Reprised BREAKOUT SESSION Misses Opportunity to be Meaningful @ Cleveland Public Theatre

 

Nikkole Slater, BREAKOUT SESSION (OR FROGORSE), was commissioned in 2020 by CPT, with funding from the National New Play Network (NNPN).  It was the intention of funding to have the author write a play that cast a spotlight on racism, bias and violence.  Her goal was to ask, “Can a society legislate a change of heart?”  It was “inspired by Cleveland’s Consent Decree with the U.S. Department of Justice, which required the Police Department to go through anti-bias training.” 

It is as relevant today as it was several years ago.  Maybe more, as the controversy over the Cleveland decree is still in the headlines.

Director Beth Wood, contended back then that “This play is about blind spots due to our unconscious bias.”  She went on to state, “We all have blind spots and we must interrupt them—but how?  How do we know when our automatic associations are hurting other people?”  

Raymond Bobgan, the theatre’s Executive Artistic Director, at the original opening stated, “To believe another’s perspective, there must be trust.  How can we build two-way bridges of trust between us with all of our history—with all that’s happening in the present?  Can society legislate a change of heart?  Can we mandate cultural change?”

He went on to state, “Theatre nurtures a hunger for connection and has the potential for greatness when it deals with complexity.”  

Those views set high levels of anticipation for BREAKOUT SESSION (OR FROGORSE to be a mind-shattering, new and insightful experience.

As I said in my original review, “In spite of a nicely honed production, the over-all effect is unfortunately, not that impactful.”  

I had hoped that the revival would be improved and be more meaningful than the original rendering.

In the play, we find ourselves in a training session with three Cleveland police people, an African American male and female and a Hispanic male.  The session is conducted by a training firm that has hired a Caucasian, with an acting degree, who is supposed to follow a preset lecture/power point presentation.  She fails to hold the attention of the trio, so she diverts from the research-oriented, statistic-centric format, much to the consternation of her female African American supervisor.  
 
Conflicts over teaching style, experiential role-plays and activities, and interjections by a “bat scientist,” “mantis shrimp,” “crocodile magician” and “catfish comedian,” are intended to highlight the author’s “Bias Bubble” diagram. 
 
The Bias Bubble concept centers on our conscious experiences leading us to social psychological perceptions that we make unconscious associations that lead to judgements, prejudices and beliefs, which evolve into ideas which evoke actions.  

Frogorse centers on the concept that two people can see the same incident, or piece of art, and perceive different things. A drawing of a horse may be perceived as a turtle, depending on the angle at which we see it or our pre-conceived attitudes.

Nikkole Salter’s use of the concept source of bias is not unique.  The idea is commonly espoused in social science literature and been musically expressed in “You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught” in SOUTH PACIFIC and “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist” in AVENUE Q.

I wish I could say that Salter has added some new dialogue to the stage in his edit of BREAKOUT SESSION (OR FROGORSE), but she hasn’t.  
 
The use of real incidents that led to the consent decree, the showing clearly how the biases develop through actual examples, the effective use of the teaching model to make the audience think of their own experiences, and a plan of action to actually help the police, all would have helped make the experience more meaningful.   
 
As for CPT’s production.  The cast (Jess Moore, Nicole Sumlin, Joshua McElroy, Tina D. Stump, Joey Florez Jr. and Troian Soo) puts out full effort and are all very believable in their roles. 

Beth Wood, doing double duty as director and actress, is outstanding as Sara, the well-meaning but ill-equipped trainer, the white workshop leader, with wonderful intentions, but poor understanding of the reality of prejudice.  

As the director she keeps the action zipping along and gets all she can from the problematic script. 
  
The technical aspects, especially the electronic media effects, are well-conceived.  Inda Blatch-Gelb’s mantis shrimp costume is outstanding.
 
Capsule judgement: BREAKOUT SESSION (OR FROGORSE) has an important purpose with lofty goals.  Unfortunately, the play’s format and development do not satisfy the need to truly explain, “something is not working, people” and teach the reality of the “Bias Bubble.”  I wish that the director had taken the comments from reviews of the first staging and made the necessary changes to make the follow-up performance more meaningful.  Both CPT and Salter wasted a marvelous opportunity to make this a really important play!  So sad, such a wasted opportunity.

BREAKOUT SESSION (OR FROGORSE), runs through November 12, 2022.  For tickets call 216-631-2727 or go on line to http://www.cptonline.org/.

In spite of valiant mission and strong performance, freedom trail-walk is too long a trek at CPT

 

In 2002, Seventy-year-old Joan Evelyn Southgate, a Cleveland area retired social worker and activist, left Ripley, Ohio, on foot, with the goal of highlighting the courage and resourcefulness of freedom seekers and conductor families who risked everything on the Underground Railroad.    Traveling 10 miles a day, her 519-mile walk crossed Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York, ended in St. Catharines, Ontario, Harriet Tubman’s terminus on the Underground Railroad.    On the trek she visited Underground Railroad sites, gave presentations at schools, and slept in the homes of welcoming strangers, her own “safe houses.” Southgate, motivated by her pilgrimage, founded “Restore Cleveland Hope” to save the city’s only remaining Underground Railroad house from demolition.  To raise money for the project, Southgate, at age 80, walked another 250 miles from Canada back to Cleveland, completing the final mile with 170 companions who had been inspired by her journey. In 2014, the house, resting on the corner of Mayfield Road and East 115th, in Little Italy, opened as an Underground Railroad teaching center where people can learn “what is possible in the way of changing the world and loving people.” Now in her 80s, she is still active in fulfilling her dream of being an educator and ensuring that important parts of American history, such as the Underground Railroad, are taught to children and explained in a way that instills a sense of pride in the fight for equality for all. Southgate was in attendance, surrounded by a large number of her devoted followers, at the opening night of Nina Domingue’s one-woman play, THE ABSOLUTELY AMAZING AND TRUE ADVENTURES OF MS. JOAN EVELYN SOUTHGATE at Cleveland Public Theatre. Domingue, one of the area’s stellar actors, is also noted as a playwright.  ABSOLUTELY AMAZING which, according to the playbill comments, was nine years in the making. As CPT’s Executive Artistic Director Raymond Bodgan, who nurtured the development of this work, states, “I have learned so much from Joan Evelyn Southgate, and I am not alone.  Her wisdom, resilience, her joy, her hope, and her love has made, and continues to make, such an impact in our community.” He continues, “This has been a long process. Everyone involved in the project has overcome many obstacles and challenges to make this show possible.”  He summarizes, “It is my hope that through these amazing and true adventures, you will be touched by Joan’s wisdom, joy and love.”   Those who attended the opening night appeared to be truly moved by this determined and sprightly little woman who has made an amazing contribution to the Cleveland and African American communities to insure a permanent understanding of the history of the slavery and, specifically, the Underground Railroad.  The play, itself, is a different matter. Original scripts are a process in the making.  They often need to be evaluated by a dramaturg, an expert in script writing and play production, to evaluate the oral and physical aspects of the material.  An oral reading of the script often reveals issues, as does the first attempt to stage it.    THE ABSOLUTELY AMAZING AND TRUE ADVENTURES OF MS. JOAN EVELYN SOUTHGATE is such a script.    The staged version revealed that it is too long. The announced 90-minute length, turned out to be closer to two-hours.   Going by the adage, “the mind can absorb what the seat can endure,” the audience had more than enough of the material and started to wander the aisles at about the time the play was supposed to end.  The script needs cutting. The topic was overly developed.  There was too much of the same ideas presented over and over.  This not only added to the excessive time, but became redundant, in spite of Domingue’s fine acting.  The “cough factor,” when an audience gets bored they start to cough, was present about half way through the enactment. The multi-areas on the stage, which appeared at first glance would allow us to know where on the journey Ms. Southgate was, helped naught, as they didn’t really fulfill that purpose, nor did the electronic graphics which were also inconsistent in their use and purpose.  Good intentions, poor execution. CAPSULE JUDGMENT:  Ms. Joan Evelyn Southgate is a wonder of a person.  The play about her Freedom Trail walk is an inspiring story, which needs editing and a clearer staging concept! Next up at CPT: CANDLE LIGHT HYPOTHESIS WORKSHOP—May 11-21—This immersive performance empowers” the guests” (the audience-members), to curate their own experience, inside the part museum, part haunted house, part workshop. STATION HOPE 2022—Saturday, May 28—a Celebration of Hope.  A dialogue for change.  Free and open to all.  St. John’s Episcopal church in Ohio City and the surrounding neighborhood.

