What I liked
The cast was incredible top to bottom! They made their roles come alive in a complex and complicated story.
What I didn't like
SPOILER ALERT:
I think there is a missed opportunity in the plot at the end. I would have the war vet father from 1971 disarm the patient. Because, as deeply flawed as he is, as a character, he has shown his propensity towards extreme bravery in dangerous circumstances during World War 2.
My overall impression
A play that makes us ask some interesting philosophical and existentialist questions about our society in the past and present. What does it mean to be an American? Do the answers to today’s problems lie in forgotten or abandoned values in our past? Would yesterday’s problems have been easier to solve if we applied our modern enlightened perspective to attempt to solve them back then? Is mankind’s nature fundamentally fixed, or can we grow and evolve past the self destruction of violence and war?
