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style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ; mso-layout-grid-align: none"
class=MsoNormal align=center><B><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Mamaí<SPAN
style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic"> mines ‘Three Sisters’ for meaning and finds
the mother lode<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></SPAN></SPAN></B></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"
class=MsoNormal align=center><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','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: 'Times New Roman','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: 'Times New Roman','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: 'Times New Roman','serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Member,
International Association of Theatre Critics<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><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: 'Times New Roman','serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"><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: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"><FONT
size=3>Master adapter Aaron Posner, who<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>modernized Chaim Potok’s “The Chosen” to create “My Name is Asher Lev,”
recently wrote and staged irreverent versions of Anton Chekhov’s “The Seagull”
(re-titled “Stupid F—ing Bird”) and “Uncle Vanya”<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>(re-titled “Life Sucks”).<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ; mso-layout-grid-align: none"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"><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><FONT size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">Set
in modern times rather than the late-19<SUP>th</SUP> </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; BACKGROUND: white; COLOR: #1d1d1b">century</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">,
Posner’s take-offs on Chekhov are pumped with adrenaline, contemporary
references, and plenty of profanity.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>“What he was doing then [the elliptical exchanges between characters, the
paradoxical presentation of tragedy and satire, the excessive realism] was
radical and revolutionary and exciting,” Poster noted in an <I>American
Theatre</I> interview.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>“Doing
Chekhov a hundred years later is the opposite of
that.”<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-AUTOSPACE: ; mso-layout-grid-align: none"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white; tab-stops: 4.5pt"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"><FONT
size=3>Mamaí<SPAN style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic"> Theatre has chosen to go
old school in its current production of Chekhov’s “Three Sisters.”<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white; tab-stops: 4.5pt"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white; tab-stops: 4.5pt"
class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">And
while this staging is neither radical nor revolutionary, it is most certainly
exciting, for director Bernadette Clemens finds all the inescapably dark and
often very funny moments in this four-act, three-hour masterwork.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And her remarkable 17-person ensemble
string those moments together </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; COLOR: #333333; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">to
give this production its immense vibrancy. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P
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class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; COLOR: #333333; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P
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class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">For
more of this review, go to:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><A
href=""><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><FONT
color=#0000ff>http://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/</FONT></SPAN></A></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; COLOR: #333333; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT
size=3> <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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