"Tracers," Long Beach Playhouse Studio Theatre, Long Beach, CA
Breathtaking in content, especially if you know someone (or were) in Iraq or knew someone (or were) in Vietnam, flawless in execution, and stupefying in after-effect, one would hope that the Long Beach Playhouse Studio Theatre’s production of Tracers, written by John Difusco and seven others, and directed by Sharyn Case, would convince hawks to get over their military industrial complex.
Written by Vietnam veterans, this exceptional adaptation of an exceptional play was controversial enough when it premiered in 1980. Its message - which makes gospel of John Lennon’s modest proposal, Give peace a chance - resonates yet again in our current Troubles.
Case slides us down the slippery slope to the hell that is war.
As if we need to be reminded.
Case starts with Sergeant Williams (Michael Turner) who reminds seven new recruits with an average age of nineteen that they are but maggots, perhaps not realizing the statement’s irony in the blanket scene in which the boys collect torsos and limbs and try to figure out which belong to which.
She continues through scenes of disorientation (Not much training, no clue about what they would be up against), alienation (the Dear John letter), teenage lust heaped upon the local girls, the sheer horror of things that go bump (and boom) in the night, and a resolution of sorts one fearful day in Cambodia.
Nothing dull here. Whether shooting, getting shot at, licking wounds physical, emotional, or psychological, consoling each other, getting over it, not getting over it, over time the show erodes your sensibility like way-turned-up bass on car stereos that cruise Pine while you try to enjoy your mocha latte in suburban bohemian peace.
There’s no conflict raised, conflict resolved story line. The play unravels in a thunderous sequence of tracer bullet vignettes, some that last but a few seconds, followed by lights out, except that it wasn’t taps that played on a bugle but the realization that one of these guys could die at any moment and not know what hit him.
Daniel Wheeler’s set and lighting made a huge impact on the claustrophobic twilight zone that was the stage. At first I was surprised to learn that the play would take place on the Studio Theatre’s small-ish, black box stage. Then I was delighted to see that the floor had been lowered to our level so we looked the men in the eye, that the men were pressed against the back wall like terrified figures on a mosaic of despair, and that the drama was compressed like something in an infernal ant farm.
Top notch performances abound here. Anthony Dietel’s Doc. Wow. Steven Parker’s Professor. Brian Robinson’s Habu. Christopher Gausselin’s Scooter. Anthony Niccoli’s Baby San. Jarret Wright’s Dinky Dau. Jim Felton’s Little John.
Thank you, gentlemen, for your service to this production.
Performances are Fri. & Sat., 8 PM, Sun, starting Feb. 4, 2 PM. The show runs until March 3. Tickets are $20-22. The Playhouse is located at 5021 E. Anaheim St. For more information call 494-1014 or visit www.lbph.com.
