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Short form is worthy of audience's attention
(by Bob Ableman - February 01, 2012)
THEATER, BY BOB ABELMAN
Short form is worthy of audience's attention
The credible sources at Sparknotes tell us that "Hamlet," Shakespeare's longest play, has 4,042 lines, 29,551 words (apparently some are used more than once) and, uncut, requires three to four hours to perform.
The amount of art and craft associated with such epic works is immense, but the same can be said for the theatrical short form known as the "one-act."
According to Raymond Bobgan, artistic director of Cleveland Public Theatre and the inspiration behind CPT's "At-Ten-tion Span" -- collection of 12 10-minute plays -- the short form offers everything an artist can muster and is condensed into one moment. Each word and each action carries immense meaning.
"At-Ten-tion Span" not only offers a dozen short plays, it offers devised plays. The scripts originate from collaborative, improvisatory work by the playwrights which further develop through workshopping and eventually evolve into the finished products currently on display at Gordon Square Theatre.
Each of these plays is intense, earnest and very thought-provoking, and they differ significantly in terms of their accessibility, abstraction and pretension. As such, their likability is a matter of taste, their meaning is a matter of perspective, and the demands they make on one's attention span varies from one to the next.
This reviewer found the pieces that offered the most personal disclosures with the best acting performances to be the most desirable and rewarding.
That would include: Chris Seibert's "Alibi," featuring the talented Faye Hargate and Darius Stubbs as two damaged and co-dependent souls; Jeremy Paul's "The Refrain," which offers overlapping, intertwining and occasionally interrupting reflections on illness as delivered by Ray Caspio, Jenni Messner and Adam Seeholzer; and Darius Stubbs' "El Beth-el," a piece inspired by Curtis Burrell's gospel hymn "I Don't Feel no Ways Tired" that overlays society's cruelty with religion's blind faith. It features fine performances by the author, Dionne Atchison, and Steven Schuerger.
"Openings," by Raymond Bobgan, is a haunting ensemble piece that offers poetry intermixed with what seems to be a critique of the previous performance. Later in the evening is another ensemble piece by Mr. Bobgan, called "Sealed," which lovingly surrounds the audience with poetry mixed with Brazilian folk song.
Ending Act 1 and beginning Act 2 are two more ensemble pieces by this playwright that resemble an extended theater exercise in movement and space appreciation. Enthralling at the start, they soon grow tiresome and, then, tedious.
Pandora Robertson's "Crash Project" and Chris Seibert's "If I Lie" are among the most intriguing plays of the evening but arguably place too much responsibility on the audience to fill in the blanks and make sense of the work.
Conversely, Simone Barros' "Fail," Douglas H. Snyder's "The Three Musketeers" and Renee Schilling's "To Fasten Your Seatbelts" are the most linear and comprehendible of the bunch. However, they seem oddly conventional and flat in the otherwise funky context of devised works staged in a dilapidated theater where audience members are asked to bring their chairs from one performance space to another.
In addition to those actors already mentioned, members of the talented "At-Ten-tion Span" ensemble include Simone Barros, Jeremy Paul, Molly Andrews-Hinders, Lauren Joy Fraley, Caitlin Lewins, Lauren B. Smith, Amy Schwabauer, Renee Schilling and Chris Seibert.
No, these devised works are not mini "Hamlets." But in this collection of thoughtful and theatrical moments, the short-form play is most definitely the thing.
"At-Ten-tion Span" continues through Feb. 4 at Cleveland Public Theatre's Gordon Square Theatre, 6415 Detroit Ave. For tickets, which range from $10 to $15, call 216-631-2727.
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