CESEAR'S FORUM – Cleveland's smallest resident professional theatre company at Playhouse Square

Cesear’s Forum to present Larry Shue’s WENCESLAS SQUARE

There is both relevance and humor in Larry Shue’s WENCESLAS SQUARE. A minimalist cautionary tale based on the political suppression of the late 1960s Czech theatre artists previously involved in “theatre as revolution,” this semi-autobiographical “memory” play is relevant, haunting, and very funny: “A good-natured man of the theatre taking us into his world abstractly through time and geography.” The telling finds an American professor and his drama student confronting oppression and ruthlessness. The play parallels Ukraine’s political unrest that has given way to Russian invasion.

WENCESLAS SQUARE was presented by the New York Shakespeare Festival in 1988. The Cleveland cast includes Danny Simpson, Max Elinsky, Joe Milan, Stuart Hoffman, Tricia Bestic, Mary Alice Beck, and Trey Gilpin. Staged by Artistic Director Greg Cesear, with a setting by Michael Larochelle, lighting by Andrew Kaletta and costumes by Betty Pitcher, the production is sponsored, in part, by Cuyahoga Arts and Culture and the Bonne Bell Family Foundation.

Larry Shue’s WENCESLAS SQUARE: September 30th through October 29th. Friday and Saturday at 8 pm. Two Sunday Matinees at 3 pm; October 9th & 16th. Kennedy’s Theatre, Playhouse Square, 1501 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio. Call 216-241-6000 or visit www playhousesquare.org. The ticket price is: $18

Cesear’s Forum is very proud that we were able to mount a 2021 production successfully and safely. Perceiving the tenor within present society and addressing it artistically, particularly during a pandemic, is risky business even for a small niche theatre. We are pleased to report that attendance for Joan Didion’s THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING, featuring Julia Kolibab, surpassed expectations. Joan Didion’s act of self discovery, revealing and reflecting her personal moments of reality (or unreality) within the play, permitted a present recognition residing individually within ourselves. Further, the immediate present societal health concerns and issues of responsibility provided additional resonance to Ms. Didion’s experience that transcend and adumbrates. Cesear’s Forum, in abeyance, plans a fall 2022 production.

Cesear’s Forum is dedicated to presenting unconventional, new or lesser known plays that explore theory and technique to reveal aspects of the social, political, economic and ideological properties of daily life. The company produces intermittently, on a project by project basis (unusual in Cleveland), currently, one play per year, rather than a traditional seasonal approach.

Intimate, minimalist, professional and distinctly non-commercial, the company operates from a truly non-profit perspective.

“Sometimes words, by themselves or in recurrent patterns, will blaze up in fiery exchanges or subside in aching whispers; sometimes a grimace, a tear, the movement of a hand, or a break in speech will hint better than spoken language what passes show.” –Marvin Rosenberg

Watch this space for fundraising activities and our annual “performance benefit.”