The War Anthology

Reviewed by Holly Bartges

What more can be said about war that hasn’t already been said over and over again from media bombardment, internal musings, and returning armed forces reiterating their experiences?

A scene from “The Closest I’ve Been To War” from the world premiere of The War Anthology at Curious Theatre Company. Photo by Michael Ensminger

Over a year ago, playing with late night thoughts, in a way late night thoughts have a way of coming out to play, Curious Theatre’s artistic director Chip Walton, Bonnie Metzgar, Curious’ associate artistic director, and Pulitzer Prize playwright Paula Vogel mused over the possibilities, and the conviction of The War Anthology took on shape and form and meaning.

The result: a great deal can be said about war when the arc of perspective feeds into and out of several viewpoints from playwrights, choreographers, musicians, and videographers.

The War Anthology covers America’s insistence into war from the Revolutionary War to the war in Iraq.

Videographer Brian Freeland, with the assistance of Joseph Knopp, Mitch Dickman and Bryon Matsuno designed a masterful production of photographs, film and images that glue together the individual mini-productions making a whole out of pieces fitting perfectly together as a jigsaw puzzle.

The highly-accomplished ensemble includes: Erik Sandvold, Dee Covington, Karen Slack, Tyee Tilghman, GerRee Hinshaw, Manuel R. Roybal Sr., Step Pearce, and Peter Trinh.

Featuring Covington and Pearce in juxtapositions, the production begins with Vogel’s The Closest I’ve Been To War. Covington’s character examines how far away war is to her with only TV images and video games while Pearce’s character stands in the midst of war‘s bloody heartbreaking agony.

MetzgarŐs Battlefield March leads the ensemble into rallying around a song and dance of Old Kentucky Home with musical direction by David Dunbar. Will Eno‘s Bully Composition features Slack and Sandvold with poignant humor who want to recreate a particular photo from the 1898 Spanish American War. Slack’s character discovers she has misplaced the photo of unknown soldiers sitting straight, staring straight ahead, and transforming the photo to the audience. Time and space melt away in a unique transformation of sorrow wrapped in humor.

Melissa McCarl’s The Pledge of Lesions features Tilghman representing Chief Black Kettle and the uncomfortable memory of the Sand Hill Massacre. There’s a teacher and a school, and a student who can’t bring herself to say the Pledge of Allegiance. Slack does a masterful job of revealing the reason through the tortured memory of Sand Hill, with the spirit of Black Kettle standing close by. It’s a beautifully written and performed stunning piece of work.

Elaine Romero’s Rain of Ruin features Hinshaw, Trinh and the ensemble. It’s modern day Japan. An American girl loves a Japanese boy who wants her to look at photos from Hiroshima. She doesn’t want to, doesnŐt think she needs to, and can’t understand his insistence. What has Hiroshima got to do with them? She finds out. Her resistance and his insistence leave the skin crawling.

David Reuille choreographed the dance Making Whoopee featuring Covington and Pearce and images of Hitler. It’s funny then it isn’t funny, until it is funny all over again in a pointed macabre sort of way.

Tony Kushner’s Only We Who Guard The Mystery Shall Be Unhappy features Covington and Slack. Three dead children wearing pajamas greet Mrs. Laura Bush. Covington cloaks herself in the niceties of Mrs. Bush overly exuberant over her reading program talking to a culture she has never taken the opportunity to get to know much less understand. It is tragically funny, as truth stands beside her in a controlled demeanor as Slack’s character patiently urges understanding, even when Mrs. Bush reads The Inquisition from her favorite book, Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov. It is OK the children are dead because she can’t read the book to live American children. It’s a knock on the head of screaming reality.Steven Sapp and Mildred Ruiz’s One Shot In The Lotus Position features Hinshaw and Tilghman examining the history of a mother and her son who never came home from Vietnam. He was a photographer, getting up close and personal preserving images of the war. The videography of his hanging up blank sheets to develop turning into images is awesome. The mother remembers her son telling her the Lotus Flower is the symbol of peace for Vietnam, and the war photos turn into the flowers. Awesome and breath taking is the only way to describe the developing imagery.

Throughout the production, Manual R. Roybel, Sr., a Vietnam veteran, plays his guitar and sings Metzgar’s The Oldest American G.I. with its humorous stinging lyrics.

If Curious Theatre Company hasn’t already been put on the map nationally; this production will definitely do it. It doesn’t matter where one stands politically, it doesn’t matter how one thinks about war, or doesn’t think, as the case may be, this is a magnificent production directed by Metzgar that commands attention.

It speaks highly of late night playful thoughts. It underscores that when an idea’s time has come, nothing can stop it. The War Anthology could easily become a legend in its own time. Don’t miss it. It will grab you. It will salute you. It will whisper memories in your ear. It will sear images in your soul. It will put the laughable in perspective, and it will beckon late night thoughts to come out and play. The War Anthology is a masterpiece of cumulative ingenious creative thinkers, writers and artists. Schools should bring their American History classes. American History classes should devise a curriculum revolving around the content and experience of this production. It will be a tragedy if it is ignored.

Call early for reservations, but call.