THEATER REVIEW : ‘Pilgrims’ Cast Illuminates ‘Vietnam Play’ Sound Bites

When is a play a “Vietnam play”? When in Act I an impulsive young student with sideburns says, in a hushed tone, “I don’t even know where Vietnam is,” and you wonder at exactly what point in Act II you will learn he has been killed in action.

Stephen Metcalfe’s “Pilgrims,” which just opened at the Old Globe’s Cassius Carter stage, has some virtues as a Vietnam play, though it never transcends its genre, the way, say, “Angels in America” transcends being an “AIDS play.” One reason is its predictability.

Another is that Metcalfe likes the sound bite--”I don’t even know where Vietnam is.” That line has the ring of a writer making a point, particularly because the student who utters it is serving detention for passionately contradicting a teacher who endorses the bombing of Hanoi. So you’d think he’d have some idea of the geography of the situation. When that student is subsequently shown Vietnam on the globe and is astonished to learn that Vietnam is far, far away, it just doesn’t wash.

Nevertheless, “Pilgrims” is often engaging, thanks in part to a vivid cast, directed by Thomas Bullard, that doesn’t try to avoid the play’s cliches but succeeds in making them entertaining. The first act is set in a detention room in an American high school, 1969. There are the ordinary high school travails--the terribly shy girl who finds her voice by playing Juliet in the senior play, the snotty rich boy who flaunts his power, the unreachable but clearly bright student. Their troubles are both trivialized and yet made heartbreakingly important in the specter of Vietnam.

Gregory Vignolle is appealing as the wisecracking, foolishly brave Frank, who’s headed for the Marines because he likes their attitude. William Anton is instantly and reassuringly familiar as Mr. Cook, the English teacher who couldn’t make it on the New York stage but who inspires his students through his love of Shakespeare. Mr. Cook also happens to be a liberal, and there are ominous rumblings that his pacifist convictions do not sit well with the school board.

Before Mr. Cook gets the boot, he will of course touch the lives of his students, none more than Jilly O’Brien (Tracy Middendorf), the pretty, touching, shy girl and the only character who appears in both acts. Middendorf gives a kind of bravado performance, making her character range in emotional age from 4 to 12 to 17, without being cloying. Although it is not a subtle performance, it is fun to watch. Jilly’s brow is almost constantly knit to ward off anyone who might be thinking of speaking to her, and she keeps her head hanging down, sometimes as far as her lap.

But she somehow emits just enough personality to let people know that drawing her out might be worth the effort, and virtually everyone is drawn to her except the play’s two shallow characters, both straight from stock, an obnoxious popular girl (Elisa Llamido) and a spoiled jock (David Mann). John Paul Saurine stands out as Jilly’s inarticulate but good-hearted second-act love interest.

Metcalfe does his worst writing in the character of Dee D’Angelo (Dann Florek), the kindly pizza parlor owner, close cousin to the guy who runs the soda fountain in “West Side Story”--benign, wise, and all in a suffocatingly “Happy Days” kind of way. His reaction to the play’s inevitable bit of terrible news, through no fault of Florek’s, is particularly unbelievable.

“Life goes on. That’s what makes it wonderful and what makes it hurt so,” says Dee, at a particularly difficult moment. Here, as in every speech that expresses a character’s philosophy, the play shows its seams.

The same is true when Mr. Cook tells one of his students that he thinks dreams are important and that “I think we’re living in a time when dreams are being replaced by disillusions.” It’s true that we all sensed that then. But that line, like many others, has the distinct sound of being put down on paper a quarter of a century later.

* “Pilgrims,” Old Globe Theatre, Cassius Carter Centre Stage, San Diego, Tuesday-Sunday, 8 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 2 p.m. Ends Aug. 12. $20-36. (619) 239-2255. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes.

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William Anton: Ed Cook Tracy Middendorf: Jilly O’Brien David Mann: Dan Hackett Gregory Vignolle: Frank D’Angelo Dann Florek: Dee D’Angelo John Paul: Saurine Roy Ferguson Gary Brownlee: John Toole Elisa Llamido: Marcia Miller An Old Globe Theatre production. By Stephen Metcalfe. Directed by Thomas Bullard. Sets by Greg Lucas and Robin Sanford Roberts. Costumes by Michael Krass. Lights by Ashley York Kennedy. Sound by Jeff Ladman. Stage manager Julie Baldauff.