Theatre--Review

As a history teacher, I have always been fascinated by seminal moments in history, those indelible moments that remain with you long after they occurred. For my parents, their first such moment was the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Over two decades later, a new generation experienced that same searing feeling with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Having been born in 1968, I cannot recall any such events that stood out in the 70s, 80s, or 90s with such fierce prominence, but I can recall as if it were yesterday where I was that Tuesday morning of September 11, 2001. While teaching World History in room 101 at Catholic High in New Iberia, a fellow teacher, Mrs. Karen Ladmirault, rushed into my room to inform me that a plane had struck one of the Twin Towers. We promptly turned on the Channel One TV to catch those stark images of endless smoke and then watched with startling clarity what gravity can do, and for one brief moment, we wished it could not. Our nation had been wounded just as it had been in 1941 and 1963, and those wounds have become part of the American psyche.

That psyche was exposed tonight in a play called The Guys by Anne Nelson. Tammy Lamonte has directed a powerful, short play at the Delta Grand Theatre in Opelousas in honor on the approaching tenth anniversary of the horrific event which scarred the nation but ultimately stitched together its composite character. The Guys will perform Friday and Saturday night at 7:00 pm and Sunday at 3:00 pm, and tickets are $10.00. The play focuses on Nick, a veteran firefighter who has to deliver several eulogies to his fallen comrades, but as he is not a writer, he calls upon Joan, an editor, to help him craft these delicate deliveries. Completely aware of his inability to summarize these men's lives, he finds himself lost, but Joan simply asks him to talk about his firefighters, and from his loving observations and touching stories, Joan molds the words which he will eventually speak.

Even though the play technically has only two “live” characters on stage, the strength of the play comes from the picture the audience receives of the firefighters Nick is eulogizing. Dave, Patrick, Barney, Jimmy and Bill are rich characters that we get to know, from the church picnics, to the welded benches, to the orange cones. You leave the theatre knowing these men, or someone just like them. Perhaps the saddest part to see and hear was watching Nick struggle with the fact that he knew so little about one of the firefighters, Jimmy, who had only worked with Nick for two weeks. The fire from the Towers was actually Jimmy's first fire, something he'd trained for and which turned out to be his one and only. It is all the more amazing, and a tribute to Anne Nelson, that Joan was able to forge such a vivid picture of a life cut so brutally short. It's a poignant reminder of so many lives that were cut short that day.

This production has two talented leads in Cody Daigle as Nick and Jody Powell as Joan. As the humbled firefighter left alive by the mere chance of who took the morning shift, Daigle manages to bring pathos to Nick without drowning him in maudlin. Having visited New York City six times in the last two years, I could easily picture Daigle blending in perfectly with that accent and the awkwardness at being a hero, or worse, being a survivor. Jody has the harder role in some ways, having to represent all the rest of America and how they felt about this tragic day. Her opening monologue seemed a little rushed and could benefit from some judicious pauses, but once she met Nick and started to help him, she displayed how beautifully they were actually helping each other deal with the unspeakable. Both leads were assisted by several actual firefighters who have volunteered to play the eulogized men, and there will be different firefighters each night. They have no lines, but they are as much a part of the play as the leads, though the humor from the bra tended to be a little overplayed.

But no matter. This is a soul-searching play that needs to be performed and seen. As I sat in the Delta Grand, I turned to see a large poster of the Twin Towers hanging on the wall and I was vividly returned to December 1987 when I first visited the Big Apple as a 19-year old college student. Though I don't remember the exact day, I stood on the roof of one of those towers, marveling at the breathtaking view in the late evening, freezing my bones off but loving every chilling, thrilling moment. I am proud of having been able to stand there, and I will forever cherish that memory, but what I would give to turn back time's incessant clock to be able to stand on that rooftop again.

---Vincent P. Barras