Steven Dietz’s Last of the Boys opened at the Seattle Rep last week while our nation was in the midst of an historically lengthy government shutdown. In the early days of 2019 we seem to be embroiled in an endless battle of conflicting ideologies with no end in sight. How we will finally emerge from this predicament and the cumulative effect it will have on our country will doubtlessly be the study of many a future writer. In Last of the Boys, Dietz explores the effects of another era in which the U.S. was faced with what Seattle Rep Artistic Director Braden Abraham in his play notes refers to as a “paradigm shift.” The Viet Nam War challenged our nation to intently reexamine what our country really stood for. Dietz sets his play’s action at the end of the 20th century and has his four characters come to terms with some of the devastating consequences of that much debated war. While the play does not succeed as a complete artistic vision, it does provide a number of moving and thought provoking moments in which the four Americans come to a greater understanding of themselves and the parts they played in the tumultuous 1960’s Viet Nam War conflict.
The play focuses on the relationship of two Nam Vets: Ben and Jeeter. Ben has chosen to live “off the grid” and inhabits an R.V. in rural Central California. His home, gorgeously rendered by scenic designer G.W. Mercier, is the setting for the play. Ben has chosen to totally remove himself from the war’s remaining landscape. Apparently his father was close to the controversial Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara. Ben refuses to attend his father’s funeral and spends a great deal of the play exploring the ramifications of that rejection both internally and with his visiting old friend Jeeter. Jeeter has just returned from the funeral and demands that Ben confront his mixed feelings about their involvement in the war.
Reginald Andre Jackson and Keevin Anderson portray Ben and Jeeter respectively. Both actors bring their “A Game” to the production and provide a number of stirring moments as they each come to face the devastating effects of being involved in such a morally ambiguous event. Jackson has a breath taking scene when he finally begins to accept the role he and his father played in the Viet Nam conflict. Jeeter has brought along his new girlfriend Salyer, played by the talented Emily Chisholm. She too has been deeply touched by the war, for she never met her young father who was killed early on in the conflict. Kate Wisniewski, a founding member of Seattle’s upstart crow collective, plays Salyer’s mother, who has journeyed to Ben’s home to bring her daughter back to Michigan.
Dietz keeps the play moving along briskly by introducing a number of unanswered mysteries. Why does Salyer have names tattooed all over her body? Will Jeeter ever repay Ben for a generous financial loan? Why is Jeeter compulsively attending Rolling Stones concerts? Why is there a ghost haunting both Ben and Salyer? Was it Ben or Jeeter that got to hang out with a young Bob Dylan? These diverse questions stretch the play a bit thin and prove to be a cumbersome fit into a solid story arch. The play particularly shortchanges the two women, leaving their characters only partially developed. Yet director Braden Abraham makes sure that Dietz’s four Americans, struggling mightily to make sense of their dark histories, indeed provide enough dramatic fodder for a compelling night of theater.
A special shout out goes to sound designer Victoria Deiorio who opens and closes the show with two well-chosen Dylan songs. The chaotic 60’s rant Subterranean Homesick Blues plays before the action begins and the cataclysmic “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” is heard at the final curtain.
Last of the Boys plays at the Seattle Repertory Theatre in the Seattle Center through February 10. For more ticket information go to www.seattlerep.org or call 206-443-2222.