Playwright: Elaine Romero. At: 16th Street Theater, 6420 16th St., Berwyn. Tickets: 708-795-6704; www.16thstreettheater.org; $18. Runs through: May 2
This world premiere is Play One in a trilogy about America at war by author Elaine Romero, but it has almost nothing to do with geopolitics, battles or military life. Its focus is on war's psychological damage to specific individuals in keeping with 16th Street Theater's season devoted to fathers, daughter, mothers and sons. I'm not sure I like the play, but I found it interesting and I agree with its humanistic perspectives.
My reservations are almost entirely stylistic. The play is poetic, which is OK ( although only the Greeks really excelled at creating soaring poetry about war ), but the poetic languageimagistic, metaphorical and not always specificis coupled with a non-linear narrative presented as a collage of verbal, physical, visual and aural impressions. The atmospheric and effective media design ( by Anthony Churchill, who also designed the neutral-toned abstract set ), lighting design ( Matt Kooi ) and original music/sound ( Barry Bennett ) are major elements in the collage. Still, as is the case with the dialogue, these elements provide few expository markers ( time or place ) as the play shifts ( the program says ) among Vegas, D.C., Afghanistan, dreams, memories and the afterlife.
Eventually, storylines become clear, if not the locales. The puzzle-like story is this: An errant drone strike in Afghanistan kills 14 U.S. soldiers, among them the son ( George Booker ) of the military scientist ( Joe Dempsey ) who created the drone control programs, based on computer gaming strategies. A low-level drone "pilot" ( Nelson Rodriguez ) is accused of being responsible. He's later cleared, but not before committing guilt-stricken suicide. The scientist-father also contemplates suicide, realizing the fault is his. The son appears to both his estranged parents and urges his father to reconcile with mom ( Katherine Keberlein ). The drone operator appears to his wife ( Karen Rodriguez ). Son and operator befriend each other in the Afterlife. Mom and wife do yoga together.
The scientist's colleague ( Robert Koon ) urges him to honor his son's memory by building a better drone, but the remorseful father says drones are "warfare from a distance, the erasure of responsibility. That's the thought I can't unthink." He recalls that in WWII we dropped a second atomic bomb on Japan before we knew the effect of the first one. The play becomes a study in war guiltcall it emotional collateral damageboth real ( father/scientist ) and assumed ( the drone operator ), with devastating results.