STRUCK examines the brain and strokes at Cleveland
Public Theatre
STRUCK, now on stage as
Cleveland Public Theatre is an interesting piece, much in the vein of Arthur Kopit’s
WINGS, which had a startling production at Beck Center starring Dorothy Silver,
in which the ramifications of a person having a stroke is investigated.
As I tell my psychology
students, the brain is a marvelous, but fragile thing. It is the intellectual center of our
very being. It is constantly
in the process of changing, through a process known as coring. This is what accounts for
teenagers seemingly out of the realm of reality, as they respond, “I don’t
know,” when asked why they did something.
In reality, as their mind destructs and rebuilds, they aren’t in logical
control. The mind also has
neuroplasticity. It may be able to
be remolded, be retrained. This
ability allows individuals who often learn to write with their right hands, if
they are a lefty and the limb is injured, to make the adjustment, or to learn
again after amnesia hits.
What happens when a
person has a stroke? The
incredibly complex ensemble known as the brain goes haywire. Thought processes, which happen
daily as we think and speak, get interrupted. Normal tasks such as remembering what has happened in the
past, thinking in the present, or projecting into the future become difficult,
if not impossible. What
happened? What is happening?
STRUCK is the tale of Tannis
Kowalchuk who, in 2011, suffered a stroke. Since then, she has been on the road to recovery, which has
led her on a search to discover not only what caused the physical problem, but
what it means to be human. The
play leads us into her own mind and its attempts at recovery.
The story is not told in
a sequential format. There is no
beginning, middle and end, per se.
We are not privy to her recovery, though we are participants in her journey
into the world of stroke patient.
As often happens with devised
theatre, text, lighting, video, sound and digital effects blend to make the
whole. It is more presentation
than focused story telling. The
runway stage, with the audience on both sides of the action, is a whirr of
curtains, projected visual images, sounds, flashing lights, and the words of
the actors.
STRUCK, a 70-minute,
intermissionless, world premiere, coproduction of CPT and the National Cultural
Laboratory, is well conceived and performed, though it is more affect then
effect. The video/sound/photography
of Dana Duke and Big Twig Studio and the work of video/digital artists Brian
Calazza and Brett Keyser, help develop Kowalchuk’s angst, as does Stephen
Arnold’s lighting.
Brett Keyser, who CPT
regulars know from his performances in DARWINII: THE COMEUPANCE OF MAN, OPEN MIND FIRMAMENT, and BLUE SKY
TRANSMISSION: A TIBETAN BOOK OF
THE DEAD, is his usual adept self.
TANIS KOWALCHUK is his equal as the stroke victim.
Side note: There has been WATER WAYS, then EARTH,
then NICK AND JEREMY and now, STRUCK. Cleveland Public Theatre seems obsessed with devised
theatre, productions which have no
playwright, but are conceived by the performers and other theatre staff. There is nothing wrong with devised
theatre, and there is surely nothing wrong with STRUCK, but four such shows in
a row seems a bit much for a single theatre, in a single season.
Capsule judgement: STRUCK is an
interesting piece of devised theatre, that clearly illustrates the angst of a
stroke on a human and the fragility of the human mind.
STRUCK runs
through April 6 at Cleveland
Public Theatre. For tickets call
216-631-2727 or go on line to www.cptonline.org.
