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Veterans' Day

A A A Comments By Susan Froyd Thursday, Nov 4 2010

The plight of the returning war veteran isn’t a particularly new theme — really, it’s as old as war itself — but it’s an enduring one. And Tom Cole’s harrowing 1976 play Medal of Honor Rag, based on the true story of a black Vietnam vet, remains vital on a universal level unhindered by time, place and sociology. Barbara Thayer of the nonprofit Association for Retention of Cultural Heritages (ARCH) thinks it’s a great vehicle for sparking recognition of one of society’s harshest hidden ills. “I was searching for a theatrical piece that would speak to the magnitude of difficulty and the significance of the problems veterans face after they return home from active duty,” Thayer explains.

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She found it with Medal of Honor Rag, which opens at 2 p.m. today at Su Teatro @ the Denver Civic Theatre, 721 Santa Fe Drive, for a run through November 7. “The veteran, in a very terrible and yet interesting way, is at the nexus of social predicaments we all face: health, education, housing, employment-related things. These are all of the basic predicaments of our contemporary American universe,” she says. “By taking the opportunity to use that as a starting point, we hope to get people talking about it a lot. “They’ll see some fantastic acting and a powerful and moving yet legitimate form of entertainment that’s not a diatribe or a case of proselytizing on a cause,” Thayer continues. “What theater can do better than many other media is encourage that intimate relationship with a topic through identification with characters. Audiences can be drawn into the circumstances and world of a living, real person with predicaments they will recognize and care about.”

Tickets are $10 and can be purchased in advance by e-mailing medalofhonortickets@gmail.com or calling 303-296-0219.
Sundays, 2 p.m.; Nov. 5-6, 7:30 p.m. Starts: Oct. 24. Continues through Nov. 7, 2010

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