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Ben Monks for Grey Light Productions Oohrah!
by Bekah Brunsetter
Director: Georgina Guy
Finborough Theatre
Sundays and Mondays, 22,23,29,30 March and 5 and 6 April 2009
A review by Peter Carrington for EXTRA! EXTRA!
Oohrah! marks the London debut of award-winning playwright Bekah Brunsetter and the European premiere of a new play. The contemporary play provides a cross section of lives affected by the military. Chip, considering himself a born soldier gets chucked out of basic and goes to Fayetteville, North Carolina to attempt to get into the base there and on the plane he meets Abby. Ron returns from a tour of Iraq to his wife Sara (sister of Abby) and daughter Lacey. However, adjusting to civilian life again is difficult for everyone, as is facing reality. The cast is very talented, bringing needed vitality to a script that is realistic but dry. Martha Barnett makes Sara an interesting woman, rather than the cipher of white trash she could have easily been. Ron is played in an understated manner by Jeff Peterson, carrying himself with that authority of a marine without cliché. The most moving moments of the play come from Robert Donald as Abby and Sara’s grandfather, suffering from dementia but having survived both world wars. Even when Ron says of him ‘He doesn’t mean what he says’ it is obvious he has said the most poignant things. Realistic dialogue is an asset to the play, but needs to be balanced with the spark of drama in order to have impact beyond a soap opera. In Oohrah! the understated dialogue gives emotional feeling rather than biting moral. As the play raced towards Lacey’s birthday party, it seemed the d’enouement would occur there but rather than the classic resolution of all character arcs the audience is left with a feeling of a gnawing sadness rather than a clear message. The central theme of the play seems to be one of delusion, from Chip, played by the energetic Simon Lee Philips, and his desire to join the army, to Abby deciding to marry Christopher despite having no enthusiasm for it. All the characters refuse to face the truth even when no explanation would suffice to deny it. This is generally well played throughout by the cast but problems occur in the play when this delusion mires the plot in stasis. Ayn Rand wrote that: “Plot conflict is not conflict merely in a character’s mind or soul, while he sits at home. A plot conflict has to be expressed in action.” But such conflict and therefore drama is difficult to achieve when all the characters live in such denial. As a result, the audience cries out for a message, for the play to say something to them but there is never that break in the stasis. In searching for the message the play seems a little incomprehensible, which in itself is a potential message of the vague terms of the war in Iraq. Characters speak briefly of oil, of money, of duty, love and patriotism but without any direction in which to pursue such conversations. This makes them seem underdeveloped, as if Brunsetter is unsure of her message as much as her characters. There is an emotional heart to the play, hinting at the heartbreaking reality of losing loved ones even if they return from war, but this is never fully explored. Like the title, the grunting approval of Marines, Oohrah! conveys feeling without obvious moral.
Tickets: £13 (£8 concessions)
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