Playwright: Tom Stoppard At: Remy Bumppo Theatre Company at the Greenhouse, 2257 N. Lincoln. Phone: 773-404-7336; $35-$50. Runs through: Oct. 31
To those honest enough to admit it, war is as much a creature of fantasy as it is reality. GIs have been heard to complain, even in the heat of battle, "I hate this movie!"as have the reporters whose mission is to recreate the experience for the spectators at home. Photographers wearing shirts emblazoned defiantly with bulls-eye targets will halt amid artillery fire to wait for a suitably dramatic view of soldiers running for cover. Is this courage or folly, its practitioners brave or deluded, andmost importantwho profits by their sacrifice?
These are the questions explored in Tom Stoppard's 1976 symposial play, set in a generic African nation whose path to independent rule after decades of colonial domination is marked by the usual unrest, the latest manifestation centering upon rebellions led by one Colonel Shimbu against the oppressive President Mageeba. Into this volatile stew arrive three newshounds in search of their career-making story: seasoned correspondent Richard "Dick" Wagner, shell-shocked photographer George Guthrie and idealistic freelancer Jacob Milne. They have collected in the home of copper-mine magnate Geoffrey Carson ( who, unsurprisingly, possesses the region's only high-tech telex machine ) and his smart, sexy wife, Ruth. Before another day passes, one of them will have been killed.
"But did he get any pictures?" ask his colleagues. In an age of instantaneous informationas it has always called itselfwhat becomes of "journalistic objectivity"? ( An interviewer pretending affability is lucky to escape with only a bash on the head from a dictator undeceived by his transparent ruse. ) Guided by the "asides" of the candid and heavy-drinking Ruth, we, too, are led to examine the ethics of a profession practiced by narrowly-focused believers.
Stoppard sometimes favors debate over actionalbeit with hints of sexual tension to temper the testosterone-fueled dynamic. Ruth's imaginary forays into her cinematic counterparts ( played by Linda Gillum in Katherine Hepburn mode ) provide relief from the brain exercise, while Remy Bumppo regulars Shawn Douglass, George Matthew Anderson, and David Darlow juggle their hyperarticulate dialogue with verbal agility, assisted by Ernest Perry, Jr. as the menacing Mageeba and Jeff Cummings as the bloodied-but-unbowed shutterbug who utters the final truth: "People do awful things to each other. But it's worse in places where everyone's kept in the dark. Informationin itselfis light!"