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Zulu Time
Reviewed by Lovell Estell III
Hudson Theatre
Through August 9
Charles Faeber’s drama unfolds on the deck of an aircraft carrier (cleverly evoked by Gary Lee Reed’s assortment of panels and props, and David Marling’s fine sound design), off Catalina Island in 1965 — the year of the Watt’s Riots.
Page Boy (David Ghilardi), an arrogant, bigoted pilot is chumming around with fellow aviator Lone Star (Trevor Larson), and makes a racist remark about “the animals” who are burning down the city. When he’s overheard by black petty officer Ronnie (Christopher T. Wood), Page Boy mockingly refuses to offer the apology demanded by Ronnie. With neither man backing down, and with Ronnie refusing orders to perform his duties, the problem shifts into the hands of the ship’s gung-ho, virulently racist Captain (John Marzilli), who urgently wants to avoid any hint of racial disharmony or a mutiny on his ship, and enlists the help of Yamato (Scott Keiji Takeda), a Japanese officer and pilot, to find a solution to the problem. As it turns out, the resolution is awkwardly stitched into a desperately purposeful, contrived string of events that results in violence involving the LAPD. And that’s just Act 1.
What little dramatic pull has accrued quickly dissipates in Act 2, when the setting shifts to the jungles of Vietnam and a bar in the Philippines. The flurry of disjointed scenes depicts soldiers on leave, in battle, some happy reunions, the death of Martin Luther King and its impact on the crew and another black sailor (Acquah Dansoh), and Page Boy’s inexplicable conversion into a racially tolerant human being. It isn’t so much the material here as the artless way it’s put together that sabotages the fine performances, under Richard Kuhlman’s direction.
Hudson Theatre, 6539 Santa Monica Blvd.; Hlywd.; Fri.-Sat., 8 pm.; Sun., 3 pm., through Aug. 9th. (323) 960-7740, https://www.plays411.com/zulu
