Cesear’s Forum’s “Copenhagen” asks whether a meeting between two physicists changed world history

Did a meeting between two world-famous Jewish physicists have an effect on Germany not developing an atomic bomb?  Did that same meeting lead to the evacuation of Denmark’s Jewish population before a planned mass extermination by the Nazis?  Did that same get-together lead to a major physicist leaving Europe and coming to the US to help in this country’s nuclear program?  

These, and other questions are at the center of “Copenhagen,” Michael Frayn’s Tony Award winning play, now being staged by Cesear’s Forum. 

The story is told in a non-linear pattern in which physicists Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg, and Borh’s wife, Margrethe, all now dead, look back at a meeting held in the Bohr’s Copenhagen home in September, 1941.  

The spirits of the three attempt to answer the question that Margrethe poses in the first line of the play: "Why did he [Heisenberg] come to Copenhagen?"  Unfortunately, though the meeting did take place, there is no written or oral record of exactly what happened.  

What playwright Frayn has done, is to invent a “what might have been said and what did happen marriage of ideas and suppositions.”  We spend two-and-a-half hours reliving the experience which presents, debates, accepts and rejects theories that may answer that question.

Frayn feels confident in claiming that "The actual words spoken by [the] characters are entirely their own."

The core of the play is based on a speech by Heisenberg who says, "No one understands my trip to Copenhagen. Time and time again I’ve explained it. To Bohr himself, and Margrethe. To interrogators and intelligence officers, to journalists and historians. The more I've explained, the deeper the uncertainty has become."

Along the way, Frayn has Heisenberg and Bohr draft several versions of their 1941 exchange.  In these flashback discussions, “they argue about the ramifications of each potential version of their meeting and the motives behind it.  They discuss the idea of nuclear power and its control, the rationale behind building or not building an atomic bomb, the uncertainty of the past and the inevitability of the future as embodiments of themselves acting as particles drifting through the atom that is Copenhagen.”

Heisenberg grew up in an environment with an intense emphasis on academics, but was exposed to the destruction of World War II. He is best known for his "Uncertainty Principle."  During the Second World War, despite being Jewish, he worked for Germany, researching atomic technology and heading their nuclear reactor program. 

After the war, Heisenberg’s involvement with the Nazis earned him certain notoriety in the world of physicists, mainly due to the fact it is speculated that he could have given Hitler the means to produce and use nuclear arms, but intentionally or through the lack of insight into the nuclear process, did not do so.

There is supposition that Heisenberg was also instrumental in sharing knowledge of the secret expulsion of the Danish Jews, so that they could be taken out of the country and hidden.

It is known that most of the world's great theoretical physicists spent periods of their lives at Bohr's Institute. Before the war, his research was instrumental in nuclear research, some of which led to the building of the bomb. During the war, however, Bohr was living in occupied Denmark and somewhat restricted in his research.  He escaped to Sweden in 1943, came to America and worked on the atomic bomb until the end of the war. 

Proving the value of the theatre, Frayn’s play inspired numerous scholarly and media debates over the 1941 meeting.  The Niels Bohr Archive in Copenhagen released to the public all sealed documents related to the meeting, a move intended mostly to settle historical arguments over what they contained. 

The Cesear’s Forum production, under the adept direction of the theater’s artistic director, Greg Cesear, though fascinating in content and idea development, is very long.  The script could have used some heavy red-lining.  Fortunately, the author has “dumbed down” many of the scientific concepts so that the ideas are listener friendly, even for the non-physics informed.

The cast, who each had hundreds-upon-hundreds of lines to memorize, make the interactions conversational and realistic.  Mary Alice Beck (Margrethe), Brian Bowers (Heisenberg) and Dana Hart (Bohr) each nicely texture their performances and create real people. 

Kennedy’s Down Under Theatre creates a perfect setting for this script.  Sitting up-close and enclosed in the natural brick façade makes the experience a personal revelation.

 CAPSULE JUDGMENT: “Copenhagen” continues Cesear’s Forum for doing small cast, high quality, thought provoking plays, that draw in a thinking crowd.  Though a long sit, the play is an idea-expanding experience that is well-worth seeing.

“Copenhagen,” which runs about two-and-a-half hours, with an intermission, can be seen in Kennedy’s Down Under, in the Playhouse Square complex, on Friday and Saturdays at 8 pm through October 26, 2019.  There are 3 pm Sunday performances on October 6 & 13.  For tickets call 216-241-6000 or go to www.playhousesquare.org

Quality performances make “Plath & Orion” interesting evening @ Cesear’s Forum

Cesar’s Forum, which might be thought of as the little theater company “that could and can,” is at it again. The organization, which is a financial and one-man adventure has won both Cleveland Critics Circle and Broadway World Theatre Tribute recognitions for past performances. 

