Right from the gitgo, veteran and actor Donald Calliste playing an army chaplain, admonishes us that we don’t know squat about those who serve our country. You might be inclined to thank them for their service, he notes, and then asks– “But, do you really know them?
We are informed that only 1% of Americans are in the military, so it is no mystery that their world is remote from ours. Playwright Michelle Kholos Brooks’ script weaving together transcripts of real-world veterans takes off from this point to put flesh on the bones of that 1% statistical fact.
These Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans had just marched into the theater as an ensemble. Over the course of the play each has a solo turn in the spotlight à la Chorus Line. Some were compelled by 9/11. Some just wanted a way out of their dead-end town. We meet a man with traumatic brain injury who is hanging by a thread. A mother is deployed to battle leaving her children behind, and now is fighting breast cancer. One lost his leg in battle but feels luck in his unluckiness to have at least seen a film of seeing it sawed off. A rape victim refuses to fault the Navy she loves, only the commanders who let her down. A secularized Muslim regained his faith in battle. A drone operator quakes with guilt that he is energized by his work as if it were a video game. A lieutenant makes a deep and enduring bond with a translator who saved his life. That translator thinks first and foremost of his fellow translators left behind to suffer the Taliban’s venom. And more…
In common they thrive on knowing how everyone around them has their back. In common they say, “Shit happens; just move on”. In common they think– “..it could be worse…” In common they share a palpable fear of all the shapes and forms of IEDs.
New York Rep Stagecraft Makes It Real
We hear much banging and explosives as stories are told. Guns are firing. Chaos is everywhere in their re-telling. It’s this sound engineering and score of percussion orchestration by Mariana Ramirez performed by Andrew Beall that so effectively transports us into the war zone.
For this writer, it is also the feel of unvarnished monologues that seem to have been left purposefully unpolished that give the performance its power and glue.
At the play’s end you too might be expecting a fundraising pitch. It doesn’t happen. Instead there is a shout out to the Veterans in our midst, rising from their seats to our applause.
Expect to be aware of how you are bringing your own political bias to the experience. You too may be reminded, like this writer, of how the one-time Commander-in-Chief refers to veterans as “losers”. War Words is a valiant effort to raise awareness of the real costs of war.
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WHEN:
Thru December 17, 2023
WHERE:
A.R.T./New York
502 W. 53rd Street
New York, New York
TICKETS:
$ 30 +
For more information and tickets visit the New York Rep website.
Photos: Jeremy Verner
About the Author: Amy Munice
Amy Munice is Editor-in-Chief and Co-Publisher of Picture This Post. She covers books, dance, film, theater, music, museums and travel. Prior to founding Picture This Post, Amy was a freelance writer and global PR specialist for decades—writing and ghostwriting thousands of articles and promotional communications on a wide range of technical and not-so-technical topics.