Don't Ask: Show, Don't Tell

War, it has been said, is hell. In battle, soldiers are called upon to behave in ways they never would in civilian life. In civilian life, two men can have a sexual or even romantic relationship without fear of societal reprisal. In civilian life, people who torture other people are locked away in mental hospitals and prisons. In the military, however, soldiers can be court-martialed for loving each other and decorated for sadistic cruelty. The shocking 2004 photographs and reports of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib brought this irony to the attention of Americans, and provided the basis for Don't Ask, a disturbing new play by Bill Quigley.

In the play, a respected sergeant and a manic young private serving in Iraq have been enjoying a forbidden (and decidedly unromantic) sexual affair. An Arab prisoner in their barracks dies under mysterious circumstances, and the sergeant begins to suspect his partner of being a witness to murder. But when the private begins to gleefully tell his tale, the two men become enmeshed in a carefully spun web of power and passion that reflects the problems and hypocrisies in military life.

The play could be a thought-provoking commentary. It could be a chilling thriller. And while it comes close to being both, it never quite achieves the peaks to which it aspires. While there are some intense moments, much of the play comes across as campy melodrama with clear-cut villains and victims. In reality, especially in war, those lines are much less clear. Perhaps if the play were less heavy-handed, less like Fatal Attraction in the desert, it would be sharper and truly frightening. There is, after all, an interesting story here. Unfortunately, the script is lamentably repetitive and rather monotonous, burying the intriguing drama under pointless and banal dialogue that should be trimmed away.

The cast of two rarely strike any sparks together in their power-plays, and seem rather one-note throughout. There is little character development in the script for them to work with, however, so if their performances seem monotonous, it's not entirely their fault. The seargent and the private are stereotypes across the board, and while the plot twists and turns, the characters remain largely the same. Daniel Dugan is wild and shrill as the insane private, while Tom Flynn is gruff and laconic as the dutiful sergeant.

Quigley has an interesting– and worthy– story to tell. With some trimming, Don't Ask might become what it aspires to be, but it isn't quite there yet.