Playwright: David H. Bell & Craig Carnelia, adapted from the oral
history by Studs Terkel
At: Northlight Theatre at the North Shore Center for the Performing, Skokie
Phone: (847) 673-6300; $32-$48
Runs through: June 20
BY MARY SHEN BARNIDGE
'Uncle Sam ain't no woman/but he sure can take your man.' Even before we hear these words, we know this is not going to be a flag-waving, feel-good, hooray-for-us pageant. Oh, an American soldier sings 'Dear Mother' as he writes home, but his wistful ditty is juxtaposed with a German soldier singing 'Gute Nacht Mutter' as HE writes home. In another scene, fighter pilots confess to never viewing their targets up close, a mother croons a lullaby to her baby over the noise of exploding shells, and children—British, German and Japanese—recall homes destroyed by falling bombs. Even the show's title assumes a Brechtian irony when the cheerful 'Straighten Up And Fly Right' introduces baseball-playing Yanks in the Philippines who suddenly find themselves a part of the legendary Bataan 'Death March'.
What else could David H. Bell and Craig Carnelia have done, however? The hardest-working units in any war are not the combat troops, but the propaganda machines. Terkel's testimonials reveal a more complex view of America under stress, and to ignore this is to surrender to martial fantasy.
So while we are shown joyful reunions of returning Joes and their patiently waiting sweethearts, another damsel talks of over-hasty marriages precipitated by romantic Hollywood-generated images. Backed by the jazz rhythms of 'G.I. Jive', an eager enlistee recounts his struggle with a military bureaucracy suspicious of his experience with anti-Franco forces in Spain. And a veteran reminds us of the day that the Russian and American allies met in fraternal harmony on the banks of the river Elbe.
A mere eight players (with guitarist Johnse Holt taking the stage to bear witness to racism in the ranks) might seem inadequate to reconnoiter an entire war in under two intermissionless hours—but victory rewards the team, not the individual. And the team assembled by David H. Bell—acting, singing and technical alike—execute their docudramatic duties with an ease and gravity lending their many-faceted montage a panoramic scope far exceeding its physical boundaries.
