Excerpted from The Blade, Toledo, Ohio, Section D, Page x, Jan. 17, 2001
Pvt Wars: trauma grist for bleak comedy
BY TAHREE LANE
BLADE STAFF WRITER
Pvt. Wars is the story of three men returned from soldiering in Vietnam. Each carries a fragment of the war in body, mind, or spirit, and each is pummeled by personal demons.
One of the men has lost most of his memory and spends days tinkering with a radio. Another has lost his manhood and become psychotic. The third has lost whatever spirit he once had.
Surprisingly, this Village Players production, which runs through Jan. 27, is a comedy, albeit a black one. A worthwhile play, Pvt. Wars is filled with raunchy language that makes it unsuitable for youngsters.
The setting is a stark lounge in what is probably the psych ward of a veterans hospital in the 1970s. It is here the men meet to bicker, scheme, and confess.
Slow but not stupid, Woodruff Gately is the heart of the play. A southern boy who is sedated and has little useful memory, he’s played by Jake Gordy with down-home charm. Gately fusses with a broken radio he’s fixing for a patient who has no arms or legs. He believes if he can repair the radio, he’ll be cured and America will get back on track. He says, "And if everybody would fight their own private wars, things would be all right. But no, people have to stick their noses into other people’s wars!"
Given that Gately is supposed to be dulled by drugs and not too swift to begin with, the actor takes him too far out of character during a comic scene when he suddenly becomes witty and animated. It’s almost forgivable because the laughs he generates are welcome.
The streetwise Silvio (Derek Hansen), who beat a co-worker in Cleveland with a tire tool, ponders the value of floppy vs. tight underwear and the possibility that wearing a kilt will increase sperm count. He sports red sparkly underwear and actually schedules times to flip open his robe and flash nurses. We understand why he doth protest so much when we learn he left his manly parts overseas.
As Silvio, the young Hansen brings tension and intensity to the stage.
Then there’s Natwick, a rich boy from Long Island whose ambitious mother expected nothing less for him than a cabinet position. Portrayed well by John Jennens, he affects superiority but is a closet drunk and disappointed in himself. He’s the butt of Silvio’s jokes. "I’m not secretive," he insists. "I’m paranoid. I wish you people would learn the distinction."
Directed by John Henry and Norb Mills, Pvt. Wars was originally produced as a one-act on Broadway in 1977. Given that America was still licking its wounds from the contentious war in Southeast Asia, one can imagine that the play delivered far more punch then than it does a generation later. However, there’s surprisingly little dialogue specific to Vietnam, so the concept of individuals fighting their own battles holds relevance.
"Pvt. Wars" is scheduled at 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sunday through Jan. 27 in the Village Players Theatre, 2740 Upton Ave. Tickets for are $10 and $12 with some discounts available. Information: 472-6817.
Last Modified: 02/25/06