Playwright: Mary Scruggs
At: Live Bait Theater, 3914 N. Clark
Phone: 773-871-1212; $10-$15
Runs through: Aug. 24
BY SCOTT C. MORGAN
Quick! Someone call Ira Glass of Chicago Public Radio's This America Life. The perfect subject for that radio program ( or possibly the Showtime cable TV version ) is now playing at Live Bait Theater. It's Mary Scruggs' Missing Man.
Better yet, go yourself immediately to hear this emotional and very funny show in person. It's part of Live Bait's 12th Annual Fillet of Solo Festival, so don't expect much more than just Scruggs on stage by herself. Yet the imagery and tales she spins paint a rich picture of Americans nursing the wounds of war and personal loss.
Missing Man is a classic fish-out-of-water scenario. Scruggs, a suburban mom who works at Second City as head of its comedy writing program, tells how she ended up on a cross-country motorcycle trip with approximately 300 Vietnam veterans in 2001 before Memorial Day. Their destination: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial ( 'The Wall' ) in Washington, D.C.
Scruggs' title, Missing Man, is derived from the formation that leads the motorcycle pack of 'Run For the Wall.' Just like fighter pilots who leave an empty space in formation to honor fallen comrades, the bikers leave a special empty space to honor fallen soldiers or those missing in action.
Though Scruggs didn't lose anyone personally in the Vietnam War, she's able to use the Missing Man title to apply much more personally to her relationships with men in her life. It ranges from her own alcoholic Korean War veteran father to the writing colleague who roped her into documenting of this memorial run filled with testosterone, leather and exhaust fumes.
Hearing Scruggs explain her take on biker culture and the very distinct bikers she rides with ( who go by road names like Iron Mike, Deacon and Dragon Rider ) is hilarious. Scruggs can also spur multiple tears as she talks about seeing hulking men break down crying as they visit memorials across the country. ( Scruggs account of visiting the late Dr. Victor Westphall and his own Vietnam Memorial in Angel Fire, N.M., is particularly devastating. )
If there is any fault with Scruggs' Missing Man and Edward Thomas-Herrera's direction, it could be the lack of some really good jokes or stories that gives permission for the audience to laugh. The preview audience I attended with was a little hesitant to let loose at Scruggs' very funny material mixed amid the touching stories.
Now that the United States is once again embroiled in an unpopular and seemingly endless war, the tales of lost life in Missing Man carry much more resonance and poignancy. You can't ask for a more moving ending that Scruggs provides at the end of Missing Man as she contemplates her own son's life while staring at the black wall symbolizing the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial.