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<p class=""><b style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"><span style="color:rgb(255,0,0)">••••••••••••••••••••••</span><br></span></b></p><p class=""><b style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"><br>
</span></b></p><p class=""><b style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">THE LYONS roar at Dobama</span></b></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">Roy Berko</span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">(</span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Palatino;color:black">Member, American
Theatre Critics Association, Cleveland Critics Circle)</span><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"></span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">A New York
reviewer once wrote, “If I have to see one more play about a dysfunctional
family, I’m going to commit suicide.”<span style>
</span>Broadway and local audiences may be thinking the same thing after being
exposed to the likes of two productions of NEXT TO NORMAL, RICH GIRL, SORDID
LIVES, SPANK, and SONS OF THE PROPHET, within a short period of time.<span style> </span></span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">Ah, yes, Nicky
Silver’s THE LYONS is yet another of those “We’ve got ‘tsuris’ plays,”<span style> </span>scripts that, according to the English
definition of the Yiddish term, are tales with problems and angst. </span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">Silver is noted
for his “go-for-the-laugh” style.<span style>
</span>He writes sitcoms for the stage.<span style>
</span>It’s been said of him, “Silver never met a pain he couldn’t laugh at.”<span style> </span>Even the titles of his plays reflect
that attitude.<span style> </span>Think…FAT MEN IN
SKIRTS, THE AGONY AND THE AGONY, FREE WILL AND WANTON LUST.</span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">THE LYONS, as
is true with many of the writer’s works, showcases his recurring themes of the
prodigal son as disappointment and challenging the homophobic stereotypes of
gay men.</span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">With all that
said, THE LYONS is the kind of play and production which will delight many and
frustrate some.<span style> </span>Some will leave
thinking, “And, I thought our family was screwed up.<span style> </span>Compared to the Lyons, we’re the Cleavers of television’s
1950’s LEAVE IT TO BEAVER. ”</span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">Ben Lyons is
lying in a hospital room dying of cancer.<span style>
</span>He will not go gently into this good night.<span style> </span>He screams, swears, and degrades his visitors.<span style> </span>He says to his daughter, “Your mother
is a bitch,” dismisses his son’s attempt to make peace by rejecting the boy’s
statement of “I forgive you for letting me know I was the child you never
wanted.” He forbids his wife from changing the furniture in the living room
because he was responsible for “every rear-end indent in the sofa.”<span style> </span>Yes, this is a miserable man!</span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">His wife, who
states, “My whole life was a long parade of disappointments,” reveals on the
day of her husband’s funeral that she is flitting off to Aruba that night with
her daughter’s young male Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor.<span style> </span></span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">The daughter,
who relapses after months of sobriety, has two sons by an physically abusive <span style> </span>husband she met at AA, but for whom she
still lusts.<span style> </span>She has found solace
in befriending a terminally ill man, who occupies a room on the same floor as
her father.<span style> </span>He was introduced to
her by her mother.<span style> </span>When her
brother objects with the statement, “But, he’s dying,” the mother states,
“Nobody’s perfect.”</span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">The gay son
lives in a fantasy world of invented boyfriends.<span style> </span>He’s so warped that he is the poster boy for The Great Lie
Theory, which indicates that if you tell a lie enough you begin to believe it’s
true.<span style> </span>These are not fictitious
boyfriends, they are real to the warped Curtis.<span style> </span>As a result of one of his fantasies, the obsession with the
handsome young man whose apartment window faces Curtis’s, and on whom he spies,
Curtis gets beaten up and winds up in the same hospital room that his father
occupied.</span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">Yes, this
family has “tsuris” and we watch the pain play out before our eyes.<span style> </span>Yet, due to Silver’s penchant for high
humor in an absurdist way, THE LYONS, at least in the first act, is a laugh
fest.<span style> </span>The second act sets us up
for watching their world crash in bizarre ways.</span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">Dobama’s
production, under the smart direction of the theatre’s new artistic director,
Nathan Motta, milks the lines for all they are worth.<span style> </span>The character development is generally well honed, the
pacing appropriately fast, the humored horror is focused.</span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">Dudley
Swetland screams his way through the role of Ben Lyons with such ferocity that
it’s a wonder he doesn’t wind up in a real hospital bed with a stroke.<span style> </span>Maybe a little more texturing and a
little less screaming might have helped, but, as is, he creates a mean, cranky,
frustrated, self and other loathing lout!</span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">Jeanne Task well
plays wife and mother, Rita, part ditz, part woman filled with life’s
regrets.<span style> </span>She creates a woman who
when confronted with reality, says that she wanted to kill her husband, but “it
was just a whim.”<span style> </span>A woman who,
instead of facing reality, is going to redo the living room in a “calming blue”
because “even the carpeting is matted down with dysfunction.” <span style> </span>Task has several long speeches which
carry much of the regret of the play.<span style>
</span>They are nicely performed.</span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">Anjanette
Hall effectively portrays a woman in a sober state of drunkenness, caused by a
combination of liquor and depression, which has dulled her senses.<span style> </span></span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">Christopher
M. Bohan (Curtis) walks the fine line between being an overly affected gay man,
with being a pathetic troubled liar, with nice texturing.<span style> </span>He is especially effective in the
forgiveness speech to his father and the scene where he reveals his maniacal
lust for Brian, his fantasy boyfriend.</span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">Sean Grandillo
gives a nice straightforward interpretation of Brian, the handsome young man
who is the focus of Curtis’s fantasies.</span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">Joyce M.
Meadows plays the nurse with professional efficiency.</span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">Laura
Carlson’s multi-setting scenic design, works well as do Michael Roesch’s
appropriately selected musical interludes.<span style> </span></span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class=""><i style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">CAPSULE JUDGEMENT:<span style> </span>Nicky Silver’s absurdist play, THE
LYONS, gets an excellent production at Dobama.<span style> </span>The balance between comedy and tragedy should get positive
audience response and inspire some personal awareness.</span></i><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"></span></p>
<p style="margin:0.1pt 0in"><span style> </span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">THE LYONS runs
through May 19, 2013 <span style> </span>at Dobama
Theatre.<span style> </span>Call 216-932-3396 or </span><a href="http://www.dobama.org"><span style="font-family:Palatino">http://www.dobama.org</span></a><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> for tickets.</span></p>
<p class=""><span style="color:rgb(255,0,0)"><br><span style="font-family:Palatino"></span></span></p><p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"><span style="color:rgb(255,0,0)">•••••••••••••••••••</span><br>
</span></p>
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