BWW Reviews: ITHAKA Journies Into Mind and Heart of a Returning Soldier

When soldiers go to war, they are placed in unbearable, life-threatening situations, and awful things happen. Then, if they survive, they have to find their way back to the places they lived before, where society expects them to pick up where they left off. But soldiers are changed by the events of war, and coming back home isn't all that easy.

It's one of the world's oldest stories. Literally: Homer's The Odyssey. But it will be told and retold as long as there are wars, and Andrea Stolowitz's new play Ithaka, now playing at Artists Repertory Theatre, is a phenomenal example of why this story never goes away. Ithaka is the story of Marine Captain Elaine Edwards, newly returned from the Middle East, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and unable to relate to the people she knew before she went overseas.

Ithaka nods to The Odyssey here and there (though I have to admit I haven't cracked Homer's epic since college, so perhaps some of the references went over my head), but you don't have to have a working knowledge of one to follow the other. Elaine is angry, haunted, and unable to accept the loving attention of her husband. She pushes her friends away with graphic tales of war, sneering at their mundane lives. "Shopping and smiling" is all civilians ever seem to do, and she can't understand why.

Eventually one of her platoon mates shows up at her door, and the two hit the road. The journey takes many unexpected turns, so I won't spoil the play for you. Stolowitz's writing is hilarious and harrowing, often both at the same time, and while the play is quite brief (less than ninety minutes), I felt like I'd been through an intense journey of my own. There's ample humor here, much of it dark and crude, but it's there to serve the story. At one point Elaine picks up a microphone and tells jokes about death, and it's so perfectly in character that you have to laugh, even as you cringe.

Dana Millican is exceptional as Elaine. She's onstage almost throughout the play, and her character goes through every emotion from glee to terror, but Millican never calls attention to her performance. She's just there, in character from the first moment we see her, tensely searching for a missing cat. he has the physical presence and vocal authority to make you believe she could lead a platoon into combat, but she doesn't overplay it. Elaine has the vocabulary of a soldier, and she's constantly using four-letter words to put people off, yet she's still feminine and vulnerable underneath the bravado. It's a wrenching performance, physically and emotionally, but what impressed me most was Millican's restraint.

The rest of the cast is just as impressive. Danielle Purdy is buoyantly funny as Elaine's fellow veteran, a pretty girl with a lovely singing voice who could have stayed home or tried out for American Idol, but chose to join the Marines. She too has been changed by her experiences at war, and Purdy gives us both the hardened veteran and the sweet girl side by side. She turns up as another characxter later in the play, an unexpected guest who provides humor and insight into Elaine's feelings about what she's seen and done.

Victor Mack doubles as Odysseus, introducing the story, and a hospital orderly who's seen more than his share of wounded, arrogant veterans, and his calm presence contrasts with Elaine's rowdiest outbursts. Paul Angelo is all warm fuzzies and wounded pride as Elaine's husband, who's struggling with his own anger and frustration, and Valerie Stevens has a brief but beautiful moment as a soldier's mtoher.

Gemma Whelan's direction is unobtrusive, and I mean that as a high compliment; a lesser director might have felt the need to trick up the play with visual effects and showier performances, but Whelan has kept everything simple and let the playwright's words speak for themselves. The designers, particularly scenic designer Tal Sanders and composer/sound designer Rodolfo Ortega, have also kept their designs simple, realistic, and spare, which gives the actors room to create these believable, vital characters.

The play was commissioned by Stephanie Fowler and Irving Levin, who donated funds to support the playwright while she researched, wrote, and workshopped the play. I thank them for their gift to the theatre, and I thank Andrea Stolowitz and the cast, crew, and staff of Ithaka for doing so much with it.

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