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| Albert Hall, William Atherton, Victoria Racimo. |
"In Lieu of Reviews"
For background on how this previously
unpublished series—introducing all mainstream New York shows between 1970 and
1975—came to be and its relationship to my three The Encyclopedia of the New York Stage volumes (covering every New
York play, musical, revue, and revival between 1920 and 1950), please check the
prefaces to any of the earlier entries beginning with the letter “A.” See the
list at the end of the current entry.
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| Joe Fields, William Atherton. |
THE BASIC TRAINING OF
PAVLO HUMMEL
[Drama/Military/Vietnam/War] A: David Rabe; D: Jeff Bleckner; S: David
Mitchell; C: Theoni V. Aldredge; L: Martin Aronstein; P: New York Shakespeare
Festival; T: Public Theater/Estelle R. Newman Theater; 5/20/71-4/1/72 (363)
Considered at the time, in John Simon’s words, “much the best
play about the [Vietnam] war so far,” The
Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel was a major work of the decade. It was the first
in David Rabe’s trilogy of plays about the war to be seen in New York, followed
the same year by Sticks and Bones (written
in 1969) and ending with Streamers in 1977. These works mirror the
anguish his combat experiences—in the medical corps between 1965 and 1967—caused
both him and his countrymen.
In 1972, the Boston Theatre Company produced the play, under
David Wheeler’s direction, with Al Pacino in the title role. Pacino reprised
the performance for the play’s Broadway production, in 1977, at the Longacre
Theatre. Also directed by Wheeler, with a mostly new cast, it ran for 117
performances.
Pavlo Hummel (William) is a sort of non-descript, naïve, sad
sack, an illegitimate child who enlists in the army and is sent to Vietnam,
where he is assigned to the medical corps. He succeeds in being transferred to
the infantry, where he struggles energetically to establish a sense of
self-respect among his fellow soldiers, who usually bully and mock him. In
Vietnam, a local prostitute becomes his girlfriend, but he dies in the brothel
from a grenade explosion following a fight with another soldier over the girl.
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| William Coffin, William Atherton. |
The play begins with his death and tells his story in flashback.
We see him in boot camp, being trained by a powerful, domineering, black
sergeant (Joe Fields), and later in Southeast Asia. All along, Ardell (Albert
Hall), a black soldier seen only by Pavlo, appears at his side, an alter ego
who addresses him with compassion.
Some thought the major weakness of the play was its failure to
portray the characters (especially Pavlo) in three dimensions, others thought
the situations were not all clearly worked out. The stylized cinematic
narrative techniques made the plot sometimes difficult to follow. Walter Kerr
complained of the drama’s “indecision and . . . inconclusiveness.” Admitting
its excellence of language and fine observation of details, he still hedged
about “the story [making] no graspable contribution to the play for which we
are still trying to find a shape.”
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| Sloane Shelton, William Atherton. |
But the consensus was that here was a potent, vital, new
playwriting voice, which could create “a tumultuous . . . [if] somewhat
incoherent drama,” as Richard Watts put it. Martin Gottfried said Pavlo Hummel was “an extraordinary play,
not always consistent.” The “war is hell” message proved old hat to Clive
Barnes but the truthful dialogue and explosive conflicts were compelling.
Of the actors, Joe Fields’s belligerent sergeant and William
Atherton’s feckless Pavlo were singled out for their superiority. Jeff Bleckner’s
imaginative direction was similarly lauded. Rabe won the Elizabeth Hull-Kate
Warriner Award and the Drama Desk Award for Most Promising Playwright, while
Bleckner was given an OBIE for Distinguished Direction and a Drama Desk Award
as Most Promising Director.
Previous entries:
Abelard and
Heloise
Absurd Person
Singular
AC/DC
“Acrobats”
and “Line”
The Advertisement/
All My Sons
All Over
All Over Town
All the Girls Came
Out to Play
Alpha Beta
L’Amante Anglais
Ambassador
American Gothics
Amphitryon
And Miss Reardon
Drinks a Little
And They Put
Handcuffs on the Flowers
And Whose Little
Boy Are You?
Anna K.
Anne of Green
Gables
Antigone
Antiques
Any Resemblance to Persons Living or Dead
Applause
Ari
As You Like It
Augusta
The
Au Pair Man
Baba Goya [Nourish the Beast]
The Ballad of Johnny Pot