“Bury the Dead” Aims Straight as a Bullet (09/08)
“Bury the Dead” at the Actor’s Gang in
Much of the reason for the style in this one-act play is accounted for by the fact that at the time “Bury The Dead” was first produced on Broadway in 1936, writer Irwin Shaw was a recent college graduate.
Shaw later earned international recognition as a novelist and playwright with many of his works relating to anti-war themes and social consciousness. Shaw’s most famous novel, “The Young Lions” (1948) is well known because it was a star vehicle for Marlon Brando, flanked by able and popular actors Montgomery Clift and Dean Martin, plus an international array of actors. His lesser known peacetime novel, “ Rich Man, Poor Man” (1970) transformed Shaw into a household name via a TV mini-series, along with Peter Strauss and Nick Nolte in the late 1970’s. At the time, Shaw was just six years back in
“Bury the Dead” lays the groundwork for his career in theme and structure.
At it’s center are the basic drives of a young man in a woman’s touch, a beer with comrades and the hope for a solid job future. Not far behind is the young person’s distrust of the next generation.
The action takes place on an undetermined date in an undetermined place somewhere in
, “two years into the war that is to begin tomorrow night.” The soldiers (Seth Compton and Rick Gifford) on the bare stage are bellyaching while smoking and drinking while tossing six rotting bodies in a grave. They are brought to attention when the corpses find a way to refuse burial and stand to tell the world about the dishonesty and brutality of war.
No one, not the soldiers, their captain (Simon Anthony Abou-Fadel), not a general’s orders nor a general himself, nor women back home can force or cajole the dead soldiers to their burial. And if they are not buried, the war cannot continue.
Modern audiences are more used to being “hit over the head” with a message through such devices as dance or music; here it is in the form of speeches, stirring and theatrical — and as stunningly current now as it was then.
The most obvious one is the following. The true test of an American war, according to one theory, is how much the public can tolerate the sight of dead servicemen and service women in their flag-draped caskets. It is the deadly price to pay for “a few feet” of real estate. It is telling that since 1991 the powers that be at the Pentagon has banned press photography of such caskets as they arrive in the
John Pick and Brian Allman are memorable as uncooperative corpses. Donna Jo Thorndale also stands out as the blue collar wife upbraiding her husband (Brian Allman) even after his death for his meager soldier’s pay and preferring the company of his cronies at the corner bar to her.
The drama is quiet and simple. The arc is highest at the wail of a mother (Annemette Andersen), almost animal-like in its savagry, seeing the ravaged face of her son (Jesse Luken) after he reluctantly shows it to her. It is unforgettable and will ring in many ears for a long time to come.
There are minor flows. “The generals should be older or better (actors) , as one audience member aptly put it, “ and “a three-star general would never follow behind a one-star general” as they do in the performance.
At the same time, the Ivy Substation theatre is one of the city’s true delights. Stadium seating for a pure view is the least of it. The simplicity of the stage sends the message loud and clear, with punctuation marks by characters in niches on the side – from the radio voice (Joe Bruno) in reporter’s fedora on one side to the whores at the bar on the other (a raucous Mary Mackey).
With a gracious little park out front, easy parking and all sorts of intimate or razzle dazzle eateries nearby, the stellar spot provides an entire evening of entertainment. And if you look closely, as the friendly manager told us to do, you will spot Artistic Director and superstar Tim Robbins in the lobby behind you, engrossed in overseeing the show.
"Bury the Dead," the Actors’ Gang, Ivy Substation,