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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2010 > January > 22 > Entry
Review: ‘American Volunteers’ at FronteraFest
Nothing is easy in ‘American Volunteers,’ the first play by emerging writer Johnny Meyer now getting its premiere at the Blue Theater as part of Fronterafest, Austin’s fringe theater festival.
For starters, the story is not easy — a squad of special operations Army rangers whoe patrol the isolated Afghanistan-Pakistan border and who are charged with executing procedures that are seemingly disconnected from any greater plan.
The violent situations they face and the decisions these military men and women must make are not easy, either: Most importantly, how should they reconcile their individual desire — and their individual lives — against the dominating framework of military hierarchy?
And when a wet-behind-the-ears female private is assigned to the all-male ranger patrol, the fragile social web the platoon has built begins to crumble.
As a veteran of the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, Meyer, a University of Texas undergraduate, brings an authentic voice to ‘American Volunteers.’ And it’s that authenticity which gives this 90-minute drama its force and emotional complexity.
Meyer and director Allison Hammond leave the fast-paced flow of scenes to speed along on their own. No hamfisted staging here. It’s not needed. Meyer’s story is compelling enough to propel the play with almost lightning speed. And the ensemble cast of 12 handles that speed deftly.
At times, Meyer’s penchant for experimenting with metered language gets the best of the script, diluting the play’s energy and adding a layer of self-consciousness.
Still, it’s a noteworthy playwrighting debut. (Meyer won UT’s Roy L. Crane Award in Literary Arts last year for the his novel version of ‘American Volunteers.’) The U.S. has been at war for the better part of a decade. Now, we have a thoughtful theatrical reflection on the essential human experience of that very complex war experience.
‘American Volunteers’
9:45 p.m. Saturday, 12 noon Jan. 30’
Blue Theater, 916 Springdale Road’
$8’
www.fronterafest.org
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