Personal integrity and national loyalty strike home with amazing force in James A. Bell's "Prisoner."
Bell, an undergraduate at Brigham Young University, based his BYU Theatre debut on "Beyond Survival," the story of retired U.S. Navy Captain Gerald Coffee.Action begins in a Vietnamese interrogation room in February of 1966. Capt. Gerald Coffee (Kevin Rahm) is resisting the Viet-nam-ese's efforts to extract information from him.
From the interrogation room, the audience follows Coffee to his cell, where he quickly learns the cruelties of life as a prisoner of war.
Rahm is very convincing in his portrayal of Coffee, a true-blue Navy officer who nonetheless must learn to cope with the conflict between the military's personal code of conduct and his personal desire for freedom and a reunion with his family.
Rahm captures the inner conflict of duty to country and duty to self as Coffee deals with keeping his own morale and sanity, while at the same time being an example of strength to fellow POWs.
Rahm also accurately reveals Coffee's feelings of personal failure, as bit by bit the Vietnamese squeeze information from him.
Instrumental in obtaining that information is Risner (David P. Knight), who uses torture, bribery, logic, propaganda and mock friendship in attempts to wrest details from Coffee.
Knight plays his part well. While he is the antagonist, Knight allows the viewer to see his human side, not just that of the arch-villian.
Sarge (Akinori Nakamura) slowly warms his way into the audience's and Coffee's trust by showing that war does not have to make bitter enemies. Slowly Sarge befriends Coffee, bringing him a letter from home or sharing a bit of family life with him. Sarge teaches that even in performing unpleasant duties, he is a human first.
The set is incredibly well done, eliciting a feeling of doom and hardship. Peformed in a 30 x 15 space, with the audience at stage level on two sides, it is no stretch of the imagination to feel enclosed in a prison cell.
Gray canvass on two ends show the change of scene with simple inscriptions, such as "The Interrogation," "The Letter," "Church," or finally "Release."
Simple wooden cots make up most of the scenery, with light shining down on the prisoners, casting a shadow of steel bars. Concertina wire surrounds the upper level of the stage area.
"Prisoner" is a worthy experience, leaving the viewer with a sense of dignity and pride, and an awful realization of the pain and mental anguish prisoners of war and soldiers everywhere must face.
Though the play is lopsided in its patriotic theme, there is an attempt to show the other side through Schwinman (D.C. Wright), an American anti-war activist. His pleas for peace touch modern cords when compared to involvement in Somalia, Haiti and other world hot spots.
"Prisoner" is an excellent play, which becomes a surprisingly excellent play when the viewer realizes this is Bell's first play-wright-ing endeavor.