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face=Georgia>Blank Canvas’ ‘Lobby Hero’ offers a meditation on moral
incongruity</FONT></SPAN></B></P>
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style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><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><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><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="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
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face=Georgia><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
color=#121212>Kenneth Lonergan’s scripts </FONT></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ">for the stage and the screen (in 2017, he won
</SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: ">an Oscar for “<SPAN
style="BORDER-TOP: windowtext 1pt; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 1pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 1pt; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; PADDING-TOP: 0in; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext 1pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-bidi-font-style: italic">Manchester
by the Sea”)</SPAN> are character studies – tightly focused meditations about
small people who live their small lives in a minor key and tormented by inner
conflict.</SPAN></FONT></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>His plays, in particular, are <SPAN
style="COLOR: ">driven by the idea that the conscious and the unconscious mind
are often at odds.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>“A large part of
yourself,” he said in a recent New Yorker interview, “is hidden from yourself
and comes out in all sorts of strange and interesting
ways.”</SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P>
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style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: "><FONT face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: "><FONT face=Georgia>In his “Lobby Hero,” which
debuted Off-Broadway in 2001 and is currently getting a remarkable production on
stage at Blank Canvas Theatre, it comes out in the impassioned ramblings of four
blue collar characters whose words are often two steps ahead of their heads and
one step behind their hearts.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P>
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style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: "><FONT face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
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face=Georgia><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-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"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
color=#0000ff>www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/bob_abelman/</FONT></SPAN></FONT></P></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>