The Wall: A Drama in Two Acts

ISBN-13: 9781518862762 / Angielski / Miękka / 2015 / 168 str.

David W. Christner

Opis

The Wall is the second play of a Vietnam War trilogy which includes American Pies, Happy Lives, Blue Skies and Other Lies and Bui-Doi: The Dust of Life. The play opens at the Vietnam War Memorial-the Wall-in 1992 where Madison McCabe, a National Park Ranger, is working her shift in the wee hours of the morning. She has a habit of talking to the names etched into the marble and has even gone so far as to contact the family of Mason Washington, a young soldier who was killed in 1972 along with three other members of his squad. When she exits, the squad-Mac McCafferty (squad leader), Sanchez, Nobel, and Mason Washington emerge from the Wall to hold their nightly vigil-waiting for Will James, the only survivor of a VC ambush, to return. For the 20 years since surviving Vietnam, Will's life has been a shambles-tested by alcohol, drugs, PSDT and the inability to hold a job. He is guilt-ridden for surviving the ambush that killed his brothers, and he carries a dark secret that may destroy his marriage and his life. After Nam, Will married Mac's widow, Alyssa, and swore to raise Mac's daughter, Megan as is own. Mac, Will and Alyssa were best friends back in the world before the war. Now Megan is convinced that Mac died saving Will's life and holds him responsible for her father's death. Alyssa intuitively knows that the only way for her marriage and for Will to survive is for him to confront his past by visiting the Wall. Only there will he be able to face is demons and lay the past to rest. The squad continues waiting, knowing Will eventually will come. They play cards, drill, have inspections, and reminisce about lives not lived. When Will does come with Megan and Alyssa, only he can see the squad members. Mac is first outraged that Will married Alyssa, then moved to tears when he sees his daughter and thankful that Will has taken care of her. Alyssa and the squad also find out that Will saved Mac's life during the ambush in Nam, not the other way around. Mac killed himself later in a field hospital because he refused to return home as a paraplegic. Mac convinces her that her father was a hero anyway-that they all were. The squad forgives Will for surviving. He normally would have been the first one to be killed in the ambush because he was on the point. Will can finally forgive himself and start life anew. Alyssa too is able to slay an old demon when she admits to herself that it was really Will she loved when she married Mac. But Mac was their best friend and leader, and she couldn't say no to his proposal, not with him going off to war. In the end, Will delivers a letter from the "other side" to Madison McCabe; in it, Mason Washington tells Madison that best thing she can do to honor the veterans of the Vietnam War is to live her own life as fully and passionately as possible-live it for those young men and women who didn't get the chance to live their own lives.