The theater usually presents challenging scripts which have small casts and require little or no sets.   Artistic director Greg Cesear has followed this pattern again with his pairing two one-act plays into an evening of interest.

“Plath & Orion, Two One-Act Plays” is composed of Pulitzer Prize winning Lanford Wilson’s “The Great Nebula in Orion” and Cesear’s self-written “Plath, Sexton and the Art of Confession.”

Wilson, a Missouri native, was noted as one of the significant theater writers of the 20th century. “He was one of the first playwrights to move from Off-Off-Broadway, to Off-Broadway, then to Broadway and beyond.”  His plays are commonly done by community theaters. 

The Wilson script centers on an unscheduled afternoon social interaction between two women who were close college friends but have not seen each other for seven years.

Louise (Rachel Lee Kolis) is a successful fashion designer.  Carrie (Amiee Collier), is a former activist who married into wealth and is now a Boston area socialite. 

Louise, who is single, lives the life of a childless, Manhattan career woman, while Carrie does “all the right things” for a woman of her status—bridge, clubs, and mothering two children. 

Both seem discontent as talk about former loves and college friends as they consume a large quantity of brandy at Louise’s Park Avenue apartment. 

This is a character, rather than a plot centered script.  It is well written and gives each actress a chance to show off her talent.  And talent is abundant with these two fine actresses.  Their characters are well-developed, with each performance completely realistic.

The second act, Greg Cesear’s “Plath, Sexton and the Art of Confession,” features Mary Alice Beck as M.A. and Julia Kolibab as Jane.  

The duo is attending a scholastic conference.  They exchange ideas, which mainly center on the works of Pulitzer Prize winning poets, Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton, who furthered the literary genre known as Confessional poetry.  

The conversation between MA and Jane parallel the experience that Plath and Sexton had when they met at a seminar and their career work, combined with personal rivalry and affinity, caused them to be linked together.

The play presents such observations as, “To judge a poem you have understand it,” “image reflects image,” and the challenging concept of “What is art worth?”.  It is an academic course in poetry, poets and Platt and Sexton.

As in the first act, the performances are excellent.

“The plays are companion pieces designed for audiences to focus on and identify with the character-driven narratives through inventive storytelling.” In both, “the women address their thoughts and comments directly to the audience, as well as to each other.  Poignant, cutting, funny and poetic, their telling conversations reveal individual boundaries of hope and reality.”

Capsule judgement:  Though some may find the show, especially the second act, obtuse and overly intellectual, Cesear’s Forum again displays that it doesn’t take a big budget, massive sets and ornate costumes to present effective theater, in this case, its exceptional performances.

“Plath & Orion, Two One-Act Plays” runs Friday and Saturday through October 27, 2018 @ 8 as well as Sunday, October 7 and 14 @ 3 in Kennedy’s Down Under.  Enter through the Ohio Theatre lobby and go down the steps to the theatre.  For tickets call 216-241-6000 or go to http://www.playhousesquare.org

Unique, well-acted LANFORD WILSON: TAKE 5 @ Cesear’s Forum

Caffe Cino, which was founded in 1958, is noted as the site that gave birth to off-off Broadway theatre.  It was the invention of retired dancer Joe Cino, who offered a place to do inexpensive creative works in New York City and not have to conform to Equity rules.  Cino bankrolled the adventure.  The shows were staged on a make-shift small platform.

Cleveland has similar theatres.  They are venues which are the inventions of a single person who scavengers for money from foundations and donors and produces shows on a shoe-string budget.  These  off-off Euclid Theaters include Patrick Ciamacco’s Blank Canvas, located at West  78th street (http://www.blankcanvastheatre.com), Clyde Simon’s convergence-continuum, 2438 Scranton Rd. in Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood (http://www.convergence-continuum.org), and Greg Cesear’s Cesear’s Forum, which performs in Kennedy’ Down Under, down under the Ohio Theatre in Playhouse Square (http://www.cesearsforum.com).

It is ironic that Cesear’s Forum is showcasing Lanford Wilson’s TAKE 5 as  Wilson’s first plays were staged at Caffe Cino.   The smallish platform on which the scripts were welcomed into the world was about the same size as that found in Kennedy’s which opened in 1921 as a  bar.

Wilson, a Lebanon, Missouri native, who died in 2011 at age 73, was noted as one of the significant writers of the 20 th century. He was one of the first playwrights to move from Off-Off-Broadway, to Off-Broadway, then Broadway. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1980.

His first significant play was HOME FREE in 1964.  Other well known scripts were:  THE RIMERS OF ELDRITCH, THE GINGHAM DOG (his first Broadway show), THE HOT L BALTIMORE, FIFTH OF JULY, BALM IN GILEAD and TALLEY’S FOLLY.

It is the goal of Cesear’s Forum to “present works of social commitment and theatre experimentation.” TAKE 5, which is composed of five one-act plays, have been cobbled together into an evening of theater by the producer, Greg Cesear.  The evening features six performers playing various roles, and fits well into the theater’s purpose.

