TIMES UNION REVIEW

'Elliot' transcends time

By MICHAEL ECK, Special to the Times Union
First published: Friday, June 1, 2007

HUDSON -- Three soldiers stand on the tarmac, awaiting the flight that will take them to war. It is 1950, and George is going to Korea. It is 1965, and George Jr. is headed for Vietnam. It is 2003, and Elliot is bound for Iraq.

The play is "Elliot, A Soldier's Fugue," but as you can see it is not only Elliot's story. It is every soldier's story, and every family's story.

Bravo to Stageworks for opening its season with "Elliot," which also happens to be its first collaboration with Chicago's Rivendell Theatre Ensemble.

Stageworks has made adventurous theater its stock in trade and "Elliot" extends that legacy. Not only is the play -- written by Quiara Alegria Hudes -- contemporary and socially potent, it is also, in purely artistic terms, immensely satisfying.

Hudes' structure is a wonder. She freely plays with time, but never loses the audience. Her rhythm (well attended to by Rivendell Producing Artistic Director Tara Mallen) is cinematic, and so is her sense of scene. But it's not contrary to say that Hudes is also fantastically theatrical.

All four characters narrate; expose; and comment on the action. And all four operate as satellites of each other.

There is less plot than tale in "Elliot" and suffice to say that it traces three generations through three wars, successively showing that the details never really change.

But the telling itself is gripping and imaginative; and very well acted by Manolo Santalla, Gustavo Mellado, Juan F. Villa and Meighan Gerachis -- who plays Army nurse Ginny, who meets George Jr. in Vietnam and goes on to become Elliot's mother.

In essence, she provides the gravity that the men spin around.

Her garden monologue is bittersweet and believable, and it contains the play's best line, "(planting) a seed is a contract with the future."

Mellado also shines hard with a solo moment as an older man losing his memory, but recalling the music in his life. His speech establishes the fugue of the title.

Everything about this production works, and Jaymi Lee Smith's set and lighting design exemplify the care taken by Stageworks and Rivendell.

The set is a remarkable piece of work that offers clean lines that tell a story on their own, of boot camps, barricades and backyard Philadelphia oases.

At 75 minutes, there is no fat on this show, and no melodrama. Are soldiers good? Are soldiers bad? These are not the questions posed in "Elliot."

Soldiers are. George is. George Jr. is. And Elliot is.

They find their own questions in foreign lands, with rifles in their hands. And their answers are shatteringly personal, and so deep that they cannot speak them -- even to each other.

War is hell whenever it happens.

"Elliot" is a play about war now, and you should see it now.

Michael Eck is a freelance writer and frequent contributor to the Times Union.

Theater review
"ELLIOT, A SOLDIER'S FUGUE"
When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday
Where: Stageworks/Hudson, 41-A Cross St., Hudson
Length: 75 minutes.
Continues: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday. 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. 2 p.m. Sunday. Through June 10.
Tickets: $22-$27
Info: 822-9667, http://www. stageworkshudson.org