none too fragile’s ‘The Whale’ wallows in well-chartered waters Bob Abelman Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning Journal Member, International Association of Theatre Critics In Samuel D. Hunter’s “The Whale” – initially found breaching off-Broadway in 2013 – Charlie’s death scene clocks in at 1-hour and 50-minutes. For the entirety of this slow-moving but quietly affecting drama, the morbidly self-destructive, always-apologetic 600 pound Charlie sits on or precariously orbits around his couch in a small northern Idaho apartment awaiting his final, thin exhale. Intermittently orbiting around Charlie, when he is not offering online tutoring on expository writing, are a handful of well-intended characters who are remarkably ill-equipped to follow through with their objectives. Come to none too fragile to see an engaging but unexceptional work by MacArthur Foundation genius grant winner Samuel D. Hunter. Stay to marvel at the eloquent performances it is provided. For more of this review, go to www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/.