Adorable Tricia Bestic serves as the absent-minded narrator, introducing each of the one acts.  She bumbles the intros, messes up the titles of the plays, and interacts with the audience, creating a warm and comfortable atmosphere.

WANDERING covers 40 years of a guy’s life in 4 minutes.  He confronts parental conflicts, applying for jobs, being a conscious objector, being lost, relationships, and facing the reality of life, through a barrage of attacks. 
The main character (Beau Reinker) , who starts as a teenager, stays the same throughout, but the minor characters-- his parents, wife, friends, doctors, nurses, secretaries—interchange in their roles.

SEXTET (YES) is compromised of the thoughts and recollections of six characters, who wander and sit at random places as they react to each other's revelations with a quiet, "yes." Out of the pattern of their memories and the interweaving of their destinies, emerges a sense of their frailty, humanity, and the disquieting vulnerability of life itself.

A BETROTHAL is a delightful cat and mouse conversation which keeps the audience guessing about what is being discussed as two lost souls, a school librarian (Adina Bloom) and an associate gardener (Brian Zoldessy), who have come into a tent in order to get out the rain, express irritation with the way they have been treated by the judges.  Judges?  What does this have to do with a betrothal?

As the obtuse conversation about Little Soldier and Little Tanya takes place the duo spars, accuses, insults, attempts friendly conversation, and surprisingly come to an uneasy peace.  They agree to mate there flowers, his for its beauty and hers for its strength, thus creating an iris which will even dazzle the obtuse judges.

The physical and verbally dominant Bloom and the slender, nervous, bumbling Zoldessy are delightful as they advance, lunge, attack, feint, and parry as they conduct their verbal fencing match.

BRONTOSAURUS is considered as one of Wilson’s best one-act plays, and why he is regarded as the “greatest functioning playwright of the last quarter of the century.” 

A young man (Beau Reinker) arrives at a plush Park Avenue apartment.  He is there to live with his aunt (Mary Alice Beck), who will provide housing and also support his NYU collegiate education. 

She is a sophisticated, cynical, wealthy New York antiques dealer.  He is withdrawn and secretive.  She is a wise-cracking wine drinking, non-believer.  He is reticent, unemotional and claims he is going to study theology because he underwent a mystical experience. 

She becomes more chatty, a defense she has honed to keep the world away, thus reinforcing her awareness of the superficiality of her life and the futility of her existence.   He leaves to find his place in the world, leaving behind his much photographed bedroom with the view of central park.

Reinker, who often serves as a sound designer at local theatres, would be wise to get more involved in stage endeavors. He is handsome, has solid acting abilities, displays a nice level of sensitivity, and effectively textures his performance.  Beck is a fine actress, who develops a woman with a veneer of protection.

In A POSTER OF THE COSMOS a young black is sitting in a Manhattan police station interrogation room. 

Tom (Sean Booker), a baker, has been accused of killing his lover, who had been in the hospital in the last stages of death caused by AIDS.  Tom’s emotionally presented insights regarding the duo’s relationship, the attacks on them by an uncaring and ignorant society, and the stereotypes against him as a young black man provide great insight.   His pleas are answered by the interrogator’s derogatory refrain, “You don’t look like the kinna guy’d do somethin’ like dat.”


The play deserved its inclusion in BEST SHORT PLAYS OF 1989, and Booker deserves a standing ovation for his insightful, emotional, tear-filled development of the bereaved, shocked Tom, whose lover died in his arms. 

Capsule judgement: Cesear’s Forum, which has won both Cleveland Critics Circle and Times Theatre Tribute recognition for past performances, again proves, with LANFORD WILSON:  TAKE 5, that it doesn’t take a big budget, massive sets and ornate costumes to present wonderful and effective theater. Kudos!!

LANFORD WILSON:  TAKE FIVE runs Friday and Saturday through October 29, 2016  as well as Sunday, October 9 and 16, 2016 @ 3 in Kennedy’s Down-under.  Enter through the Ohio Theatre lobby and go down the steps to the theatre.  For tickets call 216-241-6000 or go to http://www.playhousesquare.org

Cesear’s Forum’s THE INVESTIGATION is an excruciating personal experience

As the actors lined up for the curtain call of Cesear’s Forum’s THE INVESTIGATION, Peter Weiss’s play about the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials of 1963-65, I was on an emotional trip far, far way.

The summer of 1959 found me in England, the Scandinavian countries, Russia, and Poland on an international exchange program.  On July 29, based on the request I had made, our white Volkswagen bus, with its ten passengers, pulled into the city square in Lomza, Poland.  Lomza, Poland, the “shtetl” in which my mother, had been born, and she, her mother, her aunt and uncles, and my great-grandparents had left in 1908.  My grandfather fled from the army in 1904, had come to America, made enough money to bring over his child, wife and in-laws.  Left behind was his extensive Orthodox Jewish family.

