<div dir="ltr"><br><br><span style="color:rgb(0,255,255)">••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••</span><br><br>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style><span style="font-family:Palatino">Hint:<span style>
</span>Don’t read the program notes before “The Drowning Girls” at Cleveland
Public Theatre</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino">Roy Berko</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Palatino">(Member,
American Theatre Critics Association & Cleveland Critics Circle)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Palatino"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino">A person’s identity is
based on the culture in which s/he was raised.<span style> </span>It has been the custom in many Euro-American societies to
raise women with the attitude that they are not complete without a man in their
lives.<span style> </span>Unmarried women have been
identified as “old maids,” or “spinsters.”<span style> </span>The implication is that these women are less than their
married gender mates.<span style> </span>Since many
of our attitudes of self are based on the names we are called, the negative
titles of those husbandless females perceive themselves negatively.<span style> </span>This phenomenon often leads to
desperation to get married to whomever offers themselves for matrimony.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino">“The Drowning Girls,” by
Melissa Crum, Cleveland Public Theatre’s 2013-14 Joan Yellen-Horvitz Director
Fellow, with supporting music by Sam Fisher, 2013-14 Kulas Composer Fellow,
centers on the lives of three woman who became victims because of their
perceived need to marry.<span style> </span>In these
cases, they each unknowingly married a fiend, with little time to really
discover his true self, until it was too late.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino">Alice Burnham, Beatrice (Bessie)
Mundy and Margaret Lofty, the women in the story, all were what the general
society of the day would call, “getting on in their years.’<span style> </span>Each perceived that they needed to be
quickly married, each was convinced by the same man, using a different name for
his relationship with each woman, to marry.<span style> </span>Each had a tidy sum of money, were talked into buying life
insurance policies in their husband’s name, and all met an untimely death in
the same manner.<span style> </span>Each was found
dead in a bathtub.<span style> </span>Each, it was
assumed, died from natural causes.<span style>
</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino">Crum’s script is nicely
developed, though it may have been dragged on a big too long by extensive repetition.<span style> </span>Crum, who also directed, is creative in
the staging.<span style> </span>Interesting visual
images abound with the use of three bathtubs on a platform, backed up by a
clothing line.<span style> </span>The use of water
for not only each character’s demise, but for anointing, creating of illusions
and analogies is interestingly woven into the production.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino">Natalie Green (Alice),
Sarah Kunchik (Bessie) and Jaime Bouvier (Margaret) are entirely convincing in
their portrayals.<span style> </span>The meld
together into a cohesive unit.<span style>
</span>These are each very impressive performances.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino">Val Kozienko’s set design
and Ben Gantose’s lighting design both help in creating the correct moods.<span style> </span>Fisher’s music aids in heightening and
highlighting the moods.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino">Normally, I urge
theatre-goers to read the program notes before the show.<span style> </span>In this case, I would urge to hold off
until after the production.<span style>
</span>Reading the “Note form the Director” and “Following the Story” reveal
too much information and almost makes watching the play redundant.<span style> </span>It ruins the heightening of emotions
and takes the mystery out of the production.<br style>
<br style>
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">Capsule judgement: “The Drowning
Girls” is an intriguing script which gets a fine staging at Cleveland Public
Theatre.<span style> </span>Be warned:<span style> </span>reading the program notes before the
play may take some of the excitement out of experiencing the production. </span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"> </span></i></p>
<p style="margin:0.1pt 0in"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Palatino;color:black">“The Drowning Girl” continues at Cleveland Public Theatre through
February 24. <span style> </span>For tickets go to: </span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Palatino">216-631-2727 or go to </span><span style="font-size:12pt"><a href="http://www.cptonline.org/"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:windowtext">www.cptonline.org</span></a></span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Palatino"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"><span style> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black">CPT’s next
show is ANCESTRA, May 22-June 7.<span style>
</span>It is an intimate biography of a contemporary woman which was inspired
by the 1853 National Women’s Rights Convention held in Cleveland Performed from
March 6 to 22 in Gordon Square Theatre @ 7:30.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:rgb(0,255,255)"><br><span style="font-family:Palatino"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"><span style="color:rgb(0,255,255)">••••••••••••••••••••••••••</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino;color:black"><br></span></p>
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