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style="FONT-FAMILY: ; BACKGROUND-IMAGE: none; BACKGROUND-REPEAT: repeat; BACKGROUND-ATTACHMENT: scroll; BACKGROUND-POSITION: 0% 0%; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial">Dobama’s
‘Wakey, Wakey’</SPAN></B><SPAN
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<B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">a captivating piece of
stream-of-subconsciousness storytelling</B></SPAN></FONT></P>
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face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN></B> </P>
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align=center><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-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-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-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>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT
face=Georgia><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: ">In 2004 in the New York Times, <SPAN
style="COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-style: italic">t</SPAN><SPAN
style="COLOR: ">heater critic Charles Isherwood raved over Will Eno’s one-man
monologue “Thom Pain (based on nothing),” calling the caustic and comedic
Pulitzer-finalist play “stand-up existentialism</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: "><FONT
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">.</FONT></SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ">”
</SPAN></FONT><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: "></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0in; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0in"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic"><FONT
face=Georgia>In Eno’s newest work “Wakey, Wakey,” which premiered Off-Broadway
in 2017 and is currently on stage at Dobama Theatre, the main character is
sitting down.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Wheelchair-bound,
actually.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic"><FONT
face=Georgia>And while this similarly rambling, monologue-driven drama is
written with the same infusion of off-beat humor, intentional digressiveness,
and signature stutter-step rhythms, it is a treatise on celebrating life rather
than a meditation on life’s disappointments. </FONT></SPAN></P>
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face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
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face=Georgia><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic">Most
remarkably, it is told by a physically and mentally diminished man in the last
throes of life.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In an abundance of
non sequiturs caused by increasingly fading faculties, Guy toggles between
consciousness, subconsciousness and self-consciousness as well as between the
</SPAN><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'>trivial
and the profound </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic">to
share with us – aided by </SPAN><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'>index
cards to cue his fading memory</SPAN><SPAN
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– what he has learned in life so that we will not take ours for granted.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></SPAN></FONT></P>
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face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
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style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic"><FONT
face=Georgia>The play offers an astoundingly up-lifting message delivered in a
most depressing way. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It has been
said that theater can be good therapy.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Here it is hospice care.</FONT></SPAN></P>
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face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal
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face=Georgia><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'>For
more of this review, go to: </SPAN><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>