The Loush Sisters (2020) @ Cleveland Public Theatre

 The Loush Sisters return to Cleveland Public Theatre via cyberspace!

 

For a number of years, the holiday season meant a trip to Cleveland Public Theatre to participate with the Loush sisters, Jolly (Liz Conway) and Holly (Beth Wood) for their bawdy, boozy, over-the-top holiday celebration.

 

The important words in that sentence were “participate with,” for the interaction with the ladies (and that is using the words in the nicest sense).  Yes, the actresses would pick out members of the audience and interact with them.  They would also encourage you to join them in “drinking up,” as they slugged down glass after glass of happy hour liquid.

 

The duos sexual innuendos, often aimed at themselves as well as members of the assemblage, brought about a few red faces and lots of laughs.

 

Well, the Loush “sisters” are back again.  This time in the age of pandemic, it’s via Zoom.  

 

For those who expected the newest version of Jolly and Holly’s rowdy shenanigans and good ol’ sister love, to be like the up-close and personal shows, they will probably be disappointed.

 

Conway and Wood put out full effort, but the electronic divide, plus a weaker-than-usual script, fell rather flat.  They tried.  They did.  There was a segment where they did refer to members of the audience, flashing pictures of the “live” audience on the screen.  Unfortunately, verbally referring to the people in cyberspace isn’t the same as intimidating and barbing them in person. 

 

For 45 minutes, the ladies, with the musical accompaniment of Michael Seever, Jr., sang such ditties as “Sisters,” “Fever” “The Trolly Song,” “All by Myself,” and a holiday medley which included such favorites as “We Need A Little Christmas,” “Deck the Halls,” “Walking in a Winter Wonderland,” “I Had a Little Dreidel,” and, of course, “That’s Why the Lady [my sister] is a Tramp,” while sloshing down the booze.

 

Capsule judgment:  Separated by a pane of plastic to protect themselves from spreading Covid, the Loush sisters referred to their sexual antics and skills, referred to the political and social world around them, sang with vitality, and tried to take their viewers on an escape from reality.  Part of it worked, part didn’t, but the duo can’t be accused of holding back.

November 27, 28 & December 2, 3, 10, 11, 17, 19 | 8:00pm (ET)

The virtual “house” will be limited to 65 “seats”

Tickets: $1.  Suggested Donation: $1 to $99

 

TICKETS

...OR DOES IT EXPLODE? @ Cleveland Public Theatre

Cleveland Public Theatre’s …OR DOES IT EXPLODE! provokes audience response to Black Lives Matter 

Roy Berko

 

In this age of Black Lives Matter movement and other civil rights unrest, a performance piece such as, …OR DOES IT EXPLODE?, is both relevant and fulfills the obligation of the arts to produce works that reflect that era from which is comes.

 

A theatrical piece, which uses poetry, prose and other contemporary theatre forms, the script explores questions of what it means to be Black, male, and young in 21^st century America.

 

Written by John Dayo-Aliya, an Akron based Kent State University graduate, playwright, actor, and musician, the piece reflects the author’s writing goal of exploring various aspects of the Black experience.  He looks at “modern Black lives and the questions arising out of the challenge of holding on to faith, love, community, and familial ties while living against a backdrop of structural racism.” 

 

He aims to “provoke audiences to call out to their higher humanity in order to face social and cultural issues with intelligence, clarity, and empathy.”

 

The piece, which is performed in a Zoom format, features Austin Sasser, Benjamin Black, De Andre Hairston-Karim, & Dar'Jon Bentley.  Each of them gives portrayals of the anger, hurt and joy of real reactions of age 16 to 35 Akron Black men in order to “display social conditions and contradictions, and what it means to do justice to one another.”

 

Some of the language, including excessive use of the “N” word and profanities, are often difficult to listen to, especially for those not used to the “in your face” words and vocal styles of the young men.  That direct startling directness is part of the purpose of the piece.  If not for this confrontative manner, the message would not be presented, the effect sanitized and watered down.  

 

If presented in a theater, the words and ideas would probably have evoked vocal reaction from audience members, much like the words of preachers and speakers do with African American audiences.   Unfortunately, with that missing element, some of the emotional effect is lost watching in a home environment on an electronic device.  

 

The mechanics of the presentation also cause problems as the microphones, and the physical settings of the actors, are uneven, sometimes causing words to be lost and images to be blurred and out of focus.  Whatever, the anger, frustration and powerlessness of the speakers is clear.

