Theater review: ‘Old Glory’ at the Victory Theatre

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In ‘Old Glory,’ Brett Neveu’s well- performed Iraq war-themed drama at Burbank’s Victory Theatre Center, the death of a son in combat is rendered even more difficult because the killing comes at the hands of a fellow GI under questionable circumstances.

For a more theatrical perspective on both the murder and the devastation it wreaks on the victim’s parents, Neveu employs a kind of trifocal deconstruction in which three pivotal events separated in time play out side by side in interlaced scenes.

The earliest episode tracks the disintegration of two American soldiers (played with ferocious intensity by James Messenger and Jarrett Sleeper) in occupied Fallujah, as the stresses of combat, civilian casualties and their mutual dislike drive them to a fatal drunken confrontation.

Five months later, the doomed soldier’s mother (a grippingly haunted Kathleen Bailey) struggles to maintain her composure and propriety as one of her son’s visiting comrades (Chris Allen) blurts out the truth about his death – a truth the military had concealed from the family.

In the third segment set three months later, the father (Pete Gardner) tracks down his son’s world-weary Commanding Officer (Tom Ormeny) in a Berlin bar, where he learns that answers and understanding are very different.

Common to all three scenes is the characters’ use of deflection as a coping strategy that begets its own tragedies. To his credit, Neveu avoids facile ideological polemics -- pro or con – about the war, instead letting its human toll speak for itself.

Director Carri Sullens smoothly juggles the scene transitions, leaving her cast onstage and shifting focus within the intricate split barracks-living room-bar set (credit Brett Snodgrass’ scenic design and D Martyn Bookwalter’s lighting).

Interweaving episodes can be an effective way to underscore thematic associations and maintain uncertainty, but this isn’t an edge-of-your-seat mystery, and the fractured chronology doesn’t justify making the story harder to piece together. The exercise ultimately distracts from the power of the piece – its fine performances, which evoke a visceral sense of the Iraq war and its consequences for the combatants and the families left behind.

– Philip Brandes

‘Old Glory,’ Victory Theatre, 3326 W. Victory Blvd., Burbank. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 4 p.m. Sundays. Ends April 25. $22 and $34. (818) 841-5421. Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes.