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Row After Row
Review by Neal Weaver
Echo Theater Company at The Atwater Village Theatre
Through May 31
Playwright Jessica Dickey sets her comedy in the odd and largely unfamiliar world of Civil War Re-enactors, who have spent their day staging a recreation of Pickett’s Charge, which shifted the tides of war during the Battle of Gettysburg. Cal (Ian Merrigan), who plays a Union officer, and his friend Tom (John Sloan), who plays a Yankee deserter, have participated in the event for many years, and always retreat after the battle to a nearby tavern in Gettysburg. To their surprise, they find “their” table occupied by a young woman named Leah (Jennifer Chambers) in a Confederate uniform, along with a blonde pony-tail, earrings, and a ring in her nose.
Cal is a hide-bound traditionalist who is indignant not only at having his table usurped, but at the very idea of a woman participating in what he considers the all-male world of war. Leah, a former modern dancer and ardent feminist, has facts at her disposal concerning the participation of women in the battles of the Civil War, serving as nurses, vivandiers, camp-followers, and, disguised as men, as regular soldiers. She also raises embarrassing questions regarding the paucity of African-Americans, among both the re-enactors and spectators. Tom, who is Jewish, serves as peace-maker, and persuades Cal to accept Leah’s invitation to join her at her table.
Cal, however, is not entirely reconciled with Leah. She is, he says, guilty of “farbing”— i.e., anachronistic behavior or wearing clothing or accessories that did not exist in 1863. He boasts that he has spent a small fortune purchasing uniforms and weaponry from specialist suppliers that are totally historically correct. (Interestingly enough, it appears that England has its equally dedicated re-enactors who devote themselves to restaging events from, among other things, the Roman invasion of Britain.) The disagreements between Leah and Cal eventually come to blows, till they’re separated by Tom. Eventually Cal is mollified by the depth and vividness of Leah’s description of her experience of the charge, as she encounters row after row of Union soldiers.
The action is interrupted occasionally by interludes, heralded by the booming of a cannon, in which the three re-enactors become the people they are playing: Cal becomes a harried Union officer, worrying over whether General Alexander’s reinforcements will arrive on time. Leah is a young, presumably Confederate, young woman who finds a deserter (Tom) hiding in her cellar. And Tom is the young son of a Rabbi who has deserted, not out of cowardice, but because he can’t bring himself to kill another human being.
Dickey’s play is wildly uneven in tone, varying from character comedy to a reverential treatment of the Battle of Gettysburg, and not all of the plot twists are entirely convincing. But the unfamiliar milieu she shows us, and the colorful events she describes, keep her play always interesting and entertaining. Director Tara Karsian stages the piece with skill and fidelity, and the actors are all able. Michael Mullen provides the costumes, and Amanda Knehans designed the handsome, minimalist set.
Echo Theater Company at The Atwater Village Theatre, 3269 Casitas Avenue, Atwater Village. Variable performance times. Check website for complete schedule. (310) 307-3753, www.EchoTheaterCompany.com.
