Backstage
April 12, 2006
by Lisa Jo Sagolla
A supremely intelligent play by Peter Morris, Guardians comprises two enthralling, fact-based monologues. One is inspired by the life of Lynndie England, the American G.I. who was photographed participating in the torture of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib. The other is derived from the smutty escapades of a British journalist involved in the Daily Mirror's publication of fake torture photos during the same month the Abu Ghraib scandal erupted. The play wants us to equate sensationalist journalism and pornography, while urging us to indict the largely economic "invisible forces" that are truly responsible for the atrocities committed in the name of American interests.
Though it may sound like a bleak affair, Guardians is so scintillatingly written, seductively performed by Katherine Moennig and Lee Pace, and crisply directed by Jason Moore that the evening is a delicious satirical diversion. Morris ingeniously injects sharp political commentary into the beguiling personal stories related by the two markedly opposite characters: the man, a self-described "urban homosexual" whose overarching goal in life is to become a newspaper columnist, and the woman, a moronic hillbilly who simply wants to get out of West Virginia.
Morris is an exceptionally skillful craftsman of dramatic juxtapositions. He has created an abundance of shared images that reappear and serve as equally potent, poetic pepper in each tale. He also has that prized ability to set horrific statements within humorous contexts, so we're continually shocked into reordering our mindsets as we find ourselves laughing uproariously at "inappropriate" times. For example, one of the "funniest" moments in Guardians is when we hear that as the young G.I. was being shipped off to Iraq, her mother's parting words to her daughter were "Make sure to send some pictures back."
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