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ReEntry
An unflinching look at the lives of Marines getting ready for and returning from combat, ReEntry is a docudrama exploration of the relationship between Marines and the civilians they fight for overseas and must contend with when they return home. Honest, moving, and surprisingly funny, this play is based entirely on interviews with Marines and their families.
39 pages, Paperback
Published December 13, 2010
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January 4, 2023
Docu-dramas are interesting! They are not bad, they are just really interesting!
ReEntry is a series of interviews of Marines and their families before and after they return from the Afghanistan War in the early 2000s. While an ensemble play utilizing five actors - four of which play various characters - the story mostly focuses on a family of four: two brothers who are Marines, and their mother and sister. A commanding officer addresses the audience as if they are people preparing to receive their loved ones coming home from the front lines, operating less like the driver of the play and more like a ventricle of the heart of it, providing the perspective of a senior officers' viewpoint on war and military life.
What I like about this play is that it doesn't provide an explicit opinion on war, enlistment, or the military. It also doesn't mock or minimize the viewpoints and beliefs of the people who were interviewed and dramatized for this play - there are no caricatures. As an actor, it's a great exercise in realism: these are real people out there somewhere, and playing these people as naturally as possible is a great challenge. That said, this play is nothing like The Laramie Project, where there are recordings of the individuals to listen to and emulate. There is something freeing in that, because it still allows a little bit of artistic liberty when determining what these people are like.
Sometimes the play meanders, and sometimes the emotionally intense points of the play are underwhelming. It does suffer from its time at points - one of the characters freely throws around an LGBTQIA+ slur during a dramatic point in the play, and because of the nature of the people who are being interviewed, the way women are spoken about can be slightly irksome. Despite the content, however, it has many moments of levity: Marines are, in my biased opinion, really funny people, and that comes up a lot in this play. Three stars because constant direct address is exhausting to do and also to receive, but would watch.
ReEntry is a series of interviews of Marines and their families before and after they return from the Afghanistan War in the early 2000s. While an ensemble play utilizing five actors - four of which play various characters - the story mostly focuses on a family of four: two brothers who are Marines, and their mother and sister. A commanding officer addresses the audience as if they are people preparing to receive their loved ones coming home from the front lines, operating less like the driver of the play and more like a ventricle of the heart of it, providing the perspective of a senior officers' viewpoint on war and military life.
What I like about this play is that it doesn't provide an explicit opinion on war, enlistment, or the military. It also doesn't mock or minimize the viewpoints and beliefs of the people who were interviewed and dramatized for this play - there are no caricatures. As an actor, it's a great exercise in realism: these are real people out there somewhere, and playing these people as naturally as possible is a great challenge. That said, this play is nothing like The Laramie Project, where there are recordings of the individuals to listen to and emulate. There is something freeing in that, because it still allows a little bit of artistic liberty when determining what these people are like.
Sometimes the play meanders, and sometimes the emotionally intense points of the play are underwhelming. It does suffer from its time at points - one of the characters freely throws around an LGBTQIA+ slur during a dramatic point in the play, and because of the nature of the people who are being interviewed, the way women are spoken about can be slightly irksome. Despite the content, however, it has many moments of levity: Marines are, in my biased opinion, really funny people, and that comes up a lot in this play. Three stars because constant direct address is exhausting to do and also to receive, but would watch.
Displaying 1 of 1 review