Heroes: It's Not What You Think

First of all, Heroes is a bad title for this new Ross Valley Players’ production. (Bad title, Tom Stoppard, bad!) But Stoppard was only the translator, after all. The original French playwright, Gerald Sibleyras, called his work Le Vent des Peupliers (The Wind in the Poplars,) which is hardly an improvement. The play deserves better. Even worse, Heroes, which debuted in London two years ago, got the Olivier Award for Best New Comedy in 2006. The award would suggest that this play is a comedy. It isn’t. It is, however, a Bay Area premiere that opened at The Barn Theatre on Veterans’ Day, and that’s entirely fitting because it’s about veterans.

Three old French soldiers pass their days on the sunny terrace of a veterans’ hospital outside Paris. The subject of heroism never comes up. It’s 1959 now, and they never talk about the First World War – their war – nor do they discuss how they got the wounds that brought them to this hospital. They’re all neatly-dressed civilians now. Rank does surface here and there in the aristocratic Gustave, but he’s still a newcomer; having been here only six months. Philippe, whose “spells” from embedded shrapnel seem to be getting closer together, has been a resident ten years, and lame Henri has lived here twenty-five.

These three, in company with a large stone dog, meet and sustain each other on this small terrace at the rear of the hospital. From here, they can see a line of poplar trees on a nearby hill, just beyond the cemetery. They’ve claimed this territory for their own. But reconstruction on the front terrace might displace a number of other patients and bring an invasion, so the three resolve to “Defend the position!” While planning their defense, they complain about the hospital’s “general,” the implacable Sister Madeleine, admitting that they’d like to meet some women who aren’t nuns. And so, like all prisoners, they plan their escape. Henri proposes they take a picnic outside the grounds, just beyond the cemetery. Gustave, who breaks into shivers at the thought of leaving this space, draws up an elaborate plan to get them to Indochina. Philippe suggests they go up the hill to the poplars. All agree that they will “leave no wounded behind.”

There are laughs along the way, but they are of the regretful, empathetic variety. Director James Dunn calls Heroes “a bittersweet play” and “an actors’ play.” And these actors are up to the task.

Alex Ross (Henri) has been with Ross Valley Players since 1971 and has had leading roles all over the Bay Area. Alex’s Henri maintains a determined will to live despite his disability and a quarter century of hospitalization. Wood Lockhart, seen most recently as the Stage Manager in RVP’s Our Town, reveals the shattered psyche just behind Gustave’s haughty façade. And Russell Edmund Lessig (once the despicable Bill Sykes in Oliver) here portrays gentle, brain-injured Philippe, crumbling into old memories.

Jim Dunn has been directing and teaching theatre in Marin for 46 years. Most recently in Ross Valley, he directed an entirely different military play, A Few Good Men. And once again, well-known set designer Ken Rowland has designed the production’s graceful set long-distance from Wales.

Heroes, then, is not about heroes at all, nor does it have any resemblance to the TV show of the same name. It’s a quiet story about survivors, presented by a team of veterans. And its ending is superb.

Heroes will be performed at The Barn Theatre in the Marin Art & Garden Center Thursdays through Sundays, Dec. 16. Tickets range from $16 to $20, with all Thursday tickets $16. For reservations or additional information, call the box office, 456-9555, or see the website, www.rossvalleyplayers.com.