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face=Georgia>It’s red herring season in Annie Baker’s
‘John’</FONT></SPAN></B></P>
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face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN></B> </P>
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align=center><SPAN
style='BORDER-TOP: windowtext 1pt; FONT-FAMILY: ; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 1pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 1pt; COLOR: ; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; PADDING-TOP: 0in; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext 1pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in'><FONT
face=Georgia>Bob Abelman</FONT></SPAN><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'></SPAN></P>
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align=center><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style='BORDER-TOP: windowtext 1pt; FONT-FAMILY: ; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 1pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 1pt; COLOR: ; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; PADDING-TOP: 0in; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext 1pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in'><FONT
face=Georgia>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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face=Georgia>Member, American Theatre Critics Association</FONT></SPAN><SPAN
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face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
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face=Georgia><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold'>Within
Annie Baker’s 106-page script for “John,” which takes just over three hours to
perform, there is one line within its first few pages that seems to speak on
behalf of the </SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: ">Pulitzer Prize-winning
</SPAN><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold'>playwright
regarding the disposition of her 2015 play.</SPAN></FONT></P>
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style='FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold'><FONT
face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
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style='FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold'><FONT
face=Georgia>“I can only do build-up to scary, not scary
itself.”</FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal
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face=Georgia><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: ">The play revolves around Elias
Schreiber-Hoffman and Jenny Chung, a young Brooklyn couple on the brink of a
breakup who stop at an eerie bed & breakfast in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania one
cold November evening. The line is spoken by Elias late at night, as he tries to
tell Jenny a scary story to ease her anxiety about the spooky Civil War-era
house with its </SPAN><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold'>creepy
dead-eyed doll collection, peculiar innkeeper, and copious
shadows.</SPAN></FONT></P>
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style='FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold'><FONT
face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
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face=Georgia>Mid-way through his story he stops and admits his shortcoming as a
storyteller.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>While this signifies
one of the many ways Elias fails to satisfy Jenny’s needs, it also tips off
Baker’s cruel and clever intentions as a master storyteller to offer a
traditional ghost story without the ghosts.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P>
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face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
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face=Georgia><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style='BORDER-TOP: windowtext 1pt; FONT-FAMILY: ; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 1pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 1pt; COLOR: ; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; PADDING-TOP: 0in; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext 1pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in'>For
more of this article, go to </SPAN></I><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
color=#0000ff>www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/bob_abelman/</FONT></SPAN></FONT></P></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>