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<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"
align=center><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Ensemble Theatre’s ‘Anna
Christie’ is simply superb <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></FONT></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'; 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">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'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Cleveland Jewish
News<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'; 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><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; 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'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">This review will
appear in the <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">CJN </I>on
10/3/14<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black"><FONT size=3>Although a
relatively early work, “Anna Christie” has all the recognizable elements we’ve
come to expect and admire in a Eugene O’Neill play.
<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black"><FONT size=3>There’s the
dingy waterfront saloon filled with downtrodden men who talk about their
long-suffering women.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There’s the
effort to escape the past while inevitably destined to repeat it.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And there’s the deceptively simple plot
that conceals a monumental tale of redemption.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black"><FONT size=3>Swedish
seaman and lifelong drunkard Chris Christopherson gets word that the young
daughter he dispatched for safe keeping to Minnesota relatives 15 years ago – so
that she would never know “dat ole devil sea” that he has come to fear and hate
– is on her way to visit him.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>She
is not the angelic farm girl of Chris’ windblown imagination and her sequestered
existence has turned her into a badly bruised, bitter and forlorn woman of ill
repute.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black"><FONT size=3>To off-set
all the melodramatic breast-beating and abundance of metaphors that fill this
1921 Pulitzer Prize-winning play, many modern stagings have accentuated all that
is sexy and intense in it.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black"><FONT size=3>Ensemble
Theatre has gone a different route, choosing instead to go for the heart.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And director Ian Wolfgang Hinz, his cast
and crew hit it dead-on.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black"><FONT size=3>Ensemble’s
ensemble recognizes and rides the conversational ebb and flow that exists
throughout O’Neill’s four-act drama.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>They use the calm moments of exposition to vividly establish each
character’s sense of self and all that simmers beneath their back stories, which
convinces the audience that these fundamentally good people are capable of
overcoming the sum of their bad choices. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As such, the dramatic peaks carry more
emotional weight, which hits the audience like a cold, salty tidal wave. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black"><FONT size=3>But first
we have to get beyond the color-blind casting. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black"><FONT size=3>It is
highly unlikely that Chris, a native Suede, would be Black and sire such a very
blond and very pale Anna.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But the
physiological mismatch is easier to overcome than the false plot points and
misguided metaphors a Black Chris brings to the surface of an O’Neill play where
everything is meaningful.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black"><FONT
size=3>Fortunately, Greg White’s singularly stellar performance quickly sets
things right.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>His salt-of-the-earth
Chris is such an affable, likable creation that all one can see is his big heart
and all one can do is invest fully in his hopes and dreams for Anna.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black"><FONT size=3>The size of
his heart comes across most clearly in his tender relationship with Marty (a
delightful and authentic Mary Alice Beck), a ridden-hard-and-put-away-wet
waterfront regular who appears in the opening scene of the play.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>His hopes are given voice in his
paternally-driven confrontations with Mat Burke (a wonderful Michael Johnson), a
raw-boned Irishman that Chris rescues from the sea and who falls in love with
Anna.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Johnson finds the illusive
place where his character’s crude and brutal side perfectly coexists with his
simple sweetness and good intentions. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black"><FONT size=3>In the
title role, Katie Nabors is superb.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>As unlikely as it is that two years on her back in New York would undo
Anna’s Midwestern accent, earned after 13 years on a farm, Nabors makes it work.
<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As charismatic as she is confused
and as feisty as she is frail, this Anna is a survivor.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It is impossible to take your eyes off
of Nabors as she brings this to light.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black"><FONT size=3>All this
takes place on a simple set – a rustic seaport saloon that transforms into
Chris’ no-frills coal barge.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It is
given added dimension and dramatic ambiance with Andrew Eckert’s lighting design
and a nicely understated rear projection of the sky and surf.
<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"><FONT
size=3><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black">Ensemble
Theatre’s ability to capture the enduring power of O’Neill’s writing was put on
display in last year’s remarkable production of </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">“The Iceman Cometh.”<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>They have outdone themselves with “Anna
Christie.”<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ; mso-layout-grid-align: none"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">WHAT:<SPAN
style="mso-tab-count: 1">
</SPAN>“Anna Christie<SPAN
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-font-style: italic">”<o:p></o:p></SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ; mso-layout-grid-align: none"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-font-style: italic">WHERE:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </SPAN>Ensemble Theatre,
</SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">2843
Washington Blvd. </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">in
Cleveland Hts.</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-font-style: italic"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ; mso-layout-grid-align: none"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-font-style: italic">WHEN:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-tab-count: 1">
</SPAN>Through October 19<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-font-style: italic">TICKETS:<SPAN
style="mso-tab-count: 1">
</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: CS"
lang=CS>$12 - $22, call</SPAN><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"
lang=CS> </SPAN><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-style: italic">216-202-0938
or visit tickets@ensemble-theatre.org</SPAN><B><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Georgia','serif'; COLOR: #990000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial">
</SPAN></B><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>