Not unlike the staccato gunfire of an Iraqi battlefield, the Los Angeles Theater Ensemble's return production of Wounded delivers slow, even plodding, moments punctuated by rapid bursts of anguish and intensity.
Developed from the true stories of four severely wounded American soldiers beginning their rehabilitations in the recently maligned Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Wounded does an able job of depicting the awesome burden the soldiers face in assimilating with family and society, but more importantly, with themselves.
Emily Rose as Beth and Albert Meijer as Doc
The play starts slowly, perhaps by design, as the main characters joke, swagger, and make the requisite dick jokes to avoid and deflect the bitterness of their inevitable torment. By the second act, however, all guns are blazing. Each of the leads rages against his infirmities as it becomes more evident that loved ones are slipping away and that the government they fought for is abandoning them as well.
Albert Meijer, playing Doc, a medic who loses his leg by running into gunfire to save a fellow soldier, has a particularly powerful scene in which he simultaneously berates his wife and rages against an Iraqi woman whom he perceives to be dangerous as he recounts his time in combat.
Emily Rose and Emeka Nnadi play two of the other soldiers, Beth and Bill, respectively, and give sterling performances. The third soldier is Andy, a triple amputee who is never seen save an ironic scene in which he, as a youthful and dashing soldier, dances intimately with his girlfriend Angel to 'My Funny Valentine.'
Wounded has moments that flirt with becoming a left-wing screed, but it deftly pulls back to reveal the prism of honor and commitment through which the soldiers view their plight. The aforementioned Angel serves as a foil of sorts, weighing her love for Andy against the thought of nursing a triple amputee for the rest of her life. She offers her thoughts on why the U.S. entered Iraq, and the discussion turns ugly as both Bill and Doc make their case. Bill's enmity toward Angel will eventually provoke him to attack her physically, creating legal problems and further restricting his already-limited options.
Carly Reeves as Angel and Emeka Nnadi as Bill
Judging by the overflow crowd on opening night at the Powerhouse Theater in Santa Monica, Wounded should enjoy another successful run, following its debut in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, and its previous limited engagement at this venue last spring.
'We had great reviews and strong word-of-mouth, but had to close the show prematurely because the theater was committed to another production,' said Powerhouse Theater managing director Eric Sims. Written collaboratively by the ensemble members and effectively pulled together by director Tom Burmester, Wounded hits more often than it misses. Some of the scenes with overlapping dialogue are hard to follow, but the actors' performances are impressive--though slightly cliched early on-- and Francois-Pierre Couture's bare-bones set design allows the characters to rightfully steal the focus. Even the actors' proficiency with their wheelchairs speaks to the stark reality of the piece.
Emily Rose
The Ensemble wants to make Wounded part of a 'War Cycle' series that deals with various aspects of war. They intend to create a new addition to the series for every year that the U.S. remains at war, perhaps producing this generation's theatrical answer to 'The Best Years of Our Lives.'
For more information or to purchase tickets, call the Powerhouse Theater at (310) 396-3680 or go online at www.latensemble.com.
