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style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; COLOR: "><FONT
face="Times New Roman">Intriguing ‘First Love’ offers life by the slice
</FONT></SPAN></B></P>
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align=center><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
face="Times New Roman">Bob Abelman</FONT></SPAN></P>
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align=center><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
face="Times New Roman">Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning
Journal</FONT></SPAN></I><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'></SPAN></P>
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align=center><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
face="Times New Roman">Member, International Association of Theatre
Critics</FONT></SPAN></P>
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style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
face="Times New Roman"> </FONT></SPAN></P>
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style='COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family: calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"'></SPAN><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'></SPAN> </P>
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style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; COLOR: "><FONT
face="Times New Roman">The none too fragile theater in Akron contradicts its
namesake by staging Charles Mee’s “First Love,” an all-too-fragile tale about
falling in love for the first time.</FONT></SPAN></P>
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style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; COLOR: "><FONT
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
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style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; COLOR: "><FONT
face="Times New Roman">But this play is unlike the myriad of other stories that
have tapped this evergreen theme. “First Love’s” Edith and Harold are mature,
sophisticated, well-read adults who meet each other very late in life and after
a lifetime of experiences. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P>
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style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; COLOR: "><FONT
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
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style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; COLOR: "><FONT
face="Times New Roman">And through Mee’s surreal storytelling, all the iconic
moments that make up the full cycle of a long-term romantic relationship – the
first meeting, the first date, the first sex, the first fight, the break up and
the reconciliation – are cleverly condensed into one scene in one act.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P>
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style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; COLOR: "><FONT
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; COLOR: ">Rather
than showing us Edith and Harold experiencing these moments, the two pull
memories from their past relationships and narrate each glorious step and each
painful misstep as if reliving them.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>“I think what </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; LETTER-SPACING: 0.4pt">brings
people together,” says Edith, “is their common humanity and what pulls them
apart is their separate histories.”<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>We witness both in a mere 90 minutes.</SPAN></FONT><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; COLOR: "></SPAN></P>
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face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
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style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
face="Times New Roman">It’s a bumpy ride.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P>
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style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
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style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
face="Times New Roman">In his memoir, ''A Nearly Normal Life,'' Mee writes that
his plays, like life, are “broken, jagged, filled with sharp edges, filled with
things that take sudden turns, clinging to each other, smash up, veer off in
sickening turns.”<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Such is “First
Love” and director Sean Derry’s greatest contribution is allowing veteran actors
Anne McEvoy and Robert Hawkes to navigate the rough terrain on their own terms
and with little interference from obtrusive lighting, set and sound design.
</FONT></SPAN></P>
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face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
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face="Times New Roman"><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'>For
more of this review, go to </SPAN><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
color=#0563c1>www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/</FONT></SPAN><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'>.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></SPAN></FONT></P>
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