SEARCH
REVIEWS
FEATURES
NEWS
Etcetera and
Short Term Listings
LISTINGS
Broadway
Off-Broadway
NYC Restaurants
BOOKS and CDs
OTHER PLACES
Berkshires
London
California
DC
Philadelphia
Elsewhere
QUOTES
On TKTS
PLAYWRIGHTS' ALBUMS
LETTERS TO EDITOR
FILM
LINKS
MISCELLANEOUS
Free Updates
Masthead
A CurtainUp Review
Savages
An Account From the Philippines-American War (1899-1914) Based on the True Story of Major Littleton Waller
|
This place makes you appreciate the Spaniards-- they were so damned cooperative. Wore their uniforms, lined up for battle-- agreed to kill and be killed like gentlemen. Well, a soldier can't choose his enemies. Just his wife. --- General Adna Chaffee |
Julie Danao-Salkin & James Matthew Ryan
(Photo:Carol Rosegg)
|
Unlike, The Guys which was written in just nine days and began when Ms. Nelson helped a fireman struggling with the daunting prospect of composing eulogies for eight of the men lost in the flames of the 9/11 twin tower collapse, Savages went through a longer and less spontaneous birth process. The court martial of Major Littleton Waller in the midst of the Philippine-American conflict, like so many wars, lasted much longer than anticipated. With its disturbing parallels to our entanglements in Vietnam and Iraq, it is shocking that most Americans know this war as a mere historic footnote, if at all. That conflict generally and Major Waller's trial for a mass murder that took place under his watch have all the elements for an informative two-hour or even a two-part PBS documentary.
Ms. Nelson, who became aware of the Waller case while working in the Philippines in 1986, has certainly brought the same sort of scholarship to her project as someone like documentary maker Ken Burns would. However, in opting to turn this story into a play she had to tell her story through a small enough cast to make production feasible for Off-Broadway and regional productions. She's obviously become more savvy about playwriting since The Guys and so she's included (probably wisely so) two real people in her cast and given herself leeway to embellish the text based on actual documents via two fictional characters.
The historic characters are Major Waller (James Matthew Ryan) and the US Army chief of staff General Adna Chaffee (Jim Howard). The fictional secondary players are Corporal John Hanley (Brett Holland), a young US Army corporal from what was still the territory of Oklahoma and Maridol Amaya (Julie Danao-Salkin), a young Filipina nurse called in to make the ailing Waller comfortable enough to testify on his own behalf at the next morning's court martial session.
There's plenty of potential for fiery dialogue and revelation in this set-up of the sick in body and spirit Major being accommodated with a comfortable room before facing his accusers. That potential is boosted by the presence of the ignorant young soldier who has much to learn and the young woman who has had more than her share of an occupied people's sufferings.
Unfortunately, telescoping this conflict into a single night and day after time frame and through four characters instead of employing the range of voices and opinions that typify a documentary, does not do justice to the story. The characters never become people but remain the playwright's puppets, each representing a point of view. The performances don't mitigate this.
Howard's Chaffee is a standard issue blustery Army man wearing his Ugly American attitude towards the people he considers "savages." Ryan's Waller is more human and sympathetic but he slips out of his aches, pains and fevers the way some actors slip in and out of Irish or other foreign accents. Holland plays the Oklahoman corporal a bit too naive, almost as if he were in Oklahoma, the musical. The playwright has made Maridol Amaya rather unconvincingly outspoken and Ms. Danao-Salkin plays her with a few too many knowing looks. A scene when one of her religious statues is broken is inevitable and a game of chess with all manner of meaningful comments on military strategy are devices too familiar to add much excitement to the play's long night and morning after trajectory.
The production's designers have done a competent job of setting the Manila 1902 scene. Chris Jorie's direction tends to slow rather than pump up the action despite all the troubling issues and enlightening information Ms. Nelson has packed into just ninety minutes. There's no question that you'll leave Savages knowing a lot more about our relations with the Philippines, but absorbing all that information at times feels as drawn out as that conflict -- as well as our more recent entanglements that it so depressingly resembles.
Editorial Postscript: As a CurtainUp reader, Dan Perlmutter, pointed out the term Ugly American which I used in reference to General Chaffee's attitude towards the Philippine natives should be interpreted by the generic use of the term to refer to arrogant attitutudes and behavior of Americans abroad. In the context of its origins as the title of William Lederer and Eugene Burdick's 1958 best seller, it was actually a positive term. -- e.s.
LINKS
The Guys
| SAVAGES Playwright: Anne Nelson Directed by Chris Jorie' CastJim Howard (Gen. Adna Chaffee), Brett Holland (Cpl. John Hanley), Julie Danao-Salkin (Maridol Amaya) and James Matthew Ryan (Maj. Littleton Waller). Set Design: Lauren Helpern Costume Design: Rebecca Bernstein Lighting Design: Betsy Adams Sound Design: Jill BC DuBoff Running time: 90 Minutes without an intermission Back House Productions at the Lion Theater, 410 West 42nd Street, (212) 279-4200. From 3/08/06 to 4/01/06; opening 3/09/06. Tickets: $18 Reviewed by Elyse Sommer based on March 10th performance |
The Internet Theatre Bookshop "Virtually Every Play in the World" --even out of print plays
The new Anneual to dress up every Broadway lover's coffee table
Easy-on-the budget super gift for yourself and your musical loving friends. Tons of gorgeous pictures.
6, 500 Comparative Phrases including 800 Shakespearean Metaphors by our editor.
Click image to buy.
Go here for details and larger image.