 

Several vignettes stand out.  Among them is one that centers on the ridiculousness of the academic community, usually researchers who are white men, who analyze Black young men as if they are lab animals, making pronouncements that are irrelevant to the subjects they are trying to describe.  

 

Another talks about television shows that don’t reflect the real lives and experiences of Black youth, but models for them a type of fake reality, that they can never achieve or characterizations that make fun of or demonize them.  

 

$10 dollars an hour is the pay afforded by the “good” jobs available to these men who are often castigated because they aren’t interested in taking those jobs.  The piece asks, in reality, what can be purchased with that less than $500 a week, minus taxes, health care, and the cost of getting to work?

 

Capsule judgment:  The script and the performances were often compelling, sometimes off-putting, and will offend some and empower others.  Both the script and the performances are uneven in their clarity and professionalism.  With that said, ...Or Does it Explode? Is well worth the time watching…it is an eye opening experience, especially for those who are not part of the community who are unaware of the motivations behind Black Lives Matter.

 

...Or Does it Explode? Will be performed live on Zoom at 7:00pm (ET) on November 6, 7, 12, 13, 19, and 21. The run time is 60 minutes, and the virtual "house" is limited to 35 "seats".

Tickets:  suggested donation $1 to $99. Patrons must use Zoom to see this work and will receive an email 1-2 hours before showtime with the meeting login information. Please note online sales for each performance will close at 5:00pm (ET).  TICKETS

Relevant yet unfulfilling “BREAKOUT SESSION” @ Cleveland Public Theatre

Roy Berko

(Member, American Theatre Critics Association & Cleveland Critics Circle)

Award winning Nikkole Salter, the author of “BREAKOUT SESSION (OR FROGORSE),” which is getting its world premiere on stage at Cleveland Public Theatre, has written 8 full-length plays.  Her works have appeared in over 20 Off-Broadway, regional and international theatres.

In “BREAKOUT SESSION (OR FROGORSE),” which was commissioned by CPT with funding from the National New Play Network (NNPN), the author intends to cast a spotlight on racism, bias and violence.  Her goal is to ask, “Can a society legislate a change of heart?”  It was “inspired by Cleveland’s Consent Decree with the U.S. Department of Justice, which required the Police Department to go through anti-bias training.” 

Director Beth Wood, in her program notes states, “This play is about blind spots due to our unconscious bias.”  She goes on to state, “We all have blind spots and we must interrupt them—but how?  How do we know when our automatic associations are hurting other people?”  

Raymond Bobgan, the theatre’s Executive Artistic Director further states, “To believe another’s perspective, there must be trust.  How can we build two-way bridges of trust between us with all of our history—with all that’s happening in the present?  Can society legislate a change of heart?  Can we mandate cultural change?”

He goes on to state, “Theatre nurtures a hunger for connection and has the potential for greatness when it deals with complexity.”  “Nikkole Salter is a true artist.  She is able to guide audiences down the path of self and social examination, while moving us to laughter and tears and asking us to consider and value perspectives different from our own.”  

Those views set high levels of anticipation for “BREAKOUT SESSION (OR FROGORSE) to be a mind-shattering, new and insightful experience.

In spite of a nicely honed production, the over-all effect is unfortunately, not that impactful.

We find ourselves in a training session with three Cleveland police people, an African American male and female and a Hispanic male.  The session is conducted by a seemingly unequipped Caucasian, with an acting degree, who is supposed to follow a preset lecture/power point presentation.  She fails to hold the attention of the trio, so she diverts from the research-oriented, statistic-centric format, much to the consternation of her female African American supervisor.  

Conflicts over teaching style, experiential role-plays and activities and interjections by a bat scientist, mantis shrimp, crocodile magician and catfish comedian, are intended to highlight the author’s “Bias Bubble” diagram.  

The bias concept centers on our conscious experiences leading to perceptions, from which we make unconscious associations that lead to judgements, biases and beliefs, which revolve into actions.

Nikkole Salter’s concept of bias is not unique.  The idea is commonly espoused in social science literature and has even been musically expressed in “You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught” in “SOUTH PACIFIC” and “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist” in “AVENUE Q.”

I wish I could say that Salter has added some new dialogue to the stage in her “BREAKOUT SESSION (OR FROGORSE),” but she hasn’t.  

The use of real incidents that led to the consent decree, the showing clearly how the biases develop through actual examples, the effective use of the teaching model to make the audience think of their own experiences, and a plan of action to actually help the police, all would have helped make the experience more meaningful.   

As for CPT’s production.  The cast (Jess Moore, Nicole Sumlin, Jimmie Woody, Tina D. Stump, Enrique Miguel and Beau Reinker) puts out full effort and are believable in their roles. With a single exception, they are easy to hear.  

The technical aspects are well conceived.  Inda Blatch-Gelb’s mantis shrimp costume is outstanding.

Director Beth Wood keeps the action zipping along and gets all she can from the problematic script.

Capsule judgement: “BREAKOUT SESSION (OR FROGORSE)” has an important purpose with lofty goals.  Unfortunately, the play’s format and subject development does not satisfy the need to truly explain, “something is not working, people” and teach the “Bias Bubble”reality.

“BREAKOUT SESSION (OR FROGORSE),” runs through March 14, 2020.  For tickets call 216-631-2727 or go on line to http://www.cptonline.org/.

“Gloria” -- excellent script gets less than desired production @ Cleveland Public Theatre

Braden Jacobs-Jenkins won the 2014 Obie for Best New American Play for his plays “Appropriate” and “An Octoroon.”  The latter received a Cleveland Critics Circle Award for its Dobama production several years ago. 

His “Gloria” was a 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama finalist. It was originally titled, “Or Ambition,” as one of the major themes explored in that script is ambition and how it can affect the compromises people make.

The play takes place in modern-day magazine office in Manhattan. It’s a normal work day for a group of aspiring writers who are growing tired of the monotony of their jobs.

A member of the staff stumbles in hungover from a disastrous party that was held the night before at the home of the 'office freak', Gloria.  He was one of the only people who attended the event.

As the day goes on, everyone goes about their business, though tensions are high with a dispute over who should be allowed to write a story on a recently deceased pop singer.  Gloria begins to act stranger than usual.

Gloria suddenly shoots and kills some of the office workers.

The story then follows the fallout of the surviving characters’ lives as they try to cope with the stress of experiencing the events and feuding over who deserves a book deal based on relating the events of the shooting.

In this era of work, school and public mass shootings, unfortunately, the play’s basic topics are extremely relevant.  

The Pulitzer committee called the script: "A play of wit and irony that deftly transports the audience from satire to thriller and back again."

