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style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"><FONT face=Georgia>Great
Lakes Theater’s ‘Witness for the Prosecution’ a guilty pleasure <SPAN
class=s1><SPAN style="COLOR: "></SPAN></SPAN></FONT></SPAN></B></P>
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align=center><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN></B> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; tab-stops: 45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt 183.2pt 229.0pt 274.8pt 320.6pt 366.4pt 412.2pt 458.0pt 503.8pt 549.6pt 595.4pt 641.2pt 687.0pt 732.8pt"
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-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; 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-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; 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>
<P class=MsoNormal style="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><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
face=Georgia> </FONT></SPAN></B><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'></SPAN></P>
<P class=p1 style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT
face=Georgia><SPAN class=s1><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial">A large part of the
pleasure derived from Agatha Christie plays and the novels on which they are
based is attempting to figure out for ourselves who the murderer might be based
on the </SPAN></SPAN><SPAN class=s1><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial">same clues and manipulative
slight-of-hand offered to her marvelously conceived master
detectives</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; mso-bidi-font-family: arial">.
</SPAN></FONT><SPAN class=s1><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"></SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P class=p1 style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN class=s1><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"><FONT
face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN></SPAN> </P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face=Georgia><SPAN
class=s1><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial">In
her “Witness for the Prosecution,” which </SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: helvetica"><FONT
color=#333333>premiered in London in 1953 and </FONT></SPAN><SPAN class=s1><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial">is currently being
staged by Great Lakes Theater, we bear witness to the murder trial of the naïve
Leonard Vole (</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: ">Taha Mandviwala), who is
</SPAN><SPAN class=s1><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial">suspected of
</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN class=s1><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial">killing </SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; mso-bidi-font-family: arial">Emily
French</SPAN></FONT><FONT face="Times New Roman">,</SPAN></FONT><SPAN
class=s1><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"><FONT
face=Georgia> an <SPAN style="COLOR: ">older woman who had left him everything
in her recently revised will.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The
key witness for the prosecution is none other than his no-nonsense, foreign-born
wife, Romaine (Jodi Dominick). </SPAN></FONT></SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: helvetica"></SPAN></P>
<P class=p1 style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: helvetica"><FONT
color=#333333 face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: helvetica"><FONT
face=Georgia><FONT color=#333333>Because this play is based on a short story and
not a novel, we are afforded fewer twists and turns and less bait and switch
than other works by Christie.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Instead, we hear one side of the case and then the other, and barristers
rather than master detectives work things out.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: helvetica"><FONT
color=#333333 face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face=Georgia><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: helvetica"><FONT
color=#333333>In short, sitting through “</FONT></SPAN><SPAN class=s1><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial">Witness for the
Prosecution” can feel </SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: helvetica"><FONT
color=#333333>a lot like jury duty.</FONT></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: helvetica"><FONT
color=#333333 face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="BACKGROUND: white; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT
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-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in'>For
more of this article, go to </SPAN></I><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
color=#0000ff>www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/bob_abelman/</FONT></SPAN></FONT></P></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>