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'Cleveland,' the play, is real loser
(by Herb Hammer - October 08, 2009)
THEATER, BY HERB HAMMER
'Cleveland,' the play, is real loser
Dobama Theatre has finally settled into a permanent home. That's the good news. After leaving the homey underground space on Coventry Road and roaming from place to place for four years, the incredible new Dobama Theatre on Lee Road is ready and operating.
The bad news is that, after 50 years of performing wise, thought-provoking theater, we Dobama lovers wind up with a wreck of a play called "Ten More Minutes From Cleveland."
Actually, Eric Coble's new play isn't really a play at all. We are offered 10 over-the-top vignettes filled with Cleveland bashing. Landmarks and familiar names of streets and businesses and gags about the Cleveland Clinic taking over the dizzy design of the Euclid Avenue corridor are all part of the intent to be funny. If you're not a long-time resident, you just won't get it at all. If you live here and prefer hating this town and its suburbs, there's plenty to laugh at.
One thing is sure. Once the Dobama production closes, "Ten More Minutes From Cleveland" will never see the light of day again.
The 10 chopped-up scenes are strung together by two separate short stories about two people who are having what they believe to be the worst day of their lives.
First, we come across a young woman heading for her first day on the job. She's house sitting, and her downtown PR job is temporary. Her neighbor is a wild-eyed, crazed man who insists on presenting her with all the rules and regulations for living in Cleveland Heights. She's late for work her first day and can't seem to get away from him. You can only hope things will get better.
Her bus ride along Euclid Avenue, where the Cleveland Clinic gags increase, lands her on Ontario Street. She fears she's in Canada -- one of many bad gags.
The other character Mr. Coble uses to string things together is a man with a severe sinus problem who shows up for work only to find his job is gone. In fact, his entire office has disappeared. We then follow his adventures.
From a never-ending tailgate party at the Lake Shore Muny parking lot, where everybody bemoans Cleveland's losing professional sports teams, to Patterson's Apple Farm and an obnoxious apple expert, our two bewildered main characters move on.
We're told of the demise of the Flats and the never-ending joke that is Parma. Just when you've had about enough of all the high-strung, hair-raising action, it all subsides, and we wind up in Little Italy, where a young girl tells the lost job hunter about the restaurant and the parking and the slow service.
You can only wish Mr. Coble had something good to say about the town he claims everyone loves. Even when our leading lady tells anyone who will listen that she's from Arizona, the Clevelanders go into shock. "And you moved to Cleveland?" How insulting.
Dobama will eventually get back on track and present the type of theater that brought them this far. This time out, with a 2 1/2-hour play that kicks off the 50th season presented in a building they could have only dreamed of, they have failed.
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