A previous a staging of the show was praised as "providing illumination into the characters, and raising some intriguing questions, such as the ugliness of artistic ambition, the ways we individually and as a society process trauma, and the exploitation and corruption inherent in our commercial culture.”

I wish I could say that the Cleveland Public Theatre production brought out those intriguing qualities, but I can’t. 

The show’s pace is slow, the needed attention to building tension are lacking, and, most importantly, some of the characters are weakly developed and performances are suspect.

Sally Groth, as Gloria, effectively built a character of intense depression with the right foreboding attitude.  She displayed an on-the-edge intensity that when she snaps, it seems entirely appropriate. 

One of things known about mass murders, and those who commit suicide, is that their basic need for survival has expired.  This is based on the anthropological theory that we have four basic needs … pleasure, territoriality, security and survival.  When a person no longer logically or emotionally finds life palatable, they give up, want to escape from the pain of living.  Gloria, obviously has reached that point, and Groth has given us all the clues that the frustration of life has reached its zenith.

Sarah Maria Yannie, Michael Prosen, Isaiah Betts and Keith Kornajcik each do an adequate job of developing close to realistic characterizations.  The final member of the cast acted, feigning rather than being, creating an unreal caricature.

The lack of production fidelity is surprising, as director Beth Wood has proven over-and-over her ability to mold and bring out the best in scripts.  Why she stumbled on this attempt is a mystery.

Benjamin Gantose’s set design is both creative and functional.  India Blatch-Geib’s costumes are both era and attitude correct.

Capsule judgement: “Gloria” is a relevant and topical script that with the right performances, attitude, and pacing could have been a fascinating evening of theater.  As is, it’s a disappointment.
 
“Gloria” runs through April 13.  For tickets to any CPT show call 216-631-2727 or go on line to http://www.cptonline.org/.

“Everything is Okay” focuses the spotlight on Millennials @ Cleveland Public Theatre

American Musical Theater has transitioned from the follies and vaudeville days of the early to-mid-1900s to its Golden Era of the 1940s through 1960s, starting with “Oklahoma,” the story musical, where the book, music and dance all blended together to tell a cohesive story.  “Hair,” the “hippie” rock musical, brought major alterations to the format by showcasing the changing political and societal attitudes of the 60’s.  “Rent” transported the musical theater world into the new millennium by showcasing the emerging “younger” generation who celebrated life in the face of the AIDS crisis with the use of rock-pop music, breaking the barrier between rock music and theatre music, and show-casing the reality of the tough, gritty life that that generation was facing.

Cleveland Public Theatre is now staging “Everything is Okay (and other helpful lies).” It is a musical written by Melissa Crum and Caitlin Lewins about the Millennium generation. 

Millennials, born from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s, are marked by an increased use and familiarity with communications, media, and digital technologies.  They are a generation who have been taught to ask themselves, “What’s wrong with me?”  They search for “what it is to be normal.”  They are “much-maligned as entitled, self-absorbed snowflakes.”   

As the program to the musical states, “Everything is Okay” is a generation’s harmonized laugh- ‘til-we-cry plea to sit in the discomfort of the big questions, rise above them, and keep fucking going.”  “They’ve gown-up with violence, racial divide, globalization, the Right, The Left, the conflicting worlds of fascistic religiosity, and a bankrupt system of morality, gender fluidity, queer revolution, rampant teenage suicide, technology that prohibits space and time and permission for self-reflection.” 

As was the case with “Rent,” the script is generation-specific and now easily misunderstood by those who are not actively living the lives of that specific group.  The show probably won’t be appreciated by “older” generations, who might ask, “What’s with all these self-centered characters, self-indulgent songs, and morbidity?”

At intermission I turned to a twenty-something young lady sitting next to me and asked, “How are you reacting to the production.”  She indicated that it represented a lot of what she and her friends were feeling and the ways they coped with the world around them.  She referenced the misbelief in killings of Jews in Pittsburgh and the words used by the President in basically condoning what went on in the 1917 Charlottesville, Virginia White Supremacist Rally.  She said many of her friends are disheartened and full of angst.

Yes, that’s the disjointed message of ““Everything is Okay (and other helpful lies).”

Yes, the musical is disjointed, not a clear storyline like we are used to in musical comedies and dramas.  The songs don’t hook together clearly.  The script has no clear beginning, middle and end.   The motivations between songs aren’t developed.  We have no clear identification of who is who as the characters often blend into each other.   The musical sounds are often discordant, out of balance. The music jumps from style-to-style…rock, country, ballads squish together.

All of those “complaints” are what makes the show so millennial!  This is not intended to be “The Sound of Music” or “Hamilton.”  It is the story of a specific -generation in angst.

Even the titles of songs carry that up-tight, lost feeling: “No One I Love is Gonna Die Today,” “Eulogy Song,” “Hey I’m Sorta Into You,” “Alone,” “Learned a Little,” “Shitty Sad Luau Song,” “Masturbation Song,” “Shame,” ‘Slut Song,” “Falling Apart,” and “Smile Song.”  The lyrics contain bad jokes, sexual allusions, swearing, statements of frustration, morbid ideas and escapist ideas.

The cast (Melissa Crum, Madelyn Hayes, Caitlin Lewins, Joshua McElroy, Matt O’Shea and Jerry Tucker) are young and filled with determination.  They have good voices.  They execute the shallow choreography with gritty determination.  They interact with each other as friends, rather than performers, allowing the audience to be part of their “in-jokes” and stories. 

Capsule judgement: “Everything is Okay (and other helpful lies)” is not a show for everyone.  It, in fact, could be an uncomfortable sit for some.  For Millennials, and those willing to open themselves to seeing a “new” style musical, based on a specific generation’s angst, it provides an interesting experience.

Coming up at CPT: “Outside The Mirror,” the 2018 CPT/Y-Haven Theatre Project.  November 8-11.  

For tickets to any CPT show call 216-631-2727 or go on line to http://www.cptonline.org/.

Fascinating “How to End Poverty” @ Cleveland Public Theatre

One of the purposes of theater is to educate.  Another is to get the audience involved psychologically in the process.  The ultimate end of many theatrical experiences is for the attenders to leave with a new understanding of life and to carry that message out of the theatre.

“How to End Poverty in 90 Minutes (with 199 People You May or May Not Know),” which recently ended a four performance run at Cleveland Public Theatre, was educational theatre at its best.

The “End Poverty” production was created after a year of research and community-partner-building.  Its first presentation was in May 2013 at Northwestern University.   Productions have been presented around the country and over $40,000 has been given to community-specific poverty reduction programs.

