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May 14-20, 2003 theater Gentlemen Volunteers
If you think mime is some guy trying to get out of an invisible box, think again. Gentlemen Volunteers is a brilliant show, performed partly in mime, partly in English and partly in French, that provides one of the most enjoyable evenings in the theater I¹ve spent in a long time -- and I can¹t stand that guy in the box. Emotionally satisfying as well as politically substantial, Gentlemen Volunteers is also intensely theatrical: What a pleasure to be in the presence of such talented, disciplined, imaginative performers. Someone draws a window in the air with one finger and another actor reaches out, quite naturally, and opens that illusory window. A finger draws eyeglasses on an actor's face and then that actor adjusts those imaginary glasses up on his nose. This astonishingly vivid illusion-creating sustains itself for the 85 minutes of the show performed in promenade, which means we follow the actors from station to station in the vast, nearly empty room. These people work with next to no props or makeup -- never mind a net. Pig Iron's show follows Rich and Vincent, who leave Yale to join a volunteer ambulance corps in France the year before the U.S. enters World War I -- the same adventure that would give Hemingway material for A Farewell To Arms. The war to end all wars: Now there's a concept. As a slogan producer, WWI was right up there with shock and awe; even in those days, the issues of neutrality, patriotism and humanitarian responsibility were vexed. Young men have always thought of war as a measure of manhood and an opportunity for heroism; and, in 1916, the battlefields of Europe beckoned to the men of Princeton and Yale eager to escape their hothouse of privilege. Rich (Dito van Reigersberg) is a gung ho jock eager to get into the action. Vincent (Gabriel Quinn Bauriedel) is a disillusioned poet who sees war as a fool's horror show. All the predictable stuff happens: They fall in love with two nurses, English Mary (Cassandra Friend) and French Francoise (Emmanuelle Delpech-Ramey). They write letters from the front. The women nurse the wounded and make beds and write -- or don't write -- back. There is heartbreak and there is joy. James Sugg supplies convincing sound effects from the sidelines as well as musical accompaniment on the accordion. Solveig Holum wrote the text and Trey Lyford designed the lights, which create not only emotional effects but also room divisions. Dan Rothenberg directs. Gentlemen Volunteers has toured the world and been lavishly praised by the foreign press, and now that the much-acclaimed Pig Iron Theatre Co. is giving its hometown a brief chance to see this show, don't miss it. GENTLEMEN VOLUNTEERS Through May 18, Pig Iron Theatre Co. at Christ Church Annex, 20 N. American St., 215-627-1883 
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