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| From rear: Art Evans, Constantine Katsanos, James Tolkan, Michael Douglas, Lane Smith. |
One of the first of many plays to confront the Vietnam War, Pinkville concentrated on the inhumane and barbaric methods employed by military training camps for turning men into mechanical, heartless killing machines. It begins in a training facility and then moves to Southeast Asia's killing fields. It shows a squad of four Marine recruits being harassed by their sadistic sergeant, Two Ton Tessie (James Tolkan), and the various ways they are cruelly reshaped into submissive killers. The central character, Jerry the Naz (Michael Douglas, not yet a movie star), is so “successfully” transformed that he eventually massacres a village of peasants, including women and children, this being yet another play, like The Lieutenant, obviously referencing the My Lai Massacre of 1968.
The author’s vehement sense of outrage was so strong it
discolored the work, leading to a muddy, incoherent drama, excessive in manner
and weak in dialogue. Produced in a stylized fashion using choreographic
movement, it led Jack Kroll to accuse it of degrading “the moral and
intellectual energies which alone can salvage human dignity from this morass.”
Overly dogmatic and propagandistic was how Clive Barnes viewed the play. “Yet
it does undeniably have power,” he conceded.
The scenic arrangement placed the audience within the confines of the book camp’s barbed wire fences, thus heightening the sense of intimacy. Douglas, who won a Theatre World Award, was an exciting find, but he did not reappear on a New York stage again. Barnes wrote of him:
Michael Douglas gives a wonderfully telling performance as Jerry, the boy who is transformed from a decent straight kid into a killer. He is exceptionally expressive as he ranges from the agony of punishment, through the resolve of courage, and finally to the despairing facelessness of subjugation.
Also in the cast, but in a minor role, was another soon-to-be-star, Raul Julia. Lane Smith was among the better-known cast members.
