'LOVE IN THE DMZ' SUFFERS FROM SEPARATION.Byline: Katherine Karlin Correspondent 'LOVE IN THE DMZ'' is subtitled ``A Play in Letters,'' and this epistolary e·pis·to·lar·y adj. 1. Of or associated with letters or the writing of letters. 2. Being in the form of a letter: epistolary exchanges. 3. format presents the playwright and the players with some hefty challenges. In our age of instant messaging Exchanging text messages in real time between two or more people logged into a particular instant messaging (IM) service. Instant messaging is more interactive than e-mail because messages are sent immediately, whereas e-mail messages can be queued up in a mail server for seconds or , can we fix our attention on the 1968 correspondence between a soldier in Vietnam and his wife on the Kansas home front? Can letters provide the snap and tension of real-time action? In spite of the earnest performances by Fran Montano and, especially, Peggy Voss, whose face grows more deeply troubled as the separation drags on, Julia Cameron's writing cannot overcome the structural obstacles. Named only ``Husband'' and ``Wife,'' these two characters are no more than archetypes. Although she discusses her sons and an ingratiating in·gra·ti·at·ing adj. 1. Pleasing; agreeable: "Reading requires an effort.... Print is not as ingratiating as television" Robert MacNeil. 2. brother-in-law, and he writes about the reckless young men in his charge, they lack specific angles. Events of 1968 - the Apollo missions The Apollo missions were a series of space missions, both manned and unmanned, flown by NASA between 1961 and 1975. They culminated with a series of manned moon landings between 1969 and 1972. , youth movement and political assassinations - never intrude. And when the soldier seduces a young Vietnamese woman under his protection, the affair makes sense more as an allegory than as an organic result of the man's personality. The closest Cameron comes to crafting a fully realized scene is the Wife's recount of a parent-teacher conference, when Goss n. 1. Gorse. gets to play two sides of a dialogue. It doesn't help that this Husband and Wife are such forthcoming letter- writers. Love, jealousy, rage, fear: There's not an emotion that they can't own. No coyness or passive-aggressive gamesmanship games·man·ship n. 1. The art or practice of using tactical maneuvers to further one's aims or better one's position: here. Consequently, the audience never has the fun of deciphering the hostilities that simmer beneath the surface. Director James Paradise keeps each actor on his or her half of the stage (Martyn Bookwalter's bisected set represents the spheres of war and domesticity with the same generic quality the characters have) so there's not much for them to do but sip coffee and turn pages; occasionally either the husband or wife will disappear while the other writes a confessional that will never be mailed. At intermission, the tiny Actors Workout Studio piped in appropriate music, and they avoided the obvious for some forgotten chestnuts by Joni Mitchell and Stephen Stills Stephen Arthur Stills (born January 3, 1945) is an American guitarist and singer/songwriter best known for his work with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills & Nash (and Young). . Too bad Husband and Wife couldn't hear. They need to rock out a little. LOVE IN THE DMZ (DeMilitarized Zone) A middle ground between an organization's trusted internal network and an untrusted, external network such as the Internet. Also called a "perimeter network," the DMZ is a subnetwork (subnet) that may sit between firewalls or off one leg of a : A PLAY IN LETTERS - Two stars Where: Actors Workout Studio, 4735 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood. When: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday; through Dec. 17. Tickets: $24. call (866) 811-4111 or visit www.actorsworkout.com. In a nutshell: Playwright Julia Cameron can't get her characters off the page. |
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