‘Tall Skinny Cruel Cruel Boys’ an intriguing but indecisive psychodrama

 

Bob Abelman

Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning Journal

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics

 

Franklin Delano Roosevelt famously said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

 

Not according to a recent Time magazine survey, which reported that most people also fear cyber-terrorism, bio-warfare, and public speaking.  Topping the list is the fear of clowns.   

 

Tapping this particular trigger of anxiety and cold sweats is Cleveland native Caroline V. McGraw’s psychodrama “Tall Skinny Cruel Cruel Boys,” performed by Theater Ninjas at Near West Lofts in Gordon Square.

 

The clown in question is a damaged and disturbed young woman named Brandy (a hauntingly detached and lissome Rachel Lee Kolis), who performs at children’s parties when not mindlessly succumbing to their Dads’ sexual advances (Val Kozlenko) in the bathrooms and seducing high school boys (Bryon Tobin) in her bedroom.  

 

For more of this review, go to www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/.