“His Journey’s End”
On November 11, 1918, the armistice ending World War I was
signed. Exactly one year later, the first Armistice Day, a
national holiday, was commemorated. Two months from now, the holiday (renamed
Veterans Day in 1954) will celebrate its 99th anniversary. Perhaps it’s by
coincidence, perhaps by planning, but the opening in New York this week of two
plays inspired by World War I, one recent (Private
Peaceful), and one first produced in 1919 (Shaw’s Heartbreak House), helps
to remind us of that momentous conflict, whose repercussions are still with us
a century later.  |
| Shane O'Regan. Photo: Ahron R. Foster. |
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| Shane O'Regan. Photo: Ahron R. Foster. |
There really isn’t much here that hasn’t been seen or heard
in the dozens of earlier plays
and movies
about World War I, especially those (unlike Heartbreak
House) that take us into the hellhole of trench warfare. Private Peaceful, instead, registers
principally as an opportunity for O’Regan to embody 24 characters, civilian and
military, male and female, young and old. He does so on a mostly bare stage
designed by Anshuman Batia with a cloud backdrop enhanced by multiple lighting cues.
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| Shane O'Regan. Ahron R. Foster. |
Reade’s direction is minimalist, introducing barely any hand
props and incorporating a single cot that, when turned on its side, with its
mattress laid on the floor, serves as a trench, with Tommo peering out through
the barbed wire-like hatch-work of its springs.
Nearly half of the script, narrated to us by Tommo, is about
his childhood, growing up in a small English town. His father—for whose death
he undeservedly blames himself—was the fifth generation of Peacefuls who worked
for the family of the Colonel, a wealthy landowner. One brother, a hulking
overeater, is Big Joe, brain damaged from childhood meningitis; the other is
Charlie, three years older and Tommo’s protector and idol.
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| Shane O'Regan. Photo: Ahron R. Foster. |
Tommo recounts typical boyhood scenes, idyllic and cruel, such
as fishing and hunting with his brother, being rescued from a schoolyard bully,
sharing a martinet of a teacher, and being attracted to Molly, the girl Charlie
will one day marry (guess why). War erupts, a recruiter shows up, and both
Charlie and his underage sibling enlist.
Then follows a familiar litany of boot camp training under
the sadistic Sergeant Hanley, the physical discomforts of rats, lice, and rain
in the muddy trenches, the ceaseless bombardments, the mindless killing, and, the
climactic decision that leads to Tommo's ironic fate. Too quickly introduced and disposed of, it nonetheless answers with a potent jolt the question of why Tommo’s
always checking the ticking of his watch.
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| Shane O'Regan. Photo: Ahron R. Foster. |
Morpurgo’s writing is brisk and unsentimental, as we’d
expect for dialogue streaming from the mouth of a young, country-bred soldier
like Tommo. Like any such coming-of-age story set against the well-researched
and both nostalgic and horrific background of World War I, the material is
inherently interesting. Nor could its message about the immorality and
insanity of war be any clearer. In performance, however, it becomes more a display of
the actor’s considerable vocal and physical craft—with one dramatic moment
following the other in rapid succession—than the emotionally powerful
experience it deserves to be.
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| Shane O'Regan. Photo: Ahron R. Foster. |
Burdened by the numerous exaggerated vocal transformations
and regional accents needed to keep each character clear; by the frequent
shouting, even when the bombs of Jason Barnes’s excellent sound design aren’t
exploding; and by movement director Sue Mythen’s constant physicalization of
nearly every moment, O’Regan’s portrayal of Tommo becomes an overactive voice
and body that fail to coalesce into the tragic figure who should bring tears to
our eyes.
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| Shane O'Regan. Photo: Ahron R. Foster. |
Private Peaceful,
which runs an hour and 25 minutes, and will continue to tour when its local run
concludes, will appeal to those interested in solo shows featuring
tour-de-force acting demanding multiple characterizations. If O’Regan’s performance
can be viewed as a war between reaching an audience emotionally and impressing
it technically, the victor is definitely the latter.
OTHER VIEWPOINTS:
TBG Mainstage
312 W. 36th St., NYC
Through October 7
