Playwright: Karen Tarjan from Michael Shaara's novel. At: Lilfeline Theatre, 6912 N. Glenwood Ave. Tickets: 1-773-761-4477; www.lifelinetheatre.com; $40. Runs through: Oct. 27
Last July was the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, a horrendous three-day slaughter that turned the tide of the Civil War. To mark the occasion, Lifeline offers a new production of The Killer Angels, first presented in 2004, adapted from the battle-inspired novel by Michael Shaara. The novel draws most of its important names and events from history, but Shaara (and stage adapter Karen Tarjan) amplifies well-known facts and personalities by writing between the lines of history to reveal emotions, motivations, egos and insecurities.
Ken Burns achieved the same effect in his multi-part film The Civil War by telling use of period music and sympathetic voices speaking words from the letters and diaries of officers and common soldiers alike. Burns made the terrors and maneuverings of war almost poetic, and if this production has a fault it's that it duplicates Burns' tone. I was aware of this as Channel 11 recently rebroadcast The Civil War and I happened to see the Gettysburg episode.
But the stage adaptation does something more: threaded through the narrative are conversations and private ruminations that frame the varied and often ambiguous arguments over which the war was waged in the first place. Was institutionalized racism the primary issue? Or equality and justice? Or was it the rights and powers of the states vs. those of the Federal government? Or was the brawl about whether or not the USA should have a natural aristocracy of wealth and genealogy? All of these points are raised in the production without attempting an answer.
The 10 actors to a man render heartfelt and understated performances under director Matt Miller. Most play multiple characters on both sides of the battle lines, deftly switching from blue coats to grey coast as required. When death overtakes a soldier, he sheds his coat and drops it on the floor. Pickett's Charge, the famous third-day disaster, ends with a jumble of coats center stage. Veteran Don Bender and newcomer Michael McKeogh set the acting standard. As Robert E. Lee, Bender conveys great depth and integrity with minimal showiness.
As Col. Chamberlain, the unexpected hero who held Little Round Top for the Union. Michael McKeogh conveys slightly-bemused empathy and grace under fire. But the hero of the play, or at least clearly its moral center, is Confederate Gen. Longstreet, who must send his men on a suicide mission due to the ineptitude of others. Tom Hickey plays Longstreet with passionate dignity and just a touch of swagger. As in the Burns film, music seasons The Killer Angels to great effect, with Matt Fletcher singing songs of North and South which help make palpable the astonishing folly and heartfelt, if often-misplaced, idealism of war.