(L-R): James Smith as McGuiness and Malcolm Madera as Albers - Photographer Stan Barouh
The ensemble work in this tale set on a troopship "somewhere in the Pacific" towards the end of World War II is very good, well-timed and well-choreographed. But while Neal Bell's core desire in the play, as told in his program notes, is to show how homophobia damages not only its target but also its targeters, from captain on down to private, his good intention gets lost in the play's clunky structure and its WWII-war-movie-inflected dialogue.
Director Jim Petosa also makes some ineffective choices, such as the staging of the last scene on a life-raft after the troop ship has been torpedo'd, that obscure Bell's message. In the end, I was not clear why Bell wrote this play, what question he had in mind that the play answered, since the play seems as much about the complicated friendships among men under the crush of war as it does about the crush of prejudice and proscribed desire.
(July 2008)