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DocuSign Envelope ID:Al 391C8C-C731-4683-B498-D5B7783F86E4 eets WWI in Into the Breach I Theater I Indy Week <br /> opposed to war, brings the most news about the world outside. Meanwhile, <br /> his nemesis, the ultra-conservative Verity Oeb Brinkley), has turned into a <br /> young and humorless budding autocrat. <br /> Bowater's gift for elevated poetic metaphor and discourse is consistently on <br /> display. In an opening variation on the prologue from Henry V, a severe <br /> Laurel Ullman as the Chorus vividly describes the marks that centuries of <br /> conflict have left on the face of Europe. An "oozing gash ... like scar tissue <br /> on a boxer's brow" has reopened, "hacked by untutored butchery." Ullman <br /> later describes a supposed supernatural intervention at the Battle of Mons as <br /> "a fiction dressed in the uniform of gossip" that "struts about like a five-star <br /> lie." <br /> As Duncan and his former students re-examine Henry V, they explore <br /> monologues such as the famous St. Crispin's Day speech that have inspired <br /> generations of soldiers. They also uncover in Shakespeare's text the sudden <br /> limits of wartime gallantry. As they do, both teacher and students struggle <br /> to reconcile their consciences with their present duty. <br /> That task becomes no easier as Holden describes how differently officers are <br /> treated than enlisted men, and Fellowes recounts the summary trial and <br /> execution of a fellow soldier. <br /> Gregor McElvogue's direction is crisp and sure-footed. Bowater transitions <br /> effectively from florid oratory to the commonplace talk of men in a war. In a <br /> time when cowardice is a potentially capital offense, we watch five men and <br /> Ullman's Nurse Claire struggle with their fears and uncertainties. Then we're <br /> left to struggle with their loss. <br /> The show is hardly a joyless affair: The ribaldry and the mixture of folk and <br /> show tunes sung by Verity's brother Bertie (Brandon Rafalson) brighten the <br /> revue they ultimately produce. But in the season of ghosts now close upon <br /> us, Into the Breach is likely to be the most haunting production of the lot. <br /> This article appeared in print with the headline "Love and rockets." <br /> latest in theater <br /> Searching for the strange in the familiar: Shakespeare and Sondheim at <br /> PlayMakers Rep <br /> A Midsummer Night's Dream and Into the Woods are the rotating repertory at Playmakers through <br /> Dec. 7 <br /> by Byron Woods <br /> Theater review: Chicago composer John Kander doesn't stick The Landing <br /> Kander's new musical runs at Deep Dish in Chapel Hill through Nov. 22 <br /> by Byron Woods <br /> http://www.indyweek.comAndyweek/henry-v-meets-wwi-in-into-the-breach/Content?oid=4269302&mode=print 213 <br />