For any Clevelander who loves theater, it’s time to celebrate. Dobama Theatre has finally opened their new space on Lee Road, and it is a treasure to behold.
But as elegant as a theater is physically, nothing can compare in
importance to what’s put onstage. The initial production at Dobama’s
new home is the world premiere of Ten More Minutes From
Cleveland by local playwright Eric Coble. And if this were compared
to the christening of a ship, sadly, the champagne bottle bonked off
the hull with nary a drop of bubbly spilled.
The “more” in the title refers to another Coble play, Ten
Minutes From Cleveland, which the theater produced in 2005.
Both feature quickie skits, scattershot references to area communities,
landmarks and businesses, and every tired joke about Cleveland you can
imagine (east siders needing a visa to go to the west side, the
Cleveland Clinic being, um, big).
Sure, Coble can construct some pithy lines, and he does make a
couple of trenchant observations, however miniscule, about the city
(like the weird and sometimes terrifying bus lanes on Euclid). But the
10 brief vignettes never take any real chances. And when he tries to
conjure up a genuine moment — like a second-generation waitress
at Mama Santa’s in Little Italy reflecting on her mother’s serving
philosophy — it comes out cloyingly maudlin.
The six-person cast includes some very talented individuals (Nick
Koesters and Laurel Johnson among them). But for some reason, the
usually excellent director Joel Hammer either instructs or allows
everyone to over-torque their roles. As a result, Coble’s already
unbelievable characters often end up screaming at each other in various
states of mild to manic hysteria.
There is plenty of humor, God knows, to be mined in this community’s
richly conflicted veins. But a ham-fisted play like this reduces our
citizenry to babbling, drooling yahoos, which is neither true nor very
funny.
The good news is that Dobama will certainly do better in the future.
It always has in the past.
This article appears in Sep 30 – Oct 6, 2009.
