<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"><head><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml><o:OfficeDocumentSettings><o:AllowPNG/><o:PixelsPerInch>96</o:PixelsPerInch></o:OfficeDocumentSettings></xml><![endif]--></head><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif;font-size:16px"><div align="center" style="text-align:center" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1460399660289_5049"><b id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1460399660289_5050">Tolkien, Enchantingly Condensed<o:p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1460399660289_5051"></o:p></b></div><div align="center" style="text-align:center" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1460399660289_5049"><b><br></b></div><div align="center" style="text-align:center" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1460399660289_5052">By Tom Wachunas<o:p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1460399660289_5053"></o:p></div><div align="center" style="text-align:center" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1460399660289_5054"><o:p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1460399660289_5055"> </o:p></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1460399660289_5056"> For this Players
Guild production of <i id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1460399660289_5057">The Hobbit </i>(adapted
by Markland Taylor and based on the classic 1937 novel by J.R.R. Tolkien),
director Micah Harvey was a man on a mission. He must surely have felt a
solidarity with the central character, a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins, who was
recruited by the wizard Gandalph to accompany a dwarf named Thorin to hunt down
the evil dragon Smaug, and steal back its ill-gotten treasure. Harvey’s dragon,
if you please, was to somehow transfer the fantastical dramatic and visual
sprawl of Tolkien’s narrative – already imprinted on pop culture as an epic
film trilogy - into the unlikely and otherwise tight confines of the Guild’s
arena theater. Even more challenging is the fact that Markland Taylor’s very
compacted stage adaptation unfolds in only about 90 minutes with a cast of just
six actors.<o:p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1460399660289_5058"></o:p></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1460399660289_5056"><br></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1460399660289_5059"> This small band of
performers has to in turn play a bevy of interconnected roles depicting
dwarves, elves, goblins, trolls, and assorted other woodland denizens. A
daunting task, to be sure. But aside from some passages when the overall
dialogue energy and expressivity becomes a bit lethargic (arguably as much a
flaw in the writing as it is in audible delivery), it’s a task well met here with
notable versatility and panache. <o:p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1460399660289_5060"></o:p></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1460399660289_5059"><br></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1460399660289_5061"> Three of the
actors have single roles. Douglas Lizak, as Bildo Baggins, turns in a warm and intricately
nuanced rendering of the reluctant and nervous hobbit, who much prefers simple
creature comforts - such as smoking his pipe and eating favorite foods on his
idyllic home turf - to stalking a dragon in forbidding lands. He’d rather be
called “expert treasure hunter” than “burglar,” and much of the story embraces
his struggle to realize his latent courage and inventiveness that prompted
Gandalf to enlist him in the first place. <o:p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1460399660289_5062"></o:p></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1460399660289_5061"><br></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1460399660289_5063"> But Bilbo’s
travelling companion, the dwarf Thorin, played by Bobby Severns, doesn’t
initially share Gandalph’s faith in the jittery hobbit. As Bilbo’s more confrontational counterpart,
Severns captures his character’s sardonic and feisty nature with memorable
finesse.</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1460399660289_5063"> <o:p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1460399660289_5064"></o:p></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1460399660289_5065"> In his role of Gandalph,
Jonathan Tisevich is both a commanding and at times gently understated
presence. He’s at once the tender encourager and the powerful, stern mentor - a
mystical catalyst and embodiment of fatherly optimism tempered with cautionary
wisdom. <o:p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1460399660289_5066"></o:p></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1460399660289_5067"><o:p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1460399660289_5068"> </o:p></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1460399660289_5069"> Meanwhile, the
three remaining actors in the cast each have multiple roles of varying
durations that nonetheless call for all sorts of postures and attitudes,
ranging from the convincingly regal or militant, to the just plain silly or
malevolent. In one of several scenes worth the price of admission, Russell
Jones, Corey Paulus, and Jacob Sustersic are particularly spectacular – and
hilarious – as three gargantuan trolls apparently made of stone. Bellowing in
deliciously gravelly voices, they bicker over what do with the cowering Bilbo.
Their sculpted costumes – a marvelous collaborative concoction by director
Harvey, local artist David McDowell, and costume designer George McCarty – are
works of art in themselves. A similar sculpted and kinetic marvel is the
dragon, Smaug, voiced in explosive, bone-rattling tones by Sustersic, who also
plays Gollum. In that role, he’s utterly startling in his frenetic writhing and
leaping, all the while spitting out his urgent and faithful re-creation of that
horrible and familiar voice from the films - a terribly throaty and liquid
deformity. <o:p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1460399660289_5070"></o:p></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1460399660289_5069"><br></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1460399660289_5071"> The combined works
of scenic designer Joshua Erichsen, lighting designer Joseph Carmola, and sound
designer Scott Sutton constitute a stellar “performance” in its own right.
While static, the multi-tiered set can nonetheless evoke dense forests, rocky
terrain, or darkened caves via the remarkably fluid light changes amid smoky
mists. The richly layered recorded aural effects include bucolic music passages
alternating with night sounds near and far, soothing as well as alien and
terrifying. </div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1460399660289_5071"> <o:p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1460399660289_5072"></o:p></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1460399660289_5073"> So did Micah
Harvey and company subdue their dragon and bring home the gold, as it
were? Is this ambitious mission, this
highly edited epic by the Players Guild, a success? Given the sheer breadth and
complexity of Tolkien’s narrative vision, in a manner of speaking you could
call it a wholly enchanting some of its parts. </div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1460399660289_5073"> <o:p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1460399660289_5074"></o:p></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1460399660289_5075"> <i id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1460399660289_5076">The Hobbit, </i>at Canton’s Players Guild
Theatre, 1001 Market Avenue N., Canton, Ohio,
THROUGH APRIL 24 / Performances at 7 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Saturday and
Sunday / Tickets: $16 for adults, $12 for 17 and younger, at 330.453.7617
or <a href="http://www.playersguildtheatre.com/" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1460399660289_5077">www.playersguildtheatre.com</a> <o:p id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1460399660289_5078"></o:p></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1460399660289_5075"><br></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1460399660289_4888">
</div><div dir="ltr" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1460399660289_5079"> For other
commentaries by Tom Wachunas on the arts in the Canton area, please visit his
blog, ARTWACH, at <a href="http://www.artwach.blogspot.com/" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1460399660289_5080" class="enhancr2_f8943939-09ee-dfc3-4e9d-019882b2daf7">ARTWACH</a>
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