Playwright: Hannah Moscovitch. At: Signal Ensemble, 1802 W. Berenice Ave. Tickets: 773-698-7389; www.signalensemble.com; $20. Runs through: Sept. 28
This is War is propelled by four strong actors, typical of the quality one finds throughout Chicago's off-Loop theater scene. Written as a jigsaw puzzle, the play asks the actors emotionally to turn on a dime and make sense of characters and situations when the audience cannot. It's tough work, perhaps unfair work, since only at the end of this 90-minute play can the audience perceive character arcs and a storyline. As Canadian combat soldiers in Afghanistan and the non-combatant medic who physically and psychologically patches them up, actors Billy Fenderson (Sgt. Hughes), Michael Finley (Pvt. Henderson), Courtney Jones (Corp. Tanya Young) and Dylan Stuckey (Sgt. Anders, the medic) imbue their somewhat-familiar characters with life, struggle (lots of struggle) and edginess as directed by Ronan Marra.
The characters are familiar because each borders on stereotypical: the veteran sarge and corporal who've served together previously, the newbie private and the caring medic who's always there just a bit too conveniently. The soldiers are Canadian as is the playwright, but it makes no difference. Perhaps plays about the stress and damage of Afghanistan/Iraq combat are rarer Up North than in the United States, where we've seen numerous similar plays.
At the opening, and intermittently thereafter, the three fighters seem to be answering questions for reporters or non-military inquisitors. In fragments, they discuss personal and combat incidents which seem to be connected. Bit-by-bit the audience sees the incidents played out Rashoman-like from the varying perspectives of the three. Briefly, Sgt. Hughes and Corp. Young (who is female) play poker and have casual sex. But Pvt. Henderson also has a relationship with the Corporal and declares he loves her before going into a funk. The payoff comes during the next combat patrol, when one of them (I won't be a spoiler) is severely wounded.
Other than war is hellish and rotten, it's difficult to determine what author Hannah Moscovitch wishes to say in this non-political play. Casual fraternization between non-commissioned ranks in the same unit is not condoned in the military, and the veterans involved surely would know better. Moscovitch not only makes the play's lone woman blame-worthy but also gives her hair-trigger emotions which render her incapable of dealing with the situations in which she finds herself. Yet it's not quite that simple. We're given very little backstory so we don't know how she got there. Also, Moscovitch throws in a gay tease between sarge and medic, but there's no payoff unless the point (I speculate) is that the medic is susceptible and the sarge irresistible and thereby hangs the play's emotional balance-of-power.
The U.S. premiere of This is War earns credit for pithy style and excellent performances but left me seeking clarity.