By some act of serendipity, Paul, my interpreter, found a man whose father had been the caretaker for my grandfather’s family.  The man took us to the place where the family home, the yeshiva (a training school for rabbis which had been founded by my great-uncle), and the synagogue had stood before the war.  He related that a few of the family had left for the United States before the wars, another small group had left for Israel, but the majority had been “taken away.” 

Several hours later I was at Auschwitz.  The concentration camp had not yet been “sanitized” and made to look like a museum, as it did 20 years later when I returned.  It still smelled of burned bodies, the barracks had not been painted to make them look like summer camp dorms, and the hair, shoes, and suitcases of the dead had not yet been placed into their air tight storage chambers. 

I walked through a corridor emblazoned with the names of the cities, towns, and “shtetls” from which the Jews, Gypsies, Gays and political prisoners had been brought to this place of murder.  There, clearly etched, was the title, “Lomza.”  Below were lists of names of those who had been murdered at this horrible place.  All of a sudden, the words, “they had been taken away” struck horrible reality.  (Many years later, after an extensive search, I ascertained that well over 100 of my relatives were victims of the Nazi cleansing.)

As I sat in my seat at the conclusion of THE INVESTIGATION, even though the actors (Tricia Bestic, Brian Bowers, Zach Griffin, Michael Johnson, John Kolibab, Michel Regnier, Jeanne Task, Valerie Young and Lee Mackey) deserved my accolades, I could not applaud.  How do you applaud the deeds of liars, murders and inhumanity?  I was emotionally drained.

As for this review,  I could comment on the overly long script, the distracting movement of chairs, the inappropriate attempts at humor by the pre-performance cleaner of the stage and comments he made which were off-setting for the mood and intent of this script, and the meaningless and ridiculous singing act, insulting to the memory of the dead, which also preceded the actual play. But, in reality, though off-setting, none of these are totally relevant. 

I could praise Max Bruno the superb violinist who played inter-scene musical bridges, and the “chutzpa” (courage) of Greg Cesear in picking a script of a story that must be told, but is so upsetting that it may not attract large audiences. 

What is most relevant to me is that the audience, the night I saw the show, was populated by  a large contingent of high school-aged students.  If they learned of the horrors of the Holocaust, then it was worth my personal angst.  If the people in the fourteen West and East German cities where the play was premiered in October of 1965 learned of the horror they and their countrymen had participated in and swore to never do such deeds again, then the play achieved its purpose.  If Holocaust deniers and those who are not fully aware of the horrors that were perpetuated see the show, then that, too, would make the writer, the cast, and the director’s time worth while.

Capsule judgement:  My ride home after Cesear’s Forum’s THE INVESTIGATION was done in silence.  I sit here now, trying to write a review, with welled eyes.  Oh, the inhumanity of man.  
For tickets to THE INVESTIGATION, through November 14 in Kennedy’s Down Under, call 216-241-6000 or www.playhousesquare.org   The theatre is entered from the lobby of the Ohio Theatre in PlayhouseSquare.

Please vote for Issue 8--which supports Cuyahoga County's Arts & Culture sector and is NOT A TAX INCREASE.

OCCUPANT @ Cesear's Forum

Louise Nevelson, the subject of Edward Albee’s play, “Occupant,” now in production by Cesear’s Forum, may or may not be the person that is written about in the script.  The iconoclast artist, known for her monochromatic abstract expressionist sculptures, was an elusive figure.  Many of the accepted “facts” of her life have been proven to be untrue.  It matters not if Nevelson told the stories, or an art historian searched and found the information. No one knows exactly what is accurate.

Nevelson lived the “great lie theory.”  If you tell a lie over and over, after a while you can’t tell if it is the truth. 

Who is better to probe into Nevelson’s life than Edward Albee, America’s greatest existentialist playwright, whose works are representative of the Absurdist school of writing.  Absurd, meaning “out of sync” in one sense, “ridiculous” in another.  Yes, Nevelson led a life that was eccentric, when compared to the norm, and her fanciful exploits make for a bizarre story.

Who was Louise Nevelson?  Only she knows, and as we find out, she’s not telling.  Or, is she?

Albee sets up the investigation in what appears to be a clear format.  An interviewer is probing into Nevelson’s life, asking her questions.  But, suddenly the interviewer informs us, “I never interviewed someone who was dead!” Yes, the woman we see before us, is dead!

As the interview proceeds, we find that Leah Berliawsky was born in Kiev, Russia, on September 23, 1899.  (Well, maybe.)  She and her Jewish parents were driven out of the country during a series of pogroms.  They eventually settled in Rockland, Maine, where her father became a fairly wealthy lumber and real estate tycoon. (Maybe.)  Leah, tall, beautiful and shy, according to her, “suffered many anti-Semitic experiences.”  She escaped from Rockland to New York, via what may have been an arranged marriage to Charles Nevelson, an older, unattractive, but wealthy New Yorker. 

