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class=MsoNormal align=center><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; BACKGROUND: white; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Ensemble
Theatre misses what’s great about ‘Gatsby’<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"
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style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></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, The News Herald, The Morning Journal<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; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"
align=center><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: #222222"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></I></B></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; BACKGROUND: white; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Several years ago, the
folks at the Public Theater in New York staged a six-hour-long adaptation of F.
Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby,” the brilliant 1925 novel about pursuing
the unattainable. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>The production, called
“Gatz,” began with a bored contemporary office worker finding a dog-eared copy
of Fitzgerald’s novel and, while reading every single word out loud, his
co-workers gradually morph into “Gatsby” characters and enact his
narration.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>With no<SPAN
style="BACKGROUND: white"> text added and none removed, this </SPAN>production
<SPAN style="BACKGROUND: white">captured </SPAN>all that was poetic and rhythmic
in the novel’s sumptuous sentences.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><SPAN style="BACKGROUND: white"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; BACKGROUND: white"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"><FONT size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; BACKGROUND: white">It also</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"> maintained the omnipotent
first-person voice of the novel’s <SPAN
style="BACKGROUND: white">uncompromisingly honest narrator, Nick Carraway,
presented </SPAN>all that was romantic in the <SPAN
style="BACKGROUND: white">tale of the mysterious tycoon Jay Gatsby and his love
for the rich and reckless Daisy Buchanan, and reflected all that was extravagant
about the Jazz Age – a time when bootleg gin was the beverage of choice,
lavishness was the latest craze, and sex with other’s spouses was the favorite
sport of the rich and gorgeous. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; BACKGROUND: white"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; BACKGROUND: white; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Using
brilliant sound, lighting and costume design, the Public Theatre production was
able to entice its audience into imagining Gatsby’s vast Long Island pleasure
palace, the squalid one-room apartment that houses the lower-class lover of
Daisy’s husband, and Gatsby’s grand roadster – a cream-colored </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">1922
Silver Ghost Rolls-Royce – without actually providing
them.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; BACKGROUND: white"><FONT size=3>The
sensibly shorter, less radical and more frequently performed adaptation of “The
Great Gatsby” by Simon Levy also possesses the essential poetry, romance and
extravagance found in the novel.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Unfortunately, the current Ensemble Theatre production of it – which,
like the Public Theater version, offers a minimalistic and highly stylized
presentation – is significantly less fruitful.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; BACKGROUND: white"><FONT size=3><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"></SPAN></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; BACKGROUND: white"><FONT size=3><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes">For more of this review, go to: <A
href="http://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/features/article_b03c8a48-6ea5-11e4-978b-bf4819b6f9fe.html">http://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/features/article_b03c8a48-6ea5-11e4-978b-bf4819b6f9fe.html</A></SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P>
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style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; BACKGROUND: white"><FONT size=3><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"></SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN> </P>
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