PENANG: Privates War

James L. Larocca's play Penang is about two soldiers who meet during the Vietnam war, while sent to the titular city which is a haven for R&R for soldiers recovering from the horrors of war. I saw an earlier incarnation of Penang in the 2008 Midtown International Theatre Festival; I was told it had been rewritten since that time, but the rewrites weren't to fix the internal things, but seem to be merely to extend the play from the hour-and-a-half MITF limit to an unconscionable two-and-a-quarter hours, through the addition of ancillary scenes which don't add much to the central story.

The play primarily concerns Tim Riordan (Scott Raker), a young navy serviceman who's been admitted to hospital in California after a breakdown where he slit his wrists. He's gone through several tyro psychiatrists before he gets the maternal Dr. Leona "Lee" Kaufman (Jacqueline Gregg), who after interviewing his commanding officer (Chris LaPlanta), draws Riordan out enough for him to talk about his war experiences, the meat of which concern a week or so in Penang, where he met and became good friends with the gregarious G. Richard "Luke" DeLuca (Peter Sabri, the only cast member carried over from the previous production, and who was then nominated for a well-deserved MITF award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Play). After they meet at the pool, they go on a days-long tourist jaunt around Penang with funny cab driver Jimmy Chen (Kurt Uy), see the sights, some temples, then drunkenly return to the hotel, where, after falling into the pool, they long-windedly discuss their negative feelings about God- both of them present pretty much the same point of view, while trying to get the other to be more positive- they're not arguing with each other, they're each railing against the universe, and since there's no conflict, that quickly becomes tiresome.

SPOILER ALERT

Riordan ends up crying and naked in Luke's arms, and Luke awakens the next morning in Riordan's bed, freaked out by the homosexuality (though since, as staged, Luke apparently kept his wet pants and underwear on all night, one wonders just what transpired other than semi-naked hugging (and, I would expect, some chafing): the level of heterosexual panic displayed seems to imply more, but no one ever says quite what happened between them).

As Dr. Kaufman discovers through hypnosis, it's naturally Luke's unexpected death that pushed Riordan over the edge, just as Riordan was about to return home, and just as he'd received a letter from the deceased saying that Luke was reconciled to the events in Penang, and that he'd come visit Riordan in Cali on his way back home (apparently so they could cruise for women together, and not, alas, for any sort of Brokeback Mountain continuing relationship).

The play is far too long as it is, with several ancillary scenes (I haven't mentioned the actors Ray Chao, Andrea Chen, Rushi Kota, or Jeffrey Evan Thomas because their characters are such non-entities they barely figure in the story except to set mood- each has one scene, and two of the performers do not even speak.) It too often relies on clumsy exposition (and not where needed) and author soapboxing; the story of the two men's complex friendship is the most interesting section, and it takes too long to get there, and lasts too long after it's over. The sense of time is confusing- the first scene has Riordan witnessing another friend, Robbie, get killed (also unexpectedly), then jumps to the hospital after Penang, making it seem at first that it was Robbie's death that put him there (compounded, we find out later, with the LSD-related death of another friend from back home). Larocca clearly has something he wants to express about men at war, but I still don't know what it is.

There is full-frontal nudity, which is handled better than in the MITF production- then it was more a matter of "I'm so angry, I have to take my clothes off", here it's much more subtle and integrated.
The cast ranges from excellent (Sabri and Uy are the highlights, though Uy might do better without the fake stomach padding) to poor. The set by Craig Napoliello is an impressive hospital room that morphs into various locations, with help from Zach Blane's startling lighting. David Schulder's sound design (also nominated for an MITF award) is also impressive, but sometimes distracts from the actual show.

Penang
by James L. Larocca
Directed by Donya K. Washington
Produced by BOO-Arts www.boo-arts.com
The Workshop Main Stage Theater
312 West 36th Street
Penang plays the following schedule through November 22nd:

Wednesdays at 8 P.M., Thursdays at 8 P.M, Fridays at 8 P.M., Saturdays at 2 P.M. and 8 P.M., Sundays at 2 P.M.

Tickets are $18.00. Advance tickets can be purchased online at www.theatermania.com, or by calling 212-352-3101. Tickets may also be purchased at the theatre's box office half hour before the performance.

Advisory: Penang contains full frontal nudity.

 

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