THE HELLS OF WAR: NINE CIRCLES

Marin Theatre Company Presents
NINE CIRCLES
by
Bill Cain
Directed by Kent Nicholson

War makes thieves and peace hangs them.
George Herbert

Bill Cain is a practicing Jesuit priest and an immensely gifted playwright. His writing reflects his concerns with heaven and hell and how traditional beliefs can warp the individual’s concept of the way to live his life.

Cain’s organization of the play is inspired by Dante’s INFERNO, an allegory that paints Hell as nine circles of suffering that represent the soul’s recognition and rejection of sin on his journey toward God. That is why the drama we see on the Marin Theatre stage is far more than a simple story of a soldier‘s execution for the deeds he committed in the name of war; it is a brilliant exploration of how mankind twists morality to justify his actions. “Life is not a battle, but a journey,” says Cain. “The ultimate goal is not the obliteration of the enemy. In Dante, when you achieve your crown, it is because you have become ‘lord of yourself.’ ”

NINE CIRCLES is fiction but its plot was inspired by the trial and conviction of Steven B. Green, who was accused of instigating the brutal massacre of an entire Iraqi family in 2006. “Stories are my way of understanding the world,” says Cain. “We can understand an event if we can fit it into a story.”

Green was described as “a petulant loner and a hard-drinking druggie” and after he was inducted he told one of his neighbors,” I’m gonna go over there and kill ‘em all.” And that was exactly what basic training taught him to do. A sergeant who was in Green’s platoon asked, “What does an infantry rifle platoon do? It destroys. That’s what it is trained to do. Now,… let slip the leash, and it becomes something monstrous.”

There were three other members of Green’s platoon who were part of the episode but they were exonerated because they testified against Green. They refused to take responsibility for joining in the horrific rape, murder and burning of an innocent family and allowed Green to take full blame for an incident that they too made happen.

Green’s personality is very much like Cain’s character, Daniel Reeves, played with unremitting honesty by Craig Marker. Reeves served in Iraq as a member of the United States Armed Services and was honorably discharged, against his will. He loved the army, the importance and sense of purpose it gave him as one of its soldiers. Upon his return to the states, he was arrested for acts he committed during his tour of duty. His record before he was inducted was less than laudable. He had served time in prison and had broken both civil and moral laws repeatedly before he was inducted. Yet, once he became a soldier, he was a loyal team member eager to do what it took to defend his country. He liked being part of something bigger than himself. The army gave him power and tried to teach him the responsibility that power entails. Reeves was comfortable in his military role and could not understand why he was arrested for acts he committed against the enemy. After all, he had been programmed to kill Iraqis. Wasn’t that why he was sent to battle? He was only doing what he had been told to do. “This was my one shot at being normal,” he tells the public defender after his arrest.

James Carpenter and Jennifer Erdmann play the other characters in the drama and their ability to become attorneys, chaplains, psychiatrists and social workers is nothing short of amazing. Thanks to director Kent Nicholson, the pace is as rapid as gunfire, the movement on stage almost military in its precision. The effect is as chilling as it is spell binding. NINE CIRCLES is a gut wrenching window into the kind of people we trust to defend us and how we brainwash them to make them succeed in combat.

The drama is performed without intermission on an almost bare stage. The audience cannot help but become part of the action and everyone in the intimate Lieberman Theatre captivated by the events happening before them. Michael Palumbo did a masterful job of creating mood and scene modulations with his use of light and dark emphasizing the choreographed movements of the actors. “NINE CIRCLES is very close to my heart,” says Cain. “It’s the journey of a young man who comes to understand who he is and what he has done, and that he can be empathetic with what he once thought was his enemy. It’s the story of a young man who achieves greatness by doing the one necessary thing – becoming himself.”

This production is theater at its best. It tells a story everyone needs to hear if he is to gather the courage to be the unique human being he is meant to be. “The MTC artistic staff was astounded by the power and grace of NINE CIRCLES,” says MTC Artistic Director Jasson Minadakis.

Don’t miss this extraordiinary production. You too will be astounded, thrilled and inspired.

Never think that war, no matter how necessary
Nor how justified, is not a crime.
Ernest Hemingway



IF YOU GO
NINE CIRCLES continues through November 7, 2010
Tuesday, Thursday, Friday & Saturday 8:00 PM
Wednesday 7:30 PM
Sunday 7:00 PM
Matinees some Saturdays & every Sunday 2:00 PM
WHERE: Marin Theatre Company
397 Miller Avenue
Mill Valley, CA 94941
TICKETS: www.marintheatre.org
415 388 5208