The stories of a life filled with lovers, expensive tastes, the Nevelsons losing much of their wealth, the birth of her unwanted son (she admits to being a “lousy” mother), her escape to Paris to attend art school, a return to New York, getting rejected by art reviewers and the buying public, finally making her breakthrough in the 1950s when museums began to buy her wooden sculptures, and her ultimate death in 1988.  She is recognized by many as one of America’s most innovative sculptors, but shunned by others as a “gimmick” artist.

Nevelson, always knew she was “special,” lived with the motto, “I am going to be my own special self.  I’m going to occupy that space if it kills me.”  This mantra kept her going when things looked bleak and life impossible.  Kept her going through suicide attempts, depression, and regrets.

The play is filled with droll humor.  And, as in many of Albee’s existentialistic theater creations, explores individual veracity, selective memory, and the process of self-fulfillment as he asks, “Why do we exist?”

The play’s title is taken from a real life happening.  Nevelson, near the end of her life, dying of lung cancer after being a chain smoker, was in the hospital, didn’t want visitors.  She had the sign on her door, which had been emblazoned with large letters spelling out her name, taken down and the word “Occupant” put up instead.  She was an eccentric to the end!

Julia Kolibab and George Roth are up to the challenge of performing the two-person, two-act, two-hour show, with great aplomb.  Roth chides, teases and challenges with a twinkle in his eye and sardonic and sarcastic vocal and physical tones.  Kolibab , wearing eccentric clothing and two pair of mink eyelashes, dominates the stage, fully capturing the very being of Nevelson. 

Director Greg Cesear keeps the action rolling.  This is difficult as the script is a long duologue with little action.  He manages to retain the audience’s attention by keying in on the humor and playing up the exaggeration.

Scenic designer Laura Carlson Tarantowski creates a clever set which imitates the sculpture style of Nevelson.  Make sure you get an up close and view Tarantowski’s clever use of castaway products that form the basis of the set.

Kennedy Down Under is a perfect space for this intimate piece. 

Capsule Judgement:  “Occupant” is one of those special plays and theatrical presentations that will be greatly appreciated by the serious theater-goer who likes to be exposed to a well-written, thinking person’s play, which gets a fine staging and interpretation.
“Occupant” runs through October 25 at 8 pm on Fridays and Saturdays and 3 pm for the Sunday performances at Cesear’s Forum, located in Kennedy’s Down Under, PlayhouseSquare.  The entrance to the theatre is off the lobby of the Ohio Theatre.  For information and reservations call 216-241-6000 or go to http://www.playhousesquare.org

PERHAPS PERICLES, a maybe Shakespeare script, at Cesear’s Forum

It’s the responsibility of the director of a theatrical production to set the ideas, tone and movement of the actors on stage.  Sometimes, the director collaborates with the actors by allowing them input on textual decisions as well as line interpretation.  Imagine what would happen when a director allows such input on a production of William Shakespeare’s PERICLES.  This is the premise of PERHAPS PERICLES, now on stage at Cesear’s Forum.

PERHAPS PERICLES has a strange provenance.  It is sometimes credited to Shakespeare, but does not appear in the first two his folios, and only sketchily in the third.  Some sources believe that the script was written by George Wilkins, an English dramatist, pamphleteer, inn-keeper and criminal.  This theory is based on his 1608 novel, THE PAINFUL ADVENTURES OF PERICLES, PRYNCE OF TYRE, which was supposedly a true history of Pericles, he of Greek legend. 

The borrowing of Shakespeare’s writing about Pericles (PERICLES, PRINCE OF TYRE, a play written late in the Bard’s life) for this script, makes sense as the play’s first act (actually the first two acts in the original version) basically is a debate on what to include and not include in the telling of the Pericles legend.  The last act (three acts in the original version) are what sounds to be the Bard’s telling of the tale.  To add to the mystery, Greg Cesear, Cesear's Forum’s Artistic Director, has further honed this version.

Assuming Shakespeare did have anything to do with the script, it would be classified as one of his “romance tales.”  These tend to be highly improbable, often event miraculous happenings, asking the viewer to suspend disbelief and to watch and listen with the wonder of a child. 

As the play is conceived and developed by Cesear, the romance tale description fits. 

In brief, the story centers on a feud between Pericles and Antiochus, a king who is having an incestuous affair with his daughter.   Pericles marries and has a daughter.  Thinking Pericles knows of his evil deed, Antiochus sets out to destroy him.  His life in peril, Pericles flees. Years later,  thinking his wife and daughter are dead, Pericles encounters and recognizes Mariana, his daughter.  He has a dream which instructs him to travel to Ephesus, where he is reunited with his wife, and the trio live happily ever after.  Yes, this is a romance tale.

