Mark Youngs (Photo by Luke Bolle)
Reviewed by F. Kathleen Foley
Arroyo Repertory Theare at Porticos Art Space
Through July 7
RECOMMENDED
Andrew Carroll is a prominent author and historian whose painstaking scholarship is a matter of record. Inspired by a distant relative’s World War II letter, Carroll made it his mission to amass war correspondence from across the globe, extending from the Civil War to the present day. His search took him to forty countries and six continents, including active war zones, to track down letters from individuals whose lives had been upended by war.
After diving into archives and compiling thousands of letters — some 100,000 in all — Carroll whittled the massive outpouring into the epistolary drama, If All the Sky Were Paper. Widely produced since its 2012 premiere at Chapman University (Carroll is the founding director of the Center for American War Letters at that institution), the play is now being presented by the Arroyo Repertory Theatre in Pasadena.
Director Jude Lucas helms a large and ready cast, which includes Brian Dailoc Lai, Clayton Searcy, Darwin Luján, Elijah Reyes, Kat Prado-Ventress, Katsy Chappell, Lily Baer, Lori McKenna, Mark Youngs and Oraldo Austin, all of whom play multiple roles. Doug Rynerson plays the historian/narrator of the piece – an essential character that sets up the various monologues with interstitial commentary.
Lucas’s staging isn’t perfect. An intrusive musical score fails to augment the action, while the proliferating quick-change period costumes seem just plain busy. (Surely, one uniform look – khaki pants, matching shirt? – would have sufficed.) More problematic are the actors’ occasional histrionics —tonal overkill that detracts from the impact of this intrinsically dramatic material.
Imperfections aside, the accounts are devastating. A GI in Vietnam writes to his girlfriend that his anti-war views have faded into his focus on simply surviving. He is killed that same day. A slave, who has fled to the North and joined the Union Army, closes in with his regiment on the plantation where his daughter is still in bondage. In a scorching letter, he warns his former master to beware of the righteous comeuppance to come. A husband and wife, who have shipped their young daughter to Canada to escape the Blitz, send a letter intended to cheer her upon her arrival. Their chirpy correspondence contrasts with the revelation that their child was killed in the infamous attack on the British ocean liner, the SS City of Benares, which was sunk by a German U-Boat.
After surviving the fire-bombing of Dresden, 22-year-old prisoner of war Kurt Vonnegut pens a dramatically charged letter to his parents that is full of outrage over the destruction and death. Yet one of the more modestly scaled monologues is perhaps the most emotionally affecting. A bereaved mother, whose Marine son has been killed in Fallujah, describes being overcome with grief upon seeing the grocery store’s display of mac and cheese — her son’s favorite food.
Carroll’s sweeping narrative includes not only descriptions of wartime atrocities but also reminiscences of heroism, endurance, and simple kindness. From Baghdad to the Balkans and beyond, there’s a striking commonality to the accounts – a shared humanity that transcends nationality and time. It’s a reminder that the enemy “other” is, in the final reckoning, ourselves.
Porticos Art Space, 2033 E. Washington Blvd., Pasadena. Thurs. June 27, 7:30 p.m.; Fri., 7:30 p.m.; Sat, 3 and 7:30 p.m.; Sundays, 3 p.m. Ends July 7. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/if—all—the—sky—were—paper—by—bestselling—author—andrew—carroll—tickets—912274426367?aff=ebdssbdestsearch Running time: one hour and 40 minutes with no intermission.
