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This appeared in today's OpinionJournal. I have edited what appears below for length and political content.
Faith and Fiber
BY DANIEL HENNINGER
Thursday, August 9, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT
...the most cathartic experience I've had recently in matters of war or peace was seeing a stage play about . . . war.
The play is "Beyond Glory," written and performed by Stephen Lang at the Roundabout Theater in New York. In barest outline, Mr. Lang, who originated the role of the accused Marine colonel in the Broadway production of "A Few Good Men," brings to life eight recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor from World War II, Korea and Vietnam. Without interruption for 80 minutes, Mr. Lang recreates eight different men, who relate the hellish events that earned them the Medal of Honor. As described recently by Journal theater critic Terry Teachout, this is "acting of the highest imaginable quality, a performance that will sear its way into your mind and linger there forever after." An understatement.
In a conversation about the play last weekend, Mr. Lang said this play's about "humility."
The play, "Beyond Glory," opened in 2004 on the edge of Arlington Cemetery, at a small theater inside the Women in Military Service Memorial. Some nights only three people showed up. He played on. Then he got a strong review, and lots of people started attending. One was a program director at the National Endowment for the Arts, Jon Peede.
But we're ahead of the story. Jon Peede told Chairman Gioia he'd just seen a pretty amazing play about Medal of Honor recipients that would make a nice fit with "Operation Homecoming." Result: Stephen Lang was able to put the Medal of Honor's reality in front of soldier audiences all over the world--in Europe, at Pearl Harbor, the DMZ in Korea and of course in the Middle East, memorably aboard the aircraft carrier USS Vinson in the Persian Gulf.
He performed on the Vinson three times in a day, losing 10 pounds. Two shows were done on the flight deck, each time before 500 to 600 sailors. In the evening he did it in a smaller room for about 100 officers. Some wept.
Here's why one person wept at "Beyond Glory." I didn't know who the eight MoH soldiers and Marines were the first time I saw the play. The fourth man portrayed is Adm. James Stockdale. In the 1980s, I worked with Jim Stockdale (and later met him several times) to shape a long, remarkable feature that he wrote for The Wall Street Journal on the meaning of his seven years as a prisoner during Vietnam at Hoa Lo, the Hanoi Hilton.
Stephen Lang, using Stockdale's words, revealed the reality of Hoa Lo prison--the torture known as "the ropes," the years in isolation, the ruined but never-broken man. When Stockdale/Lang slits his wrists to avoid being "taken down," and describes why, it is unbearable.
Last Saturday after he'd finished the matinee performance (the play closes a week from Sunday), I asked Stephen Lang: You've now spent several years with these eight guys; what do you think "Beyond Glory" is about. "For the longest time," he said, "I couldn't give it a name. I finally concluded that what binds these men is faith and fiber." Pretty simple. Faith and fiber.
Mr. Henninger is deputy editor of The Wall Street Journal's editorial page. His column appears Thursdays in the Journal and on OpinionJournal.com.
Faith and Fiber
BY DANIEL HENNINGER
Thursday, August 9, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT
...the most cathartic experience I've had recently in matters of war or peace was seeing a stage play about . . . war.
The play is "Beyond Glory," written and performed by Stephen Lang at the Roundabout Theater in New York. In barest outline, Mr. Lang, who originated the role of the accused Marine colonel in the Broadway production of "A Few Good Men," brings to life eight recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor from World War II, Korea and Vietnam. Without interruption for 80 minutes, Mr. Lang recreates eight different men, who relate the hellish events that earned them the Medal of Honor. As described recently by Journal theater critic Terry Teachout, this is "acting of the highest imaginable quality, a performance that will sear its way into your mind and linger there forever after." An understatement.
In a conversation about the play last weekend, Mr. Lang said this play's about "humility."
The play, "Beyond Glory," opened in 2004 on the edge of Arlington Cemetery, at a small theater inside the Women in Military Service Memorial. Some nights only three people showed up. He played on. Then he got a strong review, and lots of people started attending. One was a program director at the National Endowment for the Arts, Jon Peede.
But we're ahead of the story. Jon Peede told Chairman Gioia he'd just seen a pretty amazing play about Medal of Honor recipients that would make a nice fit with "Operation Homecoming." Result: Stephen Lang was able to put the Medal of Honor's reality in front of soldier audiences all over the world--in Europe, at Pearl Harbor, the DMZ in Korea and of course in the Middle East, memorably aboard the aircraft carrier USS Vinson in the Persian Gulf.
He performed on the Vinson three times in a day, losing 10 pounds. Two shows were done on the flight deck, each time before 500 to 600 sailors. In the evening he did it in a smaller room for about 100 officers. Some wept.
Here's why one person wept at "Beyond Glory." I didn't know who the eight MoH soldiers and Marines were the first time I saw the play. The fourth man portrayed is Adm. James Stockdale. In the 1980s, I worked with Jim Stockdale (and later met him several times) to shape a long, remarkable feature that he wrote for The Wall Street Journal on the meaning of his seven years as a prisoner during Vietnam at Hoa Lo, the Hanoi Hilton.
Stephen Lang, using Stockdale's words, revealed the reality of Hoa Lo prison--the torture known as "the ropes," the years in isolation, the ruined but never-broken man. When Stockdale/Lang slits his wrists to avoid being "taken down," and describes why, it is unbearable.
Last Saturday after he'd finished the matinee performance (the play closes a week from Sunday), I asked Stephen Lang: You've now spent several years with these eight guys; what do you think "Beyond Glory" is about. "For the longest time," he said, "I couldn't give it a name. I finally concluded that what binds these men is faith and fiber." Pretty simple. Faith and fiber.
Mr. Henninger is deputy editor of The Wall Street Journal's editorial page. His column appears Thursdays in the Journal and on OpinionJournal.com.