As the program’s website states, “This is not a play; it is not a lecture; it is not an interactive workshop; it is not a physical theatre piece; it is not a public conversation.”

It goes on to say, “Most significantly, it’s an opportunity to challenge a different audience every show with the question: how do you attack the problem of poverty in America, with a lens specifically focused on your community? Over the course of 90 minutes, the audience will listen, explore and ultimately choose how to spend $1,000 cash from ticket sales sitting onstage at each performance. The show is an experiment in dialogue, in collective decision-making, in shared responsibility, and in the potential for art to help us make our world a better place. It is spectacularly eclectic in form, often delightful and occasionally uncomfortable.”

If you had the opportunity to give $1000 to an agency which satisfies the daily needs of its clients, works for system change, or is involved in the field of education, helps making new opportunities or gives direct financial aid, which would you chose.  That was the task of the 199 other people who I worked with had as its goal.

We spent an hour and a half, hearing from legislatures, community workers, those in need.  We observed short skits acting out the needs of people, heard statistics on where the needs were, listened to appeals, investigated which local areas were the hardest hit.  Then, after discussing our thoughts with our “team mates,” who included the county commissioner, the Artistic Director of the Cleveland Play House, the minister for religious services for the county jails, several college professors, local performers, lawyers, a newspaper reporter and some who identified themselves as “average citizens,” we made our individual decisions.

With our five dollars in hand, we told our group leader on which clothes line to hang our bills.  After all the money was attached by clothespins, the money was counted, and our night, Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry, which provides permanent supportive housing, transitional housing treatment, housing vouchers and apartment searching to homeless men, received that night’s money.

Our drive home was filled with a lively discussion about what we learned, how the experience had opened out eyes, how wonderful if sociology, community planning and civics classes could be taught with a method such as this theatrical experience a truly practical life-educational experience.

Capsule judgement: If Cleveland Public Theatre ever brings “How to End Poverty in 90 Minutes (with 199 People You May or May Not Know),” back, and they should, make every effort to participate in this theatrical extraordinary learning experience.

Next up at CPT:   You are invited into the live studio audience of the World Premiere of Leila Buck’s “American Dreams,” where you will decide which of three contestants will receive the ultimate prize: citizenship in “the greatest nation on earth.” Weaving playful audience engagement with up-to-the-moment questions about immigration and more, this participatory performance explores how we navigate between fear, security, and freedom; who and what we choose to believe—and how those choices come to shape who we are.  (February 08, 2018 - March 03, 2018 7:00pm, Thu/Fri/Sat/Mon, James Levin Theatre. Previews February 8 – 10 & 15--No show February 12).   For tickets call 216-631-2727 or go on line to www.cptonline.org.

The LOUSH SISTERS are boozing and sexing it up again @ Cleveland Public Theatre

Yes, Holly (Beth Wood) and Jolly (Liz Conway) are back again.  This time in Cleveland Public Theatre’s world premiere of” The Loush Sisters Get Hard for the Holidays.” 

Having consumed only some mulled apple cider made me one of the few sober people among the massive crowd of “Yippie-Kai-Yay Mother-Loushers” who obviously arrived early and had consumed a fair amount of wine and beer (no hard liquor is sold) before the show started. 

They continued to imbibe as the girls told smutty stories, sang songs with lots of double-entendres, bragged about their sexual conquests, made comments about theirs and everyone else’s genitalia, and went on an adventure to counter the deeds of Krampus and Karla, the evil villains of this year’s Christmas tale. 

As the program reminds, the duo has been around since 2003.  They are poster children for what it’s like to look at life under a haze of alcohol.  Yes, they have substance abuse problems.  And yes, they are not politically correct.  What they are is very, very funny, especially when they are singing their songs, telling their jokes and reminiscing about their past experiences while reminding us that they are “just tramps from the Near West Side of CLE.”

They make references to present day goings on including choice comments about Matt Lauer, Donald Trump, and Louie K, encouraging “lock them up, lock them up, lock them up!”.

They sing pop songs, not always with the words we all know and love, including “Wing and A Prayer,” “Moving on Up,” “Our Way,” “Jingle Bells,” “We Need a Little Christmas,” “Forget Your Troubles,” “Happy Days,” “Clang, Clang, Clang Goes the Trolley” and their theme song, “That’s Why the Woman is a Tramp.”

The girls are less humorous when they are acting out the plot of a meaningless “story” line, supposedly a take-off on the ‘80s film, “Die Hard.”   No sense in writing a recap of the tale…no one is there for the plot…they are there to laugh at the not-for-prime-time material, often yelling comments to and about the girls.  (Depends on the night as to how raucous it gets.)

Multi-comments are made about Ambiance, “the Store for Lovers,” one of the show’s sponsors, who are “The home of Santa’s Naughty Sack” and appear to supply costumes and props for the show.

Sheffia Randall Dooley (sister, Butter Rum Loush) brings down the house as she gospel rocks her way through “Santa Baby” and other ditties. 


The Minions (Ryan Edlinger, Brian O. Jackson, Colleen McCaughey and Hillary Wheelock), are excellent.  Pianist Buck McDaniel provides not only the music, but some great ad libs from his hiding place behind the high-backed piano.  Brian Pedaci and Jennifer Woda try valiantly to create humor as Krampus and Karla, but the mood and script are against them.

The show runs two hours, with intermission.

Capsule judgement:  The Loush Sisters encourage the audience to “celebrate the love for friends and family, to sit back, relax and have an adult beverage and enjoy the crazy ride.”  Don’t go to this holiday show expecting great theater or a religious experience.  Go, enjoy the uninhibited rantings of two boozed-up broads who are having a hell of good time.  The drunker you are, the better you’ll appreciate what’s going on.  (Be sure to book the Uber in advance.)

“The Loush Sisters Get Hard for the Holidays” runs through December 23 at Cleveland Public Theatre.  For tickets call 216-631-2727 or go on line to www.cptonline.org.

I CALL MY BROTHERS challenges and confounds at Cleveland Public Theatre

It’s no wonder in this age of xenophobia, racial profiling and baiting, irrational interpretation of regulations, police brutality and alternate facts being spewed, that when a car bomb goes off in the center of a large American metropolis, a Muslim young man would become paranoid.

I Call My Brothers, multi-award winning author Jonas Hassen Khemiri’s play, which is now in production at Cleveland Public Theatre, takes the audience on a journey through the mind of Amor, a 20-something Muslim, as he suffers through 24-hours filled with angst, pain and fear.

