BEYOND GLORY a solo drama-documentary written and performed by Stephen Lang
At the conclusion of his solo drama-documentary, actor/author Stephen Lang sits down on his old fashioned trunk that contains his costumes, looks straight into the audience and says simply, "Goodbye, Good Night." If he had been that simple and real in all eight portraits of soldiers he’d just performed, he should be given a double A plus. As it is in this slick production, he deserves a single A. Worthy to be seen, though the characterizations could be sharper and deeper, Beyond Glory is presented by the Roundabout Theatre Company at the Laura Pels Theatre, New York City.
Certainly we hear the stories of how eight men earned the Medal of Honor, the highest accolade our country can bestow on heroes in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, but we do not really get to the underpinnings of these men, do not "live" their dramas with them – we hear their feelings in the telling, but do not emotionally feel them ourselves. It seems a problem with both the set up of the script and with the extrovert characterizations.
The stories are edited from the book, Beyond Glory, by Larry Smith. The onstage set-up is Lang playing eight significant surviving recipients of the Medal of Honor who, one after another – years after the occurrence -- recall their story. Each speaks directly to the audience, as though we are friends who have asked them to talk about their experiences. Thus, of course, as every storyteller so often does when relaying something momentous to others, he/she offers a surface mixture but tends to remain silent on the real depth of feeling.
Among the stories covered are the only man who shot back at the enemy during the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941, a Rear Admiral prisoner of war in Hanoi who was cruelly tortured and spent four years in solitary, an Arkansas cotton-picker who found war a game at which he could win, a marine who from his foxhole in Korea batted away grenades like baseballs, a black segregated into a black unit that was told upon entering the army, "Now it’s time for all you black boys to get killed," who survived to become the first black to receive the Medal of Honor, and a wounded Japanese American who received 17 transfusions of blood from black donors and concluded "We all bleed the same blood," and that being an American is a matter of mind and heart.
Stephen Lang diligently and admirably takes on gestures, accents, and expressions of each war hero, but through all he remains Stephen Lang – and Stephen Lang is totally likeable and excellent in all he does – but we could wish there were more keenly crafted differentiation between personalities and suspect that if he could have dug into the hearts of these men we would have had our hearts broken. Still, transitions between characters are smoothly accomplished by the blend of words and costume so that we are easily transported into each personage without weighty introduction or name or place setting.
The direction by Robert Falls is overall good but one can argue for more simplicity, more poignant pauses and reflection, rather than rushing along and attempting to make dramatic points like the jump on top of a trunk. The set with its backdrop of flashing slides of war in its various colors and the stage with its special circular raised raked floor are visually interesting, yet we wonder if this piece might have been better served with a "black box" stage without the distractions of bursting pictures, such as multiple boots stolen by the Japanese off dead American soldiers, or the kind of war pictures we now see everyday on TV.
Certainly we hear the stories of how eight men earned the Medal of Honor, the highest accolade our country can bestow on heroes in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, but we do not really get to the underpinnings of these men, do not "live" their dramas with them – we hear their feelings in the telling, but do not emotionally feel them ourselves. It seems a problem with both the set up of the script and with the extrovert characterizations.
The stories are edited from the book, Beyond Glory, by Larry Smith. The onstage set-up is Lang playing eight significant surviving recipients of the Medal of Honor who, one after another – years after the occurrence -- recall their story. Each speaks directly to the audience, as though we are friends who have asked them to talk about their experiences. Thus, of course, as every storyteller so often does when relaying something momentous to others, he/she offers a surface mixture but tends to remain silent on the real depth of feeling.
Among the stories covered are the only man who shot back at the enemy during the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941, a Rear Admiral prisoner of war in Hanoi who was cruelly tortured and spent four years in solitary, an Arkansas cotton-picker who found war a game at which he could win, a marine who from his foxhole in Korea batted away grenades like baseballs, a black segregated into a black unit that was told upon entering the army, "Now it’s time for all you black boys to get killed," who survived to become the first black to receive the Medal of Honor, and a wounded Japanese American who received 17 transfusions of blood from black donors and concluded "We all bleed the same blood," and that being an American is a matter of mind and heart.
Stephen Lang diligently and admirably takes on gestures, accents, and expressions of each war hero, but through all he remains Stephen Lang – and Stephen Lang is totally likeable and excellent in all he does – but we could wish there were more keenly crafted differentiation between personalities and suspect that if he could have dug into the hearts of these men we would have had our hearts broken. Still, transitions between characters are smoothly accomplished by the blend of words and costume so that we are easily transported into each personage without weighty introduction or name or place setting.
The direction by Robert Falls is overall good but one can argue for more simplicity, more poignant pauses and reflection, rather than rushing along and attempting to make dramatic points like the jump on top of a trunk. The set with its backdrop of flashing slides of war in its various colors and the stage with its special circular raised raked floor are visually interesting, yet we wonder if this piece might have been better served with a "black box" stage without the distractions of bursting pictures, such as multiple boots stolen by the Japanese off dead American soldiers, or the kind of war pictures we now see everyday on TV.
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