In the Cesear's Forum version, four actors read and analyze the text, portray disjointed segments and various roles, and, according to the director, examine the role of family in society.

The production works on some levels, stumbles on others.

On the positive side, the actors are generally good, and the action moves right along.  Tricia Bestic and Rachel Wolin are excellent.

The difficulty is that unless you know the story of Pericles, the goings-on may be too abstract, especially since the flow of ideas is fragmented.  In addition, while they are quite effective, there is some over-shouting by John Kolibab (who mainly portrays Pericles) and Gilgamesh Taggett (as Antiochus and the director).  Though they convey their characters’ motivations, the loud volume in the small performance space becomes somewhat overbearing.   The same effect could have been accomplished with emphasis, rather than volume.

Capsule Judgement:  For those who are interested in seeing a version of what may be the very little performed PERHAPS PERICLES, the Cesear's Forum’s showing is a good opportunity.

PERHAPS PERICLES runs through May 4 at 8 pm on Fridays and Saturdays and 3 pm for the Sunday performances at Cesear’s Forum, located in Kennedy’s Down Under, PlayhouseSquare. For information and reservations call 216-241-6000.

TWO ONE-ACTS (ELEGY FOR A LADY and THREE WOMEN

Fine acting featured in Two One-Acts Plays at Cesear’s Forum

Arthur Miller is considered one of America’s greatest playwrights. He, along with William Inge and Tennessee Williams, are often termed the fathers of American modern theatre.

An east coast liberal, he often is called “the social conscience of America.” He continued to probe social wounds of culture and exposed his personal issues for the sake of his art. He constantly strikes emotional chords as he probes, “Is this the best way to live?.”

His ELEGY FOR A LADY finds a distraught and seemingly grief-stricken man entering a gift store under the pretense of purchasing a present for his dying mistress. The woman has denied him involvement in her suffering and he apparently needs to share his feelings with someone. The owner of the shop encourages him to share his thoughts, thus serving as a surrogate confidante.

The play is filled with ambiguity and leaves the authenticity of the happenings in question. Miller is noted for his meticulous choice of words. Due to the unnatural flow of language in ELEGY FOR A LADY, one has to question whether this is an experience of surrealism rather than journey of realism.

Both Dana Hart as the man and Ursula Cataan as the shop owner are excellent in their presentations. The goings on are well paced and hold the audience’s attention.

THREE WOMEN is a tone poem by Sylvia Plath. Originally written as a radio drama in 1962, it is Plath’s only play. It was written about a year before the poetess died.

The epic traces three different views of pregnancy and childbirth. The traditional birth resulting in a healthy baby, a miscarriage, and a young woman who gives birth, but gives the baby up for adoption. Some of her thoughts must have been quite personal as after giving birth, she later had a miscarriage.

As with any piece of poetry, many of the ideas are abstract and require concentration to grasp Palth’s ideas.

Ursula Cataan, Kristen Levy and Katrina Melanie Walker all give credible performances, making clarity out of the numerous metaphors and motifs.

Capsule Judgement: Cesear’s Forum’s production philosophy centers on making social commentary while presenting experimental theatre. Though not a traditional type of production, the evening of one-acts is a good example of thoughtful theatre.

Trying

TRYING, a fine history lesson woven into an interesting story

What happens when a man noted as a national and world leader faces the reality of his demise? This is the premise of Joanna McClelland Glass’s TRYING, now in production at Cesear’s Forum.

TRYING is based on the real story of Francis Biddle, the Attorney General under Franklin D. Roosevelt and Chief Judge at the Nuremberg trials which examined the evils of individual Nazis following World War II. The play was based on Glass’s own experiences as Biddle’s personal secretary from 1967 through 1968.

Biddle, is a traditional prep school, Ivy league educated conservative Republican until he presides over a case of the coal unions in Pennsylvania. He moved by the experience and does a complete about face and declares, “I’ve come to right a wrong. That’s why God invented Democrats.” From there on he championed liberal causes.

We meet Biddle as a sharply cantankerous, ailing 81-year-old, who has become fussy, overbearing and impossible to live with. He is trying to everyone he deals with. He hires and fires secretaries on a regular basis. That is, he fires the ones who make it through the first day of working for him without running out in tears. In desperation, his wife finds a 25 year-old Canadian girl, whose life has been hard and has caused her to learn not to take abuse from anyone. The duo spars as they try to learn how to communicate with each other and gain mutual respect and a binding connection.

The play was originally produced in Chicago and then moved to Off-Broadway in 2005. Both in the Windy City and New York, it starred Tony Award winner Fritz Weaver and Kati Brazda.

Glass’s writing is natural and real, not theatrical or overblown. It gives the illusion allowing the audience to of peek in on a real place, with real people, with real consequences.

