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<p class=""><b style><span style="font-family:Palatino">Acting overshadows esoteric script 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-size:10pt;font-family:Palatino"> </span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino">Philip Ridley, the author
of TENDER NAPALM, now being staged at Cleveland Public Theatre, was trained as
an artist.<span style> </span>His paintings, like his
plays, are characterized by using a palate of colors, splashed all over.<span style> </span>There is also a bizarre quality to his
writing which is fairly typical of 1990s British In-Yer-Face theatre.<span style> </span>Theatre that is filled with fantasy,
dark surrealism, which leaves the audience asking, What the hell is going
on?<span style> </span></span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino">TENDER NAPALM, finds a
married couple in a room in which they act out a series of fantasies.<span style> </span>Or are they realities? <span style> </span>The audience is entwined in a rambling
plot that invites such questions as: Who are these people? Where is this
set? What caused this invasion of fear, terror, desire and darkness? What
does the title mean? Why are they terrorizing each other about the outside
world? And, Do these infantile games have any meaning? </span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino">The In-Yer-Face
movement attracted young audiences and repulsed traditional critics.<span style> </span>Its subjects included storytelling that
resembled the rambling imagination of children.<span style> </span>The movements writers examined sexuality, family guilt,
racial hatred, and destruction of the traditional structures of society without
using traditional organized plot structures.</span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino">TENDER NAPLAM, which is
only ninety-minutes in length, makes for a long sit.<span style> </span>Within that intermissionless time, sexual decapitation, unicorn
fantasies, palaces, monkeys, flying saucers, Neptune the God of the Seas,
aliens, a party in a mansion, bombs, parallel universes, space ships,
destruction of sexual organs, a child, and islands are all discussed and acted
out in a single kitchen-type space.<span style>
</span>Actors cavort, jump on and off various set pieces, act out battle
scenes, and taunt each other.<span style> </span></span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino">While the script, itself,
does not satisfy the theatrical requirement for gaining knowledge or
entertaining, it acts as a wonderful device for theatricality.<span style> </span>The long speeches and bizarre nature of
the goings on are perfect devices for acting exercises.<span style> </span>Director Denise Astorino and performers
Melissa Crum and Matt OShea use the opportunity well.</span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino">Astorino, CPTs 2013-2014
Joan Yellen Horvitz Director Fellow, pulls out all the emotional stops, guiding
with an eye for ferocity of feelings.<span style>
</span>She is blessed with a cast that gets beyond the plays weaknesses and
creates vivid visual and emotional pictures.</span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino">Both Crum and OShea are
superb in milking the over-wrought vignettes.<span style> </span>They scream, rant, confront each other, throw their bodies
around like rag dolls, leap onto tables and counters, physically exhausting
themselves and the audience.<span style>
</span>These are premiere performances.</span></p>
<p class=""><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></p>
<p class=""><i style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">Capsule judgement: TENDER NAPALM is an
In-Yer-Face </span></i><i style><span style="font-family:Palatino">flow of pseudo-intellectual double talk and
esoteric mumbo jumbo, splattered like colors into a mιlange of existential
gibberish.<span style> </span>Its real value,
however, is that it allows two superb actors (Melissa Crum and Matt OShea) to
display their talents.<span style> </span>Thats the
only reason to go see this production, and that may be reason enough.</span></i></p>
<p class=""><i style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></i></p>
<p class=""><i style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">TENDER NAPALM </span></i><span style="font-family:Palatino">runs through May 18 at Cleveland Public
Theatre.<span style> </span>For tickets call
216-631-2727 or go on line to <u><a href="http://www.cptonline.org"><span style="color:windowtext">http://www.cptonline.org</span></a></u>.</span></p>
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