Arturo Fernandez, left, as Pavlo Hummel, is guided by a spirit (Sheaun McKinney). |
As Americans are fighting and dying in one unpopular war, it seems relevant to remember another. The
Vietnam war stirred fierce domestic conflict, sent drafted soldiers to their deaths, proved disastrously
unwinable. It also spawned an array of insightful, devastating movies, books and plays, including
David Rabe's The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel.
That Miami's Ground Up & Rising troupe is tackling the first play of Rabe's Vietnam trilogy (Sticks and Bones and Streamers are the others) is both timely and smart. The company, which made its strongest mark to date with the world premiere of co-founder Arturo
Fernandez's September 10th, is building a reputation for doing memorable productions of gritty dramas with talented young actors. For Pavlo Hummel, the stage at Miami Dade College's Kendall Campus (that's where the peripatetic Ground Up & Rising has settled for now) is awash in testosterone, intensity and aggression --
ammunition in both war and drama.
Co-directed by Fernandez and Carlos Alayeto, Pavlo Hummel tracks the short journey of a messed-up man from basic training to death in Vietnam. That's not giving away the ending, exactly, since Rabe begins and ends the play with Pavlo diving for a live grenade in a brothel. Between those deadly bookends, we get to know a guy whose life has been a collection of disasters.
Fernandez gets the showy title role, one that earned Al Pacino a Tony Award in 1977. Ultimately, he pulls it off, though at the beginning his speech (Pavlo is a New Yorker with his own peculiar way of phrasing things) is almost unintelligible. Fernandez is all jittery extremes, physically and vocally, creating an emotionally and intellectually deficient young man, the bastard son of a mentally ill mother.
The most magnetic performance, however, comes from Sheaun McKinney as Ardell, an omniscient spirit
who guides the dying Pavlo through a review of his sad life as a soldier. Dressed as a soldier, his eyes
usually hidden behind mirrored sunglasses, McKinney smiles, taunts, encourages and goads the slow-witted, delusional Pavlo. Whenever he is onstage, the play feels more urgent, stylish and intense.
Most memorable among the eight other actors in the cast are Jonny Walker, who makes the most of the
prototypical bullying drill sergeant; Reiss Gaspard, who effectively portrays several different soldiers
(including one who tells a shocking story from his tour in Vietnam); and Jose Paredes, who plays both
Pavlo's frequent tormentor in basic and, chillingly, a soldier who will remind you of all those who have left the
remnants of their arms and legs behind in Iraq.
The wide stage at Miami Dade seems a little barren, even with all those actors, but Will Cabrera's lighting
brings a more intimate focus to crucial scenes. The great preshow music -- by the Doors, Jimi Hendrix, the
Supremes -- functions like a ticket on a time machine.
The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel is a little long and meandering, in the way memories can be. But it is
also a reminder -- as if we needed a fresh one -- that war is hell. |