The production, under the direction of Greg Cesear, is nicely textured. The performances are first rate. We watch Glenn Colerider, as Judge Biddle, take his stubborn stands, but begin to wilt as the strain of aging and illness take over his mind and body. Though there are a few line flubs here and there, this is a fine performance. Tricia Bestic is completely real as Joanna. She even has the pregnant walk down pat. Colerider and Bestic play off each other with compassionate fidelity.

Capsule Judgement: TRYING is a fine script which shares historical knowledge woven into a nicely textured story. It gets a fine production at Cesear’s Forum.

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS OR (DID YOU SAY SPHERE?)

‘CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS’ is ridiculous beyond belief!

Michel de Ghelderode, the author of ‘CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS OR (DID YOU SAY SPHERE?),’ the play now being performed by Cesear’s Forum, was a Belgian playwright who reached his writing peak between 1930 and 1945. He was quite prolific. In fact, no one is sure exactly how many plays he wrote. He gained an international reputation because of the controversial 1938 Paris production of ‘FASTES D'ENFER’ (“Chronicles of Hell”), which explored the heights of religious exaltation. At the opening night it is reported that there was a near riot in the theatre.

His plays resound with violence, demonism, holy madness, and off-the-wall humor. Often it seems like the actors are ad-libbing their lines and the actions seem spontaneous. Most plays can be classified as dramas or comedies or musicals. Ghelderode’s works defy classification. Theatre of the absurd? Well, much of what goes on is absurd, but that’s not really the definition of “absurd” as it applies to “theatre of the absurd.” Absurd in that form of play script means out of sync, not ridiculous. It explains the works of Edward Albee and John Paul Sartre, not Ghelderode.

How about vaudeville? Maybe, kinda of. As the public relations for the play states, “a satirical vaudevillian farce.” I’ll buy that. Kind of.

Story line? You kid! There isn’t any storyline, per se. Christopher Columbus and his attempt to prove the world was not flat. Kind of. We do learn that Chris, who stumbled upon the Americas, did so supposedly trying to escape from the “erratics” of his age . As Ghelderode states, “Columbus escapes...man has always tried to escape.” Make no sense? Don’t worry about it. Don’t look for the production to make sense. Just go to see ‘CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS OR (DID YOU SAY SPHERE?)’ to have a good time. And, be sure that you go with the attitude of having a good time. A Three Stooges, Monty Python, Marx Brothers good time.

The Cesear’s Forum production, under the directorship of Greg Cesear, pulls out all the stops. John Kolibab, he of Zero Mostel mobile face and body, is hysterical as Columbus. His lines flow as if he is making them up on the spot. He is often as surprised by what he says as is the audience.

Jean Zarzour, known locally as the owner of LIPSCHTICK, lets out all the stops as The Woman. The woman who, as the show biz terms states, “eats the scenery” (destroys everything in her path) as she dances, sings and acts like someone one-step away from being deranged. She is hilarious.

The rest of cast tries hard, can’t keep up with Kolibab and Zarzour, but, again, it matters not as the entire happenings are so outrageous, it’s hard not to laugh at about everything that takes place.

Capsule judgement: If you are in the right mood (manic) and appreciate comedy (way out comedy) and the ridiculous (really ridiculous) you’ll fall off your chair laughing at ‘CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS OR (DID YOU SAY SPHERE?).’ On the other hand, if you want a plot, and aren’t in the mood for mental chaos, you’ll not be a happy theatre-goer.

Pack of Lies (Cesear's Forum)

‘PACK OF LIES’--interesting script, ponderous production

Hugh Whitemore’s ‘PACK OF LIES,’ now in production at Cesear’s Forum, is based on the 1961 arrest of a husband-and-wife Soviet spy team in England. (The couple were convicted and sentenced to twenty years imprisonment.) The spies, Americans Peter and Helen Kroger (really Morris and Lona Cohen), appear to be a typical suburban couple, but nothing could be farther from the truth.

Set in London, the play reveals the stresses placed on the up-tight and up-right Jackson family who get thrust into the middle of an investigation by the mysterious Stewart, who talks them into allowing observers to spy on their neighbors by taking up residency in the Jackson home. The family is eventually forced to chose between loyalty to their country and allegiance to their friends.

As Whitemore explains regarding the play and his motivations (and which might be applied to the 2006 United States), "...in addition to the themes of loyalty and deception, I became increasingly preoccupied with the role of the ordinary citizen in our society. Is it ever possible for the average, relatively powerless man or woman to make anything more than a token stand against officialdom? Is it not potentially risky to allow the state (albeit for well argued reasons) greater moral license than the individual? Or is it, perhaps, naive to expect more than an approximate degree of truthfulness from governments and their spokesmen?"

In its various productions, the play has been called “compelling,” “an exciting flash of history,” and “a real who-done-it, which evokes attention.”

