BPF: Troubling "Blessed Mothers of War"

◊◊ 1/2 out of five. 

There really is so much to commend about Ty DeMartino's play, The Blessed Mothers of War, which opened last weekend as part of the 26^th Annual Baltimore Playwrights Festival at LeClerc Hall on the campus of the College of Notre Dame.  That it even is being performed is commendable, given the play's genesis.  It was rejected previously by the selection committee of the BPF, and the newly formed Theatrical Mining Company took it up, work shopped it, re-writes were done, and the new play produced as part of this year's festival.  What an interesting, heady turn of events for the BPF and for the Baltimore theatre community.  Also, the play has a "ripped from the headlines" sensibility - the topic is the current war with Iraq - and is thus timely.  And best of all it boasts two of the best performances at the community theatre level in years.  So, why such a relatively low grade from this critic?  Well, there are several reasons, including some decidedly bad acting, and some unfortunate directorial choices, made mostly because of the still clunky, overwrought, heavy-handed and predictable script.  One shudders to think how bad it was before months of reshaping.

 Barry Feinstein, a generally terrific director, is perhaps a little too close to this play (he is a part of the producing team, Theatrical Mining Company) to recognize the limitations it put on him.  For example, it is pretty clear the author intends this to be a modern day Greek tragedy (Liz Palmieri's rock-like set, complete with altar-like staging area visually helps create this sense) with his use of a Chorus.  Perhaps, if they weren't interjecting cliched words of wisdom like they were reciting fortune cookie fortunes, often overlapping the main actors, themselves trying to work through equally didactic, overwrought dialogue, the Chorus approach might be more effective.  Also working against this convention is that by the end of the play most of the chorus members are given names, and are thus concrete characters rather than everyman types.  The result is a heavy-handed (and annoying) cross between Our Town and Medea. 

The biggest problem, script-wise, is that aside from one major sub-theme, this play covers no new ground.  It tries to have it all; it is pro-soldier, anti-soldier, pro-war, and anti-war.  It covers that dark day in recent American history when those hideous torture pictures from Abu Ghraib were revealed to the world, though it never names it (I suppose in an attempt to keep things universal).  We get the mother's angst at her only son off at war, the hero's welcome, the pining girlfriend, and, of course, the opinionated neighbors from Small Town, U.S.A., who love their soldiers when they are off fighting for freedom, but turn on them fast when they tell the truth.  We have the religious zealotry of the townsfolk, the disgruntled Vietnam Veteran, the loud mouthed reporter from CNN, talking in REPORT TITLES (you know: CRISIS IN IRAQ, etc.), the subversive side of the press, low-keying their way to the "big story."  The only thing missing is the burning of George W. Bush in effigy.  The result is odd - there are so many stock characters saying stock lines that they become a blur and you don't really care much for any of them.  One interesting, if largely untapped, facet is the intertwining of an Iraqi mother, equally in anguish over her son's part in the war.  And as soon as his fate is known, you don't see her again.  

Somewhat more successful, though still given short shrift, is the relationship between the three young soldiers Brian (Peter Kendall), Mark (Charles Brice) and Sally (Jenn Mikulski), revealing their fears, strengths and beliefs.  Brice and Mikulski do well with their tough as nails veneers, always carefully tempered with very real fear.  I wish there were more of this interesting dynamic explored.

The only facet of the play that is unexpected, fully developed and interesting is the inclusion of the Born-Again Christian movement, represented by the young soldier's girlfriend, who desperately (and with somewhat wide-eyed naivete) clings to her "What Would  Jesus Do?" faith, even going so far as to say her prayers were answered because her boyfriend was shot and sent home.  After begging him to join the church, he reluctantly goes to a revival, is saved, and is really unburdened by his new relationship with God.  He opens up to the press (The Truth Shall Set You Free, after all), cleansing his soul, but opening a firestorm of publicity and death threats.  Then, irony of ironies, because he actually followed the edicts of his new religion, the very people who brought it to him, turn their backs on him.  The result is a chilling confrontation between soldier and girlfriend.  And still, one senses that this was a happy accident rather than a plotted out aspect of the work.

  The actor that plays the Vietnam Vet member of the Chorus is 100% convincing.  I wouldn't be at all surprised if he were an actual veteran of that war.  Even when he is stuck with banAl Pearls of wisdom, he speaks them with such aching venom that one can't help but be moved.  Selina Emily Showard, as the voice of the Iraqi mother, and Rita Walters as that mother have great passion and are quite powerful in a tense scene outside the prison.  The rest of the chorus features actors who at one end of the spectrum have lousy timing, seem unsure of their lines and look around as if to say they aren't sure of where they are supposed to go next; at the other end of the spectrum there are the over actors, some directed that way (the poor woman who is a CNN interviewer, for example), others who think that volume equals power. 

As the Born-Again Christian girlfriend, Carolyn, Ashley Fain gives a pretty much one-note performance, never really finding any nuance in that maddening naivete so associated with the Heaven-bound.  But there is a turning point to her performance, which reveals Miss Fain to be a good young actress.  It is when she unleashes her true feelings on her overwhelmed boyfriend that one realizes that just like everyone else, Miss Holier Than Thou can hate, be ignorant, selfish, and very un-Jesus like, turning her back on her man when he needs her the most - and all because he was honest.  The cruel twist of fate that honesty is not the best policy makes this play worthwhile in the end. 

But what really makes this play worth going to are the riveting performances by Peggy Dorsey as Brian's mother, Rosie, and Peter Kendall as Brian.  She is a seething mass of calm under duress, anger tempered by keeping the peace, and finally a mother bear protecting her cub.  Her performance is so multi-layered and complex, it is hard not to watch her exclusively.  You can feel and understand every single emotion she goes through, regardless of how contradictory they seem.  And, even when she gets stuck with some laughable cliches to say, she is so honest that you understand why they became cliches in the first place.  Mr. Kendall gives, to date, the single best performance by a local community theatre performer of the year.  He is marvelous in every way, complete with baby-face and large innocent eyes.  His descent into the madness brought about by the atrocities of war, and his sad struggle to regain his footing in a world he (and everyone else) no longer understands is a virtual study in acting subtlety and tone.  If you leave the theatre unmoved by his performance, you must be cold to the bone.  (It should be noted that this fine young actor is a senior theatre major at McDaniel College.  I suspect we will be hearing about him in the not too distant future.) 

The Blessed Mothers of War is certainly a worthwhile attempt at "saving" a play.  Now that it has been given a full production, where some its remaining flaws are on display, perhaps after a look by fresher eyes and some more judicious pruning and rearranging of the script can happen.  The potential is there, to be sure. 

PHOTOS: TOP to BOTTOM: Rita Walters and Peggy Dorsey; Selina Showard and Rita Walters; and Peggy Dorsey and Peter Kendall in The Blessed Mothers of War.  Pictures by Sonja Kinzer, courtesy of Theatrical Mining Company.

 

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