Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Tammy Ryan's "Soldier's Heart," in its world premiere in the small theater at the Playhouse, is certainly about war, but not as we might expect. It takes us on a searing journey that is really an all-enveloping battle from which you can barely come up for air.
The play starts, however, with some small surprises. For one, the soldier of the title, a Marine, is a woman, Casey Johnson. For another, she's white but the father of her child and the child himself are black. This is only a small issue in the play, but it's another upset of expectation.
4 comments:
This play should come with a trigger warning, as it certainly needs one for the content. I'd like to think that this will make every audience member ask questions about themselves, authority, society, and human nature in general. Theatrical pieces on subjects like these aren't unique, but they are thought-provoking and certainly should be evoking a personal reaction.
The review includes the quote "she's white but the father of her child and the child himself are black. This is only a small issue in the play, but it's another upset of expectation." This is an upset of expectation? I suppose it could be a "surprise", but I fail to see how it is inherently relevant to the fact that the play is about war. The way I read it, the author is somewhat downplaying the realities and therefore expectations of war in order to demonstrate how dramatic this play is. The review just isn't my favorite writing style. The play itself I'd be interested in seeing, but I'll be a bit hesitant reading further reviews from this author.
It is apparent that this play is one that will leave lasting impressions on it's audience members. The characters are complex and real and are suffering through tough issues people really do face. However, I wonder if the author of this article described the production as a whole in the best way. It has been my experience that sometimes, plays with deeper content don't reach the audience how the director, designers, and actors want it to due to the reaction of the audience. This play seems fantastic, but I wonder how it is taken by audiences.
This reminds me of a production I saw in Brooklyn about soldiers from Scotland. Theatrical pieces about war and the military always strike me weirdly. I really believe that it is difficult to produce these shows tastefully, but I don't know if I can pinpoint why. This topic is not an easy one to relate to, especially if you do not know anyone in the military. I have never seen a show where a female soldier was the lead, this may be a way of relating to audiences better.
I was very excited to go and see this show. I ran into Tammy Ryan at a theatre event late last year, and she briefly shared with me about this project she was working on. I was immediately intrigued by the concept because it was something that I knew little about. I read this review before going, and became even more eager to form my own opinion. The friend I went with asked for my thoughts after the show, and my thoughts remain the same; “I really want to see this show two or three productions from now.” There are definitely powerful moments in the show, however there are an equal amount of indulgent moments and repetition where I found myself thinking “okay, I get it.” Similarly, there is an element of theatricality that many theatre practitioners love, a sense of pull-no-punches that can really enhance a story if used cautiously. When it came to this show, I felt really punched around, and moments of shock really didn’t serve much greater purpose than to jar the audience. The director and playwright should have spent a little more time picking specific moments to highlight, and others to downplay. When an edgy college thespian says it’s “too intense” you might want to think about scaling back a bit. That being said, amidst the problems, there were quite a few gems in the show. The show itself just needs a little refining.
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