The idea challenges what is real, is fiction, are actual events and what are fantasies.

We share with Amor his attempt to return a replacement head for a drill, talking almost non-stop on the phone, revisiting a relationship with the woman of his dreams who rejected him, conversing with his dead grandmother, confronting the police, having an extended conversation with a call center operator and attempting to “walk like a person who isn’t think about walking.”  The issue is, which of these events, if any, really did happened? 

Much of the paranoia comes from the realization that the Boston Marathon happened, that 911 took place and Arabs and Muslims have had a bullseye painted on their backs ever since.  Will Amor, with his Arab looks, carrying a backpack in crowded New York, be the next subject of profiling?

On the surface the play would seem to be a strong candidate for a thrilling theatrical experience.  Unfortunately, that is not true.

The author is Swedish.  The play has been translated into English by Rachel Willson-Broyles.  Whether it is the author’s not being an American or the translation, the script doesn’t always hold up well. 

From Amor traversing Times Square, which is a vast, very well-protected area in a major US city (not like a small Swedish village), to his attempt to return the drill head to a Home Depot-like store, of which there are none in New York’s theatre district, to his description of where he is, there is a lack of authenticity.

Performed in a very creative set designed by Douglas Puskas, which has many car parts suspended against the back wall, depicting the remains of the car bomb explosion, the set speaks to the play’s theme.  Wes Calkin’s lighting, Alison Garrigan’s costumes and James Gillen Kosmatka’s sound designs all work to effectively aid the production.

But there are some issues with CPT’s production. The pacing seems hurried. The swiftness results in lines often becoming unintelligible and scenes not being allowed to gel, thus robbing the audience of a complete experience.
   
Salar Ardebili puts full effort into his portrayal of Amor.  He is like the Energizer bunny, non-stop movement.  Unfortunately, his articulation lacks precision, so many of his lines are lost in a blur of unintelligible sounds. 

The rest of the cast, Abdelghani Kitab, Andrea Belser and Rocky Encalada
playing multiple roles, fair better vocally. 

Capsule judgement:  The intention of I Call My Brothers is well justified.  Unfortunately, the script and the production do not totally accomplish the author’s goal.

I Call My Brothers runs through March 4, 2017 at Cleveland Public Theatre. For tickets call 216-631-2727 or go on line to www.cptonline.org.

Well done Barbecue lights up Cleveland Public Theatre

Addiction, whether it's alcohol, drugs, sex, racism, obsessive compulsion or eating, is no funny matter. That is unless it's in a play written by playwright Robert O'Hara.


Robert O'Hara, a native of Cincinnati, is a master at writing comedic and satirical scenes and lines, often in relationship to what it means to be a black gay man in America. He probes into identity, social injustice, and attempts by blacks to live the American dream.


The winner of the Oppenheimer Award for best New American Play (Insurrection: Holding History), Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding New Play (Antebellum) and Lambda Literary Award for LGBT Drama (Bootycandy), his works are often met with very strong positive or negative reactions as he does not shrink away from bold and daring themes and language.


Barbecue centers around a severely dysfunctional family in which every member has one or more addictions. Even the "healthy" member of the family is afflicted.


The family has come together in sister Barbara's favorite haunt, a picnic area in a secluded park, to stage an emergency intervention. Barbara is drug addicted, and raises money for her habit through various nefarious means.


The question, of course, is why, in this family of "sickies," is Barbara being picked out to be "saved?"
To complicate the matter, there is not only one family, but two of them! One white, one black.
Of course bickering, spilling family secrets, accusations, bitching, and backwoods and Ebonic colloquialisms flow forth as chaos reigns. The dialogue is filled with both funny and pathetic phrases. The characters are extremes, but that's a requirement for a farcical examination of addiction, gender, sexual orientation, race and ethnicity.


For the sake of those who go to see the show, that's the end of spoiler alerts, other than to say surprise after surprise, including an Oscars Awards ceremony take place and a best-selling book is written.
Cleveland Public Theatre's serving of the play is well paced and nicely developed by director Beth Wood who again proves she has a way of getting high comedy from all sorts of scripts.


The actors cavort in a realistic fenced in park setting, complete with grass, hills, a barbeque, benches, street light and a symbolic gnarled dead tree, creatively designed by Ryan Patterson. Benjamin Gantose's lighting nicely illuminates the goings one.


The play zings right along, teeter-tottering between ridiculous and asking "who are these people and what are their stories?" O'Hara challenges each of us to probe what makes and affirms identities. He challenges us to consider what is truth and what is fantasy.


The cast is strong. Examining each of them would reveal some of the creativity of O'Hara's creative plot devices. It will have to suffice that there are some standout performances, but all the characters are well etched. Congrats to Jill Levin, Teresa DeBerry, Ray McNiece, MaryAnn Elder, Sally Groth, Katrice Monee Headd, Tonya Broach, Scott A. Campbell, Pamela Morton and Ashley Aquilla.


Capsule judgement: Barbecue is the type of script that some will love, others abhor. It is farce, which means broad, overplayed written and portrayed characters, which again, will turn some on, others off. I found the evening funny, thought provoking, creative and effective, while recognizing its use of writing gimmicks and overly broad characterizations. It's worth the time to see this show!!!


(Side comment: While in the Gordon Square arts district, explore the exploding restaurant and other venues which surround CPT.)


Barbecue runs through March 11, 2017 at Cleveland Public Theatre. For tickets call 216-631-2727 or go on line to www.cptonline.org.

44 PLAYS FOR 44 PRESIDENTS is an American history geek’s turn-on at CPT, but . . .

Yes, in a period of two hours and twenty minutes, plus intermission, 44 plays whoosh across the Cleveland Public Theatre stage.  During that time the audience is exposed to all of the United States of America’s Presidents.  Well, to be honest, there are 45 plays…one, based on the audience vote, an add-on vignette of a supposition about either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump’s reign as the next President.

44 PLAYS FOR 44 PRESIDENTS is a chronological, biographical recap of the lives and presidencies of those who have held the office.  Some of the playlets are a couple of lines long, others many minutes in length.  In the process, some of their successes and/or errors are heralded.  How do you know which giant of politics is being spotlighted?  First, their picture appears on the.  Second, the actor portraying the office holder wears a blue and red star-spangled coat that symbolizes the presidency.

