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by Hannah Moscovitch, directed by Richard Rose

Tarragon Theatre, Tarragon Theatre Extra Space, Toronto

January 3-February 3, 2013

“War is Other People”

Hannah Moscovitch, whom the Tarragon Theatre calls “one of the most prolific playwrights of her generation” and “one of the strongest voices in the country”, has won critical and popular acclaim with such plays as East of Berlin (2007) and The Children’s Republic (2011).  The Tarragon, in fact, will hold a three-play Moscovitch festival in from February 14 to March 24.  Her latest play This is War proves that she is expert at writing natural dialogue and crafting powerful scenes, but despite superb acting from the entire cast, the effect is of lots of dramatic flash but little content.

The initial set-up for the play seems to be that an unseen investigative journalist is in the process of interviewing three Canadian soldiers at a camp in Panjwaii, Afghanistan.  What precisely the journalist is investigating is unclear since they focus on a joint Canadian Forces/Afghan National Army operation during which something went seriously wrong.  The journalist interrogates three soldiers in particular about what happened in camp the night before the operation and only get around to the operation itself at the very end.  Since this is not a trial or tribunal, the soldiers are under no obligation to answer the journalist’s questions and given the questions’ increasingly personal nature it really makes no sense that the soldiers comply.  But then Moscovitch’s structure only works if they do. 

Responses from the soldiers lead into flashbacks to the events they describe.  It becomes evident that what we see in a given flashback is the soldier’s memory of the event, not necessarily what the soldier is telling the journalist.  We might expect as in Kurosawa’s film Rashomon (1950), that the three stories might differ because of the point of view of each narrator.  But Moscovitch’s play is not as sophisticated as that.  It turns out that the memories of the three do not contradict each other are merely pieces of a puzzle that actually fit together by the end of the play.  The journalist’s main struggle is to get the three to admit to all that they know. 

The three interviewees are Captain Stephen Hughes (Ari Cohen), Master Corporal Tanya Young (Lisa Berry) and Private Jonny Henderson (Ian Lake).  A fourth character is the medic Sergeant Chris Anders (Sergio Di Zio), who is interviewed toward the end in a desultory fashion.  What we notice immediately when the first three line up before us is that the youngest, Henderson, uses a walker to enter and seems to be in pain.  The most bizarre aspect of the play is that all the intense questioning of the journalist seems to be about how Henderson came to be injured – not about the joint operation or about the unorthodox way that 127 Taliban were killed in the course of the maneuver. 

Despite purporting to be “about” the war in Afghanistan, This is War is essentially a melodrama about a love-triangle involving the three main characters placed in military dress in an exotic setting.  When it comes down to determining who is responsible for Henderson’s ghastly injuries, the answer is that all four of them are, or at least believe they are.  Moscovitch’s prime revelation is that soldiers during combat makes decisions that are not always based on military protocols but can be influenced by recent personal events – i.e. they are not perfect.

The realization that this is all Moscovitch has to say after interviewing various soldiers and war correspondents is extremely disappointing.  What makes the play watchable are the extraordinarily intense performances from the entire cast.  Cohen’s Captain is full of macho bravado that he uses to conceal a deeply emotional side he seems to feel would undermine his authority.  Berry’s Master Corporal comes off as a tough play-by-the-book young woman who has to work harder to fit in because she is a woman in a predominantly male camp.  Yet, she, like the Captain is not above using sex as a means of alleviating the unbearable tension of working in a combat zone when death can arrive at any moment.  Moscovitch makes the motivation for the master Corporal’s fling with the Captain believable, but not, unfortunately, her fling with the Private – both, of course, against army protocol. 

It is good to see Ian Lake, who has been playing the classics at Stratford for the past five years, finally tackle a contemporary role.  His moving performance as the naive Private is funny at first but ultimately heartrending as the young man tries to muster the stoicism to cope with his life-changing injuries.  Sergio Di Zio is reliably excellent as the medic who also seems to function as the camp’s psychotherapist and life counsellor.  Since this play is about the Canadian, not the American forces in 2008, it was good to see that Moscovitch decided not only to make the avowedly Christian medic incidentally gay but have him and others casually refer to his partner.  Sadly, Moscovitch undermines this good by staging a bizarre scene between the Captain and the medic where they both seem on the verge of a sexual encounter.  So what then – does Moscovitch want to say that the stress of war strains people’s sexuality as well as their loyalty to their partners?  It’s no surprise the scene also strains credulity.

The production directed by Richard Rose aims at immersing us in the war environment.  Camellia Koo’s set consisting of desert camouflage netting completely envelops the Tarragon Extra Space auditorium.  Rebecca Picherack manages numerous effective lighting cues despite having so many instruments partially covered.  Thomas Ryder Payne supplies a highly effective surround-sound atmosphere of gunfire, Muslim calls to prayer and muffled cries.

This is War provides a showcase for four superb performances by actors playing people asked to act rationally and precisely in extreme situations.  Moscovitch could have underscored the irony that we demand and expect more of soldiers abroad than we do of people back home.  Unfortunately, although Moscovitch says she wanted to write a play about Canada’s involvement in Afghanistan, all she has given us is a tale about Canadians’ involvement with each other.  

              

©Christopher Hoile

Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.

Photo: Ari Cohen, Lisa Berry and Ian Lake. ©2012 Cylla von Tiedemann.

For tickets, visit http://tarragontheatre.com.