Unfortunately, none of these terms can be used to identify Cesear’s production under the guidance of director Greg Cesear. The show is slow, beyond sluggish. The excitement, the humor, the twists-and-turns are lost in the plodding pace. The matter is not helped by the uncomfortable seating in Kennedy’s Down Under, where the play is being staged.

The cast varies from excellent to misguided. Julia Kolibab as Barbara Jackson, who is forced to chose between friendship and forced honor, is excellent. As the stress builds, Kolibab, has a near nervous breakdown before our eyes. Though overly deliberate, Steven Hoffman, is quite good as the husband who puts aside his loyalty to his wife to do his perceived civic duty. Jennifer Mae Hoffman is basically on-target as their teenage daughter.

Juliette Regnier, usually one of the area’s more competent actresses, seems lost in the role of the “ditsy” spy Helen. She never settles into a character. If the real Helen couldn’t act any better than Regnier, she would have been found out in an instant. Tom Jessup (Peter Kroger) never makes us believe that the character is a real person.

Paul Floriano, who I always expect to be excellent, disappoints, as he doesn’t ring true as Stewart, the spy chaser. His levels of concentration seemed to leave him at times. In several scenes with Steven Hoffman, there appeared to be line problems.

Capsule judgment: ‘PACK OF LIES’ is an interesting play that gets less than a stellar production at Cesear’s Forum.

When the World Was Green (Cesear's Forum)

Colerider Excels in Cesear’s Forum’s ‘When the World Was Green’

‘WHEN THE WORLD WAS GREEN,’ Joseph Chaikin and Sam Shepard’s play, now being staged by Cesear’s Forum, is a lyrical memory play which examines a family vendetta that has lasted for seven generations and ends with the wave of a scarf. Of course, as is often the case in Shepard’s plays, there is a simple story line which has much below the surface meaning. The format is typical Shepard--poetic and filled with sensory images. For example, we are exposed to journeys to distant lands and exotic food "piled as high as a mountain, glistening in the sun."

The play has two characters, an old man who was once a superb chef, and a young reporter, who supposedly comes to interview him in the prison where he has been locked up for many years after poisoning a man he mistook for his hated cousin. The duo has eight conversations which are interspersed with monologues in which both characters recall incidents from their childhoods, linking the people together. This is a play of regret and loss.

First seen at the Arts Festival performed during the Atlanta Olympic games, the play had its Broadway debut at The Joseph Papp Public Theater.

This is not a Shepard solo-written piece. Joe Chaikin, his coauthor, also collaborated with Shepard on "SAVAGE/LOVE" and "TONGUES," and is well-known in his own right. He has been awarded six Obie.

Chaikin has a local link. He donated his original manuscripts and other papers to the Department of Special Collections and Archives of Kent State University in 1972. He continues to add material to his collection. In acknowledgment of his contribution KSU granted him an honorary doctorate in 1990.

As one theatre historian stated, “It is difficult to imagine a less likely pair of collaborators than Chaikin and Shepard. One an erudite, experimental New York director, the other a reclusive playwright-cum-film star, yet, their sustained theatrical partnership has produced some of the boldest dramatic texts of the late twentieth century.” As is the case in Shepard and Chaikin's other projects, live music plays an important part in the staging of ‘WHEN THE WORLD WAS GREEN.’ In fact, the piano, which was ever present in previous productions, is credited with almost becoming another character.

Cesear’s Forum’s production, under the direction of Greg Cesear has both is strengths and weaknesses. Glenn Colerider portrays the old man with proper restraint. He is consistently believable, in spite of working in a cramped space and having to manipulate through a maze of cloth panels to make exits and come forward to speak his monologues to the audience. Why set designer Michael LaRochelle placed a scrim across the front the stage isn’t clear. It caused movement problems for the actors and the seam down its center caused further distraction. The side panels, which were supposed to look like wooden walls, often were not closed or hanging straight, also causing visual distraction.

Kristie J. Lange, the reporter, has a fine singing voice and her vocal interludes were excellent. Her character development, on the other hand, was not consistent. She sometimes lost her concentration, causing a lack of idea clarity.

Cesear’s directing was also inconsistent. The final waving of the scarf, a significant act at the end of the play, was basically not seen, as it took place behind the back scrim wall which was poorly lit. There were also times when the actors had to literally squeeze past each other to make their stage crosses.

Christina Leja’s sound design was excellent, but her lighting design and execution were disastrous. Lights came and went with no plan. One scene was played entirely in the dark and as the last line was said, blinding light invaded the space.

CAPSULE JUDGEMENT: ‘WHEN THE WORLD WAS GREEN’ is an interesting script. Glenn Colerider’s performance was excellent. Too bad Cesear wasn’t able to get more out of the material and didn’t have a stronger production team.

Be aware that the play runs 90-minutes without intermission and the theatre has small uncomfortable chairs with little raking. This is not a good play-viewing space.