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style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: "><FONT color=#111111 face=Georgia>Dobama finds the
truth in ‘This,’ an engaging play about loss</FONT></SPAN></B><B
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style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: "></SPAN></B></P>
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face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN></B> </P>
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face=Georgia>Bob Abelman</FONT></SPAN><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'></SPAN></P>
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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> </FONT></SPAN></B><SPAN
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face=Georgia>“I’m back,” says Jane, just before the
lights dim for the final time in the 100-minute, intermission-less treatise on
grief that is Melissa James Gibson’s “This.”</FONT></SPAN></P>
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style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face=Georgia>Up until that moment, Jane has been
standing on the threshold of moving on with her life after the death of her
husband, but is incapable of moving forward.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>She’s been sleepwalking through the last
year absentmindedly raising her 9-year-old daughter, inattentively interacting
with her small circle of friends who are invested in their own personal crises,
and going through the motions at work.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P>
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style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face=Georgia>This sounds terribly depressing and the
play’s monosyllabic title implies a numbing simplicity in the storytelling, but
“This” is an engaging and complicated work, as are most of Gibson’s creations
including her Obie Award-winning “[sic]” and Emmy Award-winning “House of
Cards.”</FONT></SPAN></P>
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style="FONT-FAMILY: "><FONT face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal
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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>