thedrifter
03-01-06, 06:46 AM
THEATER REVIEW
Giving the Marines a few conflicted men
BY LINDA WINER
STAFF WRITER
March 1, 2006
When "Doubt" opened at the Manhattan Theatre Club in late 2004, we could not know we had begun an extended journey with John Patrick Shanley. Even after that drama moved to Broadway and won the Pulitzer Prize, we never imagined this provocative exploration of pedophilia and the Catholic Church would soon be joined by another lean, powerful fist of a play about ambiguity and change within a massive institution.
"Defiance," which opened last night in the same theater with the same creative team led by director Doug Hughes, is meant to be the middle piece in a tryptich about American hierarchy. How thrilling to observe the ambitious adventure finding its shape.
Here Shanley takes on the U.S. military with rare compassion, analytic rigor and old-fashioned craft. Again, he makes a frontal attack on a subject we think we know too well, and proves otherwise. This is a conundrum play in which characters speak their minds with blunt beauty while clutching at slippery morality.
Shanley is not afraid to step close to the edge of melodrama, where deep truth competes with soap opera for our psyche. As the ambitious new evangelical chaplain of Camp Lejeune, the North Carolina Marine base, tells a self-protective black officer: "Life is melodrama, Captain. Like it or not - good and evil in a struggle to prevail. And guess what? Good wins, every time."
Shanley, of course, has a more complex interest in the struggle. He sets us up with what appears to be a sergeant's stock harangue to the troops. Instead of the usual railing, however, the sergeant brags that he put a Marine in jail for asking, "Why?" Then the big boss, Lt. Colonel Littlefield, snarls, "I will not countenance racial incidents in my battalion. Not in my wigwam!"
Soon, though the setting still feels familiar, we are in raw military territory, circa 1971. Black-power racism butts up against new fundamentalism, warrior disillusionment and, perhaps most poignant, the effect of all this social upheaval on a good marriage.
Stephen Lang gives a stunning performance as Littlefield, a bulldog of a man. It would be a mistake to underestimate him by his thick neck and ham-hock arms. This leader wants to end his career with a noble act, so he is looking for a "good, clean fight" against racism, first by promoting the black captain (played with stark understatement by Chris Chalk).
Instead of looking to be a hero, however, the captain wants to be invisible. Can either man choose to be an individual instead of a symbol of service? Or, as Littlefield proclaims before his world collapses around him, must each admit that "Everybody's got a role to play and none of 'em is a perfect fit"?
Chris Bauer is deliciously manipulative as the chaplain, who, in his own theatrical and judgmental way, might be a man of conscience. The wonderful Margaret Colin portrays Littlefield's wife, a smart, loving woman who knows what she gave up for her husband. We watch her fold creases in the drapes of her conventional home with its dull-brown patterns (sets are by John Lee Beatty) and hurt for all she might have been.
Here is a woman who reads Conrad Lorenz's "On Aggression" to figure out why men kill, and keeps coming back to the idea that war is simple lust. Despite the preternatural starch in her husband's uniform (the costumes are by Catherine Zuber), there is plenty of complicated lust in this constantly surprising couple.
Shanley used to strike us as a prolific playwright without an authentic identity. He certainly has one now.
Ellie
Giving the Marines a few conflicted men
BY LINDA WINER
STAFF WRITER
March 1, 2006
When "Doubt" opened at the Manhattan Theatre Club in late 2004, we could not know we had begun an extended journey with John Patrick Shanley. Even after that drama moved to Broadway and won the Pulitzer Prize, we never imagined this provocative exploration of pedophilia and the Catholic Church would soon be joined by another lean, powerful fist of a play about ambiguity and change within a massive institution.
"Defiance," which opened last night in the same theater with the same creative team led by director Doug Hughes, is meant to be the middle piece in a tryptich about American hierarchy. How thrilling to observe the ambitious adventure finding its shape.
Here Shanley takes on the U.S. military with rare compassion, analytic rigor and old-fashioned craft. Again, he makes a frontal attack on a subject we think we know too well, and proves otherwise. This is a conundrum play in which characters speak their minds with blunt beauty while clutching at slippery morality.
Shanley is not afraid to step close to the edge of melodrama, where deep truth competes with soap opera for our psyche. As the ambitious new evangelical chaplain of Camp Lejeune, the North Carolina Marine base, tells a self-protective black officer: "Life is melodrama, Captain. Like it or not - good and evil in a struggle to prevail. And guess what? Good wins, every time."
Shanley, of course, has a more complex interest in the struggle. He sets us up with what appears to be a sergeant's stock harangue to the troops. Instead of the usual railing, however, the sergeant brags that he put a Marine in jail for asking, "Why?" Then the big boss, Lt. Colonel Littlefield, snarls, "I will not countenance racial incidents in my battalion. Not in my wigwam!"
Soon, though the setting still feels familiar, we are in raw military territory, circa 1971. Black-power racism butts up against new fundamentalism, warrior disillusionment and, perhaps most poignant, the effect of all this social upheaval on a good marriage.
Stephen Lang gives a stunning performance as Littlefield, a bulldog of a man. It would be a mistake to underestimate him by his thick neck and ham-hock arms. This leader wants to end his career with a noble act, so he is looking for a "good, clean fight" against racism, first by promoting the black captain (played with stark understatement by Chris Chalk).
Instead of looking to be a hero, however, the captain wants to be invisible. Can either man choose to be an individual instead of a symbol of service? Or, as Littlefield proclaims before his world collapses around him, must each admit that "Everybody's got a role to play and none of 'em is a perfect fit"?
Chris Bauer is deliciously manipulative as the chaplain, who, in his own theatrical and judgmental way, might be a man of conscience. The wonderful Margaret Colin portrays Littlefield's wife, a smart, loving woman who knows what she gave up for her husband. We watch her fold creases in the drapes of her conventional home with its dull-brown patterns (sets are by John Lee Beatty) and hurt for all she might have been.
Here is a woman who reads Conrad Lorenz's "On Aggression" to figure out why men kill, and keeps coming back to the idea that war is simple lust. Despite the preternatural starch in her husband's uniform (the costumes are by Catherine Zuber), there is plenty of complicated lust in this constantly surprising couple.
Shanley used to strike us as a prolific playwright without an authentic identity. He certainly has one now.
Ellie