In Vietnam After the War (but Not That War) (Play)
For too many Americans the history of Vietnam started when our soldiers began to die there in gruesome numbers in the 1960s. As Mac Wellman pointedly illustrates in his odd little term paper of a play, “Two September,” at the Flea Theater, the roots of America’s ultimately disastrous involvement actually date back to the turbulent late days of World War II.
It will not be news to downtown theatergoers that Mr. Wellman has written an odd little drama. This brainy playwright is known for brief works in which baroque wordplay and semantic surprises take the starring roles traditionally ceded to narrative and character development. What is unusual about “Two September” is how very odd it isn’t, at least in the ways that fans of Mr. Wellman are accustomed to expect. Words sit still and behave, conveying the usual meanings. Sentences proceed smoothly from start to finish. A story is told.
Mr. Wellman clearly relates two histories in “Two September,” which is named after the date on which Ho Chi Minh formally declared Vietnam’s independence in 1945. The first, personal and nonfictional, is the biography of the American journalist and writer Josephine Herbst, largely handed directly to us in elegant monologue by the woman herself (played by Jayne Haynes).
Read entire article at NYT
It will not be news to downtown theatergoers that Mr. Wellman has written an odd little drama. This brainy playwright is known for brief works in which baroque wordplay and semantic surprises take the starring roles traditionally ceded to narrative and character development. What is unusual about “Two September” is how very odd it isn’t, at least in the ways that fans of Mr. Wellman are accustomed to expect. Words sit still and behave, conveying the usual meanings. Sentences proceed smoothly from start to finish. A story is told.
Mr. Wellman clearly relates two histories in “Two September,” which is named after the date on which Ho Chi Minh formally declared Vietnam’s independence in 1945. The first, personal and nonfictional, is the biography of the American journalist and writer Josephine Herbst, largely handed directly to us in elegant monologue by the woman herself (played by Jayne Haynes).