Description
Dionysus Theatre Company & Arts Center East present PVT WARS by James McLure
Pvt. (‘Private’) Wars is about three veterans trying to recuperate in an Army veterans’ hospital in the 1970s.
A comedy about three men, with strong compassionate undertones and great poignancy. It does not dwell on the war in Vietnam itself, but on the small talk that conceals the inner turmoil of the patients. “You can get out of here anytime you want” and “I don’t want to talk about it” resonate throughout the play as a common thread that binds and also bonds these three together.
We capture glimpses of their mundane activities and conversations. It is both compassionate and very funny whilst remaining uncompromisingly honest; it’s full of the soldier’s sexual banter and frustration and shines a light on what war does to people both physically and mentally. Comprising a series of brief scenes, the play creates a meaningful mosaic as the three men tease, torment, entertain, exasperate and, on occasion, console each other maintaining throughout a hilarity which belies their deep concern about the uncertainties of the civilian world to which they will soon be returning. Behind all the laughter, of course, lies the fact that that safe place doesn’t really exist for those who have faced head-on the insanity of war; In today’s environment the central messages of this play are as relevant as ever.