The comedy/drama/experimental/political/historic play is the brain-child of Chicago writers Andy Bayiates, Sean Benjamin, Genevra Gallo-Bayiates, Chloë Johnson and Karen Weinberg, with Bayiates dubbed the “Founding Father” since he conceived the concept.  There are also musical compositions dropped into and between the segments.  These are the doings of Steve Goers, Laura McKenzie and André Pleuss.

The show is a time travel beginning with George Washington in an almost Eden-like setting, John Adams being “Second Fiddle,” a roast of Thomas Jefferson with Benjamin Franklin as the emcee, to William Henry Harrison being hailed as an “Indian Slayer,” Lincoln and the “freeing of the slaves,” to the assassination of Ohio’s own William McKinley, the Hooverville 1930 depression days, FDR’s live speeches and videos of the public’s reactions to his death, to “Tricky Dickey” Nixon’s rise and fall from power, the reign of George H. W. Bush (“The Bargain:  Prelude to a Great Divide”), George Bush’s wrestling the election away from Al Gore, and the “Can he?” period of Barack Obama.

Few, other than U. S. presidential history geeks, will grasp all the innuendoes.  Of course, there is also the question of the validity of the material. The audience is helped by an electric sign stating, “direct quote” when the material being presented was said by the holder of the office or some other credited source.   (The 2016 debates could be helped by this device!)
 
The show is presented in Val Kozlenko’s red, white and blue pillared stage set, with a video screen up-stage center, which reveals a picture of the President being highlighted in each segment as well as visual images of some of their times in office (e.g., the assassination of JFK), highlighted by Michael Boll’s lighting, and enhanced by Eric M. C. Gonzalez’s inserted taped recordings (e.g.  radio broadcasts of the assassination of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr.).

The CPT production has done color blind casting.  The on-stage assemblage is both black and white.  However, the same cannot be said for gender.  All of the performers play multi-roles.  They portray Presidents, wives, members of the various cabinets, assassins, and various others.  The entire cast is female, though the reason for that choice is not clear.

Co-directors Dan Kilbane and Caitlin Lewins were faced with the difficult task of holding the audience’s attention as the segments went on and on.  The “singing, dancing, declaiming, laughing, eating, expounding, carousing, jumping, falling, running and many, many other ‘-ings’” is almost mind-numbing. 

Things are not helped by the constant moving on and off stage of boxes, podiums, and other paraphernalia.  Having a blackout after almost every scene to arrange the pieces, added much time to the production and broke the dramatic flow.

The cast must collapse in exhaustion after the show.  Molly Andrews-Hinders, Chennelle Bryant-Harris, Melissa Therese Crum, Sally Groth, Tanera Hutz, Coleen McCaughey and Carrie Williams act, sing and dance with vigor.  Unfortunately, though they try hard, some of their lines are lost due to the echo in the theatre, the inconsistent vocal projection by some actors, and the use of accents which are sometimes difficult to understand.

The conclusion, a rap song (a HAMILTON take-off) by Hillary Clinton (she won the audience vote regarding who would win the 2016 election the night I saw the show), could not be understood.  Putting the words on the screen would have helped in figuring out what was being said.

Capsule judgement: 44 PLAYS for 44 PRESIDENTS is a timely production, coming just before the contentious 2016 presidential election.  Though it is much too long, and has some staging and sound problems, history buffs should still rejoice. Others may enjoy the dancing, singing, and humor presented by the all woman cast.
 
44 PLAYS FOR 44 PRESIDENTS runs through October 29, 2016  at Cleveland Public Theatre, 6415 Detroit Avenue in the Gordon Square Arts District.  There is plenty of free parking within an easy walk to the theatre.  For tickets call 216-631-2727 or go on line to www.cptonline.org.

Must see LINES IN THE DUST, a play about Apartheid Schools in U.S. is riveting, edifying and upsetting @ CPT

What will a parent do to insure that her child gets a quality education? 

In 2011, Kelly Williams-Bolar served a 10-day jail sentence for illegally sending her children to a suburban school outside of her Akron, Ohio district.  The sentence disqualified Williams-Bolar from getting her accreditation as a teacher.  A storm of protests, both pro and con, quickly followed the sentence and a later pardon by the governor.

Why did Williams-Bolar feel compelled to get her child out of the ill-performing Akron schools?

As director Beth Woods, whose production of Nikkole Salter’s edifying and upsetting Lines in the Dust is now running at Cleveland Public Theatre, states in her program notes, “Our education system is broken and an entire generation of children has suffered for it.”  These students attend Apartheid Schools, “institutions where 99% of the attendees are black or Latino.” “Schools where courses such as Algebra II and chemistry aren’t offered.”  Schools where, even if Advanced Placement (AP) classes are presented, most students can’t pass the national tests, so they receive no credit for their class work.   Schools where “fewer than 60% of teachers meet all state certification and licensure requirements.”

Wait, this is 2016.  Over 60-years ago, the Supreme Court in Brown V. Board of Education, desegregate the schools.  But either by neighborhood design, attendance zones, controlled choice programs, poverty patterns, or municipal decree, segregated schools still exist.   Cleveland Schools several weeks ago, yes, that’s weeks ago, by court decree, integrated its schools.  Cleveland, Tennessee, that is.

But Cleveland, Ohio and such other metropolitan areas as Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, New York and St. Louis also have mainly Apartheid Schools.  The results?  In Cleveland (Ohio), which remains one of the most segregated cities in the nation, “66% of adults are functionally illiterate (read at or below a 4th grade level).  In some neighborhoods the rate is 95%.

Nikkole Salter is on a campaign to educate all of us, not only of the existence, but the financial cost and waste of human potential caused by Apartheid Schools. 

She also places a spotlight on people like Michael DiMaggio, one of the lead characters in Lines in the Dust, who believes, as do many Donald Trump followers, that “we need to return to the good old days and make America what it was.”  An America dominated by the thinking of Nationalists, who want “America for the Americans,” meaning the white, English speaking population, where women and other minorities know “their place.”   

Salter’s fictional play, with factual interludes, starts as we meet Beverly Long, the African American acting-Principal of the upper-class Essex County, Millburn, New Jersey schools, where houses each sell for around one-million dollars.  She is attending an open house of a home for sale in the community, where she meets Denitra Morgan, also African American.  The two talk about the community, their employment, and what their expectations are for their teen-aged children.

Long is unaware that Denitra is not a lawyer as she claims, does not live in the community, and is scouting out an address to use so that she can district-jump her daughter from the ill-performing inner city school to Millburn. 

What follows is a compelling exposé of the politics and operation of the educational system, the opportunity gaps between the “haves” and the “have nots,” the attitudes of people like Mr. DiMaggio, a member of a group who wants to keep their community as is, making sure that blacks, Jews and other “outsiders” don’t’ take away what the “good people of Millburn” have. 

