'Red Ryder' a powerful, moving play

The Proscenium Players continue to go ahead turning out interesting, offbeat shows regularly.

This week the Players will continue in that vein with what may well be the most powerful play to hit Carson City in a few year.

"When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder?" paints a strong picture of the move from the complacent 1950s to America in turmoil in the '60s.

Director Jeffrey Scott says he has wanted to do this thriller ever since he first saw it in Portland, Maine, in 1973.

"It's part of a trilogy of plays - 'American Hero' and 'Lost in the Woods' - that examine the changes that the Vietnam War brought to America."

It takes place in an all-night diner in a small town where the night shift waiter Stephen Ryder, nicknamed Red after the radio hero, (Jeremy Zutter) is waiting for the day shift waitress Angel (Michelle Calhoun-Fitts) to show up. She does and they trade barbs and comments in a scene that could drag but flows beautifully. Angel is everyone's remembered waitress, Stephen everyone's remembered slacker. Calhoun-Fitts is a gem in this scene.

Then Lyle (Patrick Hardy) drops in, followed by owner Clark (Raymond J. Finnegan) and yuppies Peter L. Coatis and Micha Marie Stevens, she with the violin case. All bumbles along nicely until Teddy (Jason Macy) and Cheryl (Jolene Perretta), flower children with a busted VW wagon in need of parts and loaded with drugs, lurch in.

Teddy is a Vietnam vet and angry with a world he left in the Asian jungles. She's a pretty love toy for him.

Here is where the story becomes bitter and ugly. Teddy taunts the others in the diner, forcing them with a gun to make revealing comments about themselves. He is a walking land mine.

That's the bare bones; no need to spell out what happens next. Just be aware that it is not pretty - but is as powerful as theater becomes. Having to live with what they revealed is an existential dilemma for the victims.

This is a play that leaves one pondering.

Those familiar with the Brewery Black Box Theater will be surprised by the set; it is deep, right back into storage spaces. There's even a juke box that spews out tunes of the late '60s. There are tables and booths and a smell of bacon in the air. All very realistic but with a slightly askew feel.

It's the tilt that the title refers to: When are you heroes coming back to us?

The play is written by Mark Medoff. Scott had help putting the show together from Tom Strekal, assistant director; Carol Scott and Pat Josten, producers; Lisa Bommarito, costumes; David Calhoun, scenic effects.

The Players continue to go for the difficult, largely avoiding the safe and easy. It's plays like this that make one aware that all theater isn't fast-cut, flash movies as of late, that there's a place for the deeper, more meaningful moments as well.

So see "Red Ryder," make your own mind up, and if afterwards on opening night when the Players serve finger food and wine, join them and ask questions.

I will.



IF YOU GO

WHAT: Drama by Mark Medoff, "When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder?"

WHEN: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday night and Feb. 22-23, 29 and March 1

WHERE: The Brewery Arts Center's Donald W. Reynolds Theater, 449 W. King St.

TICKETS: $12 general admission; $10 for Players and BAC members, seniors and students, call 883-1976.

NOTE: Due to the violent nature of the play and the language, this is an adult show.