Because I work most weekends and travel so much, I often lose track of holidays, and I’d forgotten that this was Memorial Day until I returned to New York earlier today, turned on the TV, and saw that Turner Classic Movies was showing back-to-back war movies. Please forgive my unintentional silence, which I wouldn’t want anyone to construe as making mock o’ uniforms that guard you while you sleep.
If you’ve never worn a uniform, I suggest that you consider going to see Stephen Lang’s Beyond Glory, a one-man show now in previews at the Laura Pels Theatre, the Roundabout Theatre Company’s off-Broadway house. I reviewed it for The Wall Street Journal when it played at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre in 2005:
Adapted by Mr. Lang from the book by Larry Smith, it consists of eight first-person monologues by recipients of the Medal of Honor, given for “gallantry and intrepidity…above and beyond the call of duty.” You can’t get much more military than that. But Mr. Lang’s one-man play is no simple-minded piece of flag-waving. It is an unsparingly direct portrait of men at war, pushed into narrow corners and faced with hard choices. It is also one of the richest, most complex pieces of acting I’ve seen in my theatergoing life….
For more information, go here.