Salter writes well.  The dialogue is compelling, the ideas crystal clear, the characters well etched.  It’s obvious why her 6 full-length plays have been produced on 3 continents and have received numerous awards.

The Cleveland Public Theatre’s production, under the focused direction of Beth Woods, grabs and holds attention.  The pacing is pitch perfect.  The acting is excellent, the author’s intent and purpose crystal clear.  

Nicole Sumlin gives a stellar performance as Denitra, a mother who wants only the best for her daughter, and is willing to do everything, including giving up custody of her child, in order to get her a prime education.  Bravo!

Kimberly Sias gives a” humanness” to Principal Long, which makes the production even more frustrating as we watch someone who has nothing but the best of intentions attempt to do an end-run around reality.

Skip Corris inhabits the body of Michael DiMaggio.  He is so effective that several “boos” were heard from the audience during the curtain call due to the hateful attitudes of the character. 

The chain link fence that surrounds Douglas Puskas’s set, is truly emblematic of the situation in which many people in this country find themselves able to see into what can be, but living a “can’t be part of that” existence. 

Daniel McNamara’s musical compositions and sound effects help set the proper moods.

Capsule judgement:  If you only see one play this year, it should be Lines in the Dust.  Because of its well-crafted writing that clearly develops Nikkole Salter’s fervent thoughts and feelings about Apartheid Schools and the people who make them happen, the play is often excruciating to watch.  The truth is painful!  The frustration of a problem with no seeming solution, and the possibility of a country operating on a Nationalistic philosophy, become truly scary!   As said, if you only see one play this year, it should be Lines in the Dust.

Lines in the Dust runs @ 7 p.m., Thurs/Fri/Sat/Mon in the newly refurbished James Levin Theatre, through June 18, 2016 at Cleveland Public Theatre, 6415 Detroit, just east of W. 65th Street.  Free parking is available within a two-minute walk from the theatre.   For tickets and information call 216-631-2727 or go to www.cptonline.org

Insightful, thought stimulating WRESTLING JERUSALEM captivates at CPT

Shortly into WRESTLING JERUSALEM, Aaron Davidman’s self-written and performed one-man play, now on stage at the newly remodeled James Levin Theatre at Cleveland Public Theatre, Davidman tells a joke.  A joke which is, in actuality, not funny, but very sad and prophetic.

A Rabbi and a bartender are having a conversation.  The bartender says, “Rabbi, where’ve you been this morning?”  The Rabbi replies, “Where I go every morning.  To pray at the Western Wall.”  The bartender asks, “How long have you been praying in the morning at the Wall?”  The response, “Every day for forty years.”  The next question, “Rabbi, what do you pray for every day for forty years?”  The reply, “I pray that there should be peace between the Jews and the Arabs.  That all the fighting should stop.  And that our children should grow up in safety and friendship.”  The bartender states, “Rabbi, I’m impressed by your dedication and commitment, but I have to ask, after 40 years of these prayers, how do you feel?”  The response:  “How do I feel?  I feel like I’m talking to a fucking wall!”

Yes, after forty years of attempted negotiations, cease fires, rocket attacks, army curfews, building a wall, thwarted peace talks, arrests, rock throwing, prisoner exchanges, and the giving of land for peace, there is no peace in Israel/Palestine.   And, to make it worse, there is seemingly no chance or any hope that “our children will grow up in safety and friendship.”

Both sides are suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.  The Jews, many who suffered the horrors of concentration camps and displacement, who finally came to “the land of milk and honey,” only to be involved in a conflict when the United Nations voted for the establishment of the State of Israel and the Arab nations attacked, are still involved in stress and possible death, and their children, who, never having lived in a time of peace, are shell shocked.   This is no way to live!

The Arabs were displaced from what they consider their “homes” and basically ignored by most of their brethren in the Arab world.  They, too, have known no peace and live with frustration, constant surveillance, and the lack of ability to govern themselves.  This is no way to live!

Throughout WRESTLING JERUSALEM, Davidman, who plays 17 parts, males and females, Jews and Palestinians, Americans and Brits, probes into the causes confronted in hammering out a lasting peace, or at least acceptance of one for another.

Performed before an abstract painted backdrop, textures suggesting the layered landscape of the Middle East, accented by golden sunlight, blood red slashes of light, storm clouds and a few moments of quiet calm, the bare stage takes on various places and fields of feeling. 

The use of music and light help designate who is speaking, and spans time and space.  Vocal inflections and accents, dialect and language, dance and song all incorporate to create a tableau of meaning, challenges, conflicts, and people.

A social science principle states that, “we are the sum total of our cultures.”  Our cultures—nationality, religion, gender, sexual orientation, and race, all form the tableau of each of us.  The us of us. 

Throughout WRESTLING JERUSALEM, Davidman highlights how our similarities and difference create the tapestry of our “us.”  And the “us,” in Israel/Palestine, leads to stress, disagreement, perceptual differences and conflict!

Sadly, the play is built on divisiveness and though it sheds light on the issues, it cannot give us a solution to the “tzuras,” the pain and suffering, that is caused by the cultural differences between the Israeli Jews and the Palestinian Muslims.  And, for this, the whole world suffers.

Davidman is brilliant in his portrayals.  He prays, sings, dances, mimes and creates real beings.  Unfortunately, at times, he gets so conversationally quiet and turns his back to the audience, that he can’t be heard by those in the rear of the theatre.

Aaron Davidman is touring the country doing WRESTLING JERUSALEM.  According to the program notes, he will possibly be making additional presentations in the Cleveland area.  It might be suggested, if that happens, that following the production, a short panel discussion, featuring both Jewish and Palestinian participants, be assembled to discuss the play and its implications.

Capsule judgement: Raymond Bobgan, the Executive Artistic Director of CPT states in his program notes, “Here at CPT, we truly believe art has a role to play in raising consciousness and nurturing compassion, in reckoning with some of the most challenging, personal and complex issues of our time.”  His selection of WRESTLING JERUSALEM, a thought-provoking, well written, compelling and well-performed piece of theater fulfills his beliefs.  This is a must see experience for people, no matter their cultural backgrounds.

WRESTLING JERUSALEM runs through May 22, 2016 at Cleveland Public Theatre Thu/Fri/Sat/Mon @ 7pm,  Sun @3.  (The show runs 90 minutes without an intermission.)  For tickets call 216-631-2727 or go on line to www.cptonline.org.