Word: vietnams
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Sticks and Bones is, first of all, the story of a blind and emotionally--mutilated Vietnam veteran returning home to a family that is supremely unprepared to receive him. But Rabe is talking not so much about the Vietnam War as about the cultural distortions that made America's involvement in the war seem right. His subjects are men whose lives leave no trace and women whose motto is. "We don't matter, only the kids"--generations of Americans negating themselves so that their posterity can do the same. Rabe is anything but subtle; nevertheless, his play is still powerful...
This interpretation works well, aside from a few jarring notes. One is Eric Duncan's disembodied portrayal of the black sergeant who brings the Vietnam veteran. David home; speaking in harsh clipped tones, more like a robot than a man, the sergeant seems to belong to a different play. Another, more annoying problem is the cast's general difficulty in dealing with Rabe's overtly symbolic passages. Because of Browner's naturalistic handling of the play it's starting at times to hear characters suddenly hurting into literary effusion or even conscientiously using the formal "do not" in place...
Sticks and Bones comes as a rude intrusion into our post-Vietnam weariness and revulsion, too blatantly reminding us that David's blindness is still our own. It's no surprise then that the Dunster House version of Sticks and Bones is playing to small audiences, but it is a shame. Rabe's play and this production of it deserve better...
...result, he explains, many faculty members withdrew from involvement with undergraduates, angered over the forced diversion of their attention from important academic work to political issues external to the University. Efforts to involve the University in protest over the Vietnam War. Rosovsky claims, "Politically, psychologically, and in every other way were costly...
...policies, he gives the impression that he is at least grappling with great issues. The truth is that Gerry Ford is not a man who can't think, but one who stopped thinking a long time ago. Hersey says of the Ford who requested useless military aid for Vietnam and Cambodia up to the last minute: "Once he has made such a [tough] decision, he does not agonize over it; rather, he becomes convinced of its rightness and is stubborn in its defense, even when...it is unpopular politically hopeless and of the most improbable efficacy...