Leave
I went last Friday to see Urban Samurai's production of the newly-expanded script of Matthew Everett's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" play, Leave.
This was a difficult play for me to watch, because of my very strong anti-military feelings. Everett does a good job of conveying multiple sides of the issue, but mostly "I stay in the military to fight this terrible policy from the inside" vs. "I resigned from the military so I can fight this terrible policy from the outside, but I'd reenlist in a heartbeat if they repealed it". No one ever said, "It's not just the policy that's terrible; it's the entire institution." Even the character who people kept calling a "peacenik" was mostly a worried mother who didn't like her son living in a war zone, especially given their discriminatory policies towards his life and family; she did not, when pressed on the matter, express dislike of the military generally. On the other hand, neither was there a character arguing in favor of DADT; I suppose, if you don't want a cast of thousands, you can only have so many mouthpieces representing so many views. As always, watching uncomfortable things was good for my edges but, well, uncomfortable at the same time.
The dialogue periodically waxes more anvillicious than I might've preferred. This full-length play began as a one-act, and much of the expansion seems to come in the form of position monologues. But, man, it's worth it to hear people fight.
Everett writes arguments like nobody's business. And everybody argues: spouses; coworkers, parents and children; relative strangers chucked into awkward situations together. Characters would reach the end of heated exchanges, and I would be shaking, because the anger and fear and hurt underlying their words hit just that much too close to home. Even if you disagree with every line he puts into every character's mouth, you're still with him, and with them, because you've been there. We've all been there.
Leave plays for one more weekend (starting tonight) at the Sabes Jewish Community Center in St. Louis Park. Get gay, get naked (mostly), get angry!
This was a difficult play for me to watch, because of my very strong anti-military feelings. Everett does a good job of conveying multiple sides of the issue, but mostly "I stay in the military to fight this terrible policy from the inside" vs. "I resigned from the military so I can fight this terrible policy from the outside, but I'd reenlist in a heartbeat if they repealed it". No one ever said, "It's not just the policy that's terrible; it's the entire institution." Even the character who people kept calling a "peacenik" was mostly a worried mother who didn't like her son living in a war zone, especially given their discriminatory policies towards his life and family; she did not, when pressed on the matter, express dislike of the military generally. On the other hand, neither was there a character arguing in favor of DADT; I suppose, if you don't want a cast of thousands, you can only have so many mouthpieces representing so many views. As always, watching uncomfortable things was good for my edges but, well, uncomfortable at the same time.
The dialogue periodically waxes more anvillicious than I might've preferred. This full-length play began as a one-act, and much of the expansion seems to come in the form of position monologues. But, man, it's worth it to hear people fight.
Everett writes arguments like nobody's business. And everybody argues: spouses; coworkers, parents and children; relative strangers chucked into awkward situations together. Characters would reach the end of heated exchanges, and I would be shaking, because the anger and fear and hurt underlying their words hit just that much too close to home. Even if you disagree with every line he puts into every character's mouth, you're still with him, and with them, because you've been there. We've all been there.
Leave plays for one more weekend (starting tonight) at the Sabes Jewish Community Center in St. Louis Park. Get gay, get naked (mostly), get angry!