Category — In Conflict

In Conflict

If emotion had color, the stage would’ve looked like a rainbow throughout the show; the audience would’ve been a sea of all different hues. Director Douglas Wager turns Yvonne Latty’s book of inteviews with Iraq War vets into something that truly touches the heart. [Read more →]

A war veteran smiled about her patriotism while paralyzed from losing her limbs, another war veteran traumatized by the killing of innocence, and another left in agony from losing his older brother during the war. I was among the many who watched the play In Conflict and was deeply touched by the ruthlessness of war. Opened at the Barrow street theatre, In conflict, was a series of interviews of war veterans expressing their views on war and their adjustments after exiting the war. Adapted from the book by Yvonne Latty, In conflict captured its audience with ambivalent feeling of bitterness and appreciation for soldiers whose life were in turmoil after the war. [Read more →]

The Voices of Iraq Veterans

In Conflict is a play that gives voice to the stories of tragedy and triumph experienced by seventeen Iraq War veterans. They are the men and women from all over the country, of different backgrounds, various ranks, and different sexual orientations. These are the people that represent America. When I went to the play, I didn’t think I would be too interested since I thought I knew what war was like, from the action thrillers that get the top spots in box offices all across the world, and all the books that mention war.  I did not expect to be so moved by these real life stories of young men and women like me.  I also did not expect these stories to make me laugh or make me so sad. [Read more →]

The concept of war is one that transcends time. Conflict in one form or another is a part of human nature and war has been around throughout the whole of human history. Soldiers are, more often than not, the ones who have to pay the price of war. This point was very clearly made in the play, In Conflict. As the audience hears the words of soldiers who have recently returned from the conflict in Iraq, it becomes abundantly clear that the war has left them both physically and emotionally scarred. It is truly sobering to hear the toll that war takes upon those who have to wage it. [Read more →]

When it was decided that Yvonne Latty’s In Conflict: Iraq War Veterans Speak Out on Duty, Loss and the Fight to Stay Alive would be adapted into a play, the director should have paid particular attention to the format of the work that, while built upon socially responsible subject matter, is of a very unique nature and difficult to interpret in theater. Unfortunately, director Douglas C. Wager fails to do just that, not realizing that a play with narrative can have an audience but a play with interviews needs to have listeners. [Read more →]

in-conflict-production-photos-0384

            “Soldiers are not politicians, ”Ty Simmons asserts in Yvonne Latty’s book “In Conflict”, now adapted into a thought provoking Culture Project production. Our main military man was one of the many veterans whose tortured stories were heart wrenchingly revealed on the small stage at the Barrow Street theatre.

            Revealed would be the word because the open-minded cast and directors of the show managed to create both an expository play about a war that is very simple to bash. It would have been far easier for Culture Project or even Yvonne Latty to compile the memoirs of bitter and disgruntled opponents of the war but they didn’t and their lack of narrow-mindedness made this production all the more credible. [Read more →]

www.inconflicttheplay.com

             An American flag on one side and a map of Iraq on the other – three large tablets occupy the middle of the stage. Each tablet depicting a different portion of the image and spinning independently of the others – forcefully turned by the troubled characters, whose lives have spun just as much as those three central tablets. “In Conflict”, a new production by Douglas C. Wager, chronicles the individual stories of the magnificent characters that constitute the diverse group of Iraqi war veterans upon whom the play centers. [Read more →]

http://theater2.nytimes.com/2008/09/25/theater/reviews/25conf.html

           Based on the book by Yvonne Latty, In Conflict, presented on September 25, 2008 at the Barrow Street Theater, recounts the story of war veterans who served in Iraq.

           Unlike other documentaries based on war veterans’ experiences, In Conflict neither preaches anti-war, nor advocates being a war hawk. Instead, Latty includes the stories of all types of veterans: amputee, single, gay, female, AWOL, married, middle-aged, black, straight, doctor, war monger. When asked about her selection of veterans, Latty explained how she strived to create a balance, and refrained from modifying the interviewee’s words when writing her book. Perhaps the strongest aspect of the play is its ability to connect with the audience. We hear the raw, ugly, painful, and sometimes nauseating words and experiences of real soldiers. While veterans like Ty Simmons “bleed red, white, and blue,” others like Darryl Anderson “went AWOL and moved to Canada.” Regardless of the story we are envisioning, and despite the comic-relief and hints of sarcasm, In Conflict displays the vivid, shocking, and unnerving stories of Iraq War veterans.

[Read more →]

           The American flag wasn’t the only thing with flying colors at the Barrow Street Theatre this September 25^th. Each actor performing in “In Conflict” successfully fulfilled the roles of various soldiers being interviewed after returning home from the war. Most of the actors even had to play several different roles of soldiers with completely opposite experiences.

[Read more →]

The off Broadway play In Conflict is a production in conflict. Its shortcoming lies in the director’s (Douglas C. Wager) inability to transform Yvonne Latty’s text (In Conflict: Iraq War Veterans Speak Out on Duty, Loss, and the Fight to Stay Alive) into anything more than an embellished audio book.
[Read more →]