Tanja Gartner, Alan McRae and Tom Jenkins (Photo by Lua Rasga)
Reviewed by Lovell Estell III
A visiting production at the Odyssey Theatre
Through Nov. 2
It’s been over 50 years since American involvement ended in the debacle known as the Vietnam War. But what a huge, ugly shadow it still casts over this country in the form of ruptured bodies, minds and horrifying memories that for far too many will never be erased. Who can forget that gruesome, close-up photograph of a South Vietnamese police chief blowing the brains out of a Viet Cong soldier, or the one taken of throngs of Vietnamese, frantic with fear and panic, scrambling to board a teetering American helicopter during the fall of Saigon?
Memories of that war and its effects on two brothers are at the heart of David Kohner Zuckerman’s one-act drama. Dennis (Alan McRae) is an accomplished clinical psychologist, who, as the play opens, is in the middle of a therapy session with Amanda (Annabella Raye). Shortly after, while Dennis’s wife Colleen (Tanja Gartner) is preparing for a trip, the doorbell rings and in walks Dennis’s older brother Bobby (Tom Jenkins), a former District Attorney. The two are bitterly estranged: it’s been six years since they have seen one another, and this sudden surprise reunion infuses the atmosphere with parlous tension.
After some strained formalities, revealing dialogue slowly emerges about their difficult childhood scarred by an abusive, bigoted, alcoholic father; shared traumas fighting in Vietnam; and the tragic deaths of two fellow soldiers by suicide and drug overdose. Afterwards, the reason for Bobby’s visit surfaces and it sends Dennis into a sweaty panic. Bobby wants to “come clean” about a crime they committed in Vietnam, and from that point, it becomes a back and forth of wills, with Dennis growing ever more desperate to stop Bobby from revealing what he knows. We learn that the crime involved the death of their commanding officer — so anyone familiar with the term “fragging” knows what is forthcoming.
When Sam (Vincent Gumbs), an unhinged patient of Dennis’s storms in brandishing a gun and threatening to kill Dennis, Bobby, for some inexplicable reason, decides to tell the truth about what happened. It’s an incredulous turn of events that turns the whole play on its head. But for this bizarre, overwrought finale, it might have been possible to comfortably accept what is a labored premise to begin with.
Directed by Zuckerman, the performances are at best sketchy. Jenkins’s Bobby is sorely lacking in the requisite emotional range. Gumbs’s performance, especially at the end, is way, way too overheated, while McRae fails to make his character consistently convincing, though at times he is poignantly so. Kudos to Carter Stark for a sleek, contemporary set design that is split into two sections, Dennis’s living room and his office. Rounding out the cast is Peter Zizzo as L.A. Detective Peterson.
Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., West LA; Fri.-Sat., 8 pm, Sun., 2 pm; thru Nov. 2. www.OdysseyTheatre.com Running time: 80 minutes with no intermission.
