII:<span style> </span>THE COMEUPANCE OF MAN, OPEN MIND FIRMAMENT, and BLUE SKY
TRANSMISSION:<span style> </span>A TIBETAN BOOK OF
THE DEAD, is his usual adept self.<span style>
</span>TANIS KOWALCHUK is his equal as the stroke victim. </span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino">Side note:<span style> </span>There has been WATER WAYS, then EARTH,
then NICK AND JEREMY and now, STRUCK.<span style> </span>Cleveland Public Theatre seems obsessed with devised
theatre,<span style> </span>productions which have no
playwright, but are conceived by the performers and other theatre staff.<span style> </span>There is nothing wrong with devised
theatre, and there is surely nothing wrong with STRUCK, but four such shows in
a row seems a bit much for a single theatre, in a single season.</span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino"><span style> </span></span></p>
<p class=""><i style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">Capsule judgement: STRUCK is an
interesting piece of devised theatre, that clearly illustrates the angst of a
stroke on a human and the fragility of the human mind.</span></i></p>
<p class=""><i style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></i></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino">STRUCK </span><span style="font-family:Palatino">runs
through April 6 <span style> </span>at Cleveland
Public Theatre.<span style> </span>For tickets call
216-631-2727 or go on line to <a href="http://www.cptonline.org"><span style="color:windowtext;text-decoration:none">www.cptonline.org</span></a>.</span></p><p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino"></span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino"><br></span></p>
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