A war zone

Lights up.

Four Privates from the H for Humor Company (the world renowned infantry division comprised completely of Theater Artists) is pinned down by enemy fire in an unnamed country, in an unnamed war, in an age lost to any history book.

There isn’t much time left.

Matt Spring, 25, tough talkin’ radio man from the Bronx. Called ‘Baseball’ by his friends.

Nick Ryan, 24, wide-eyed translator witnessing combat for the first time.

Jason Ballweber, Age Unknown, refuses to talk about his past. Favorite phrase: “I’ve seen worse.”

Brant Miller, 17, lied about his age to the military, writes to his wife and unborn child everyday.

The radio on Matt’s backpack crackles to life. Nick crawls over to answer the call. The transmission is drowned out by the sounds of battle.

Nick: (Yelling.) Hey! Hey! Fellas! Command has a question!

Brant: (Yelling.) What?

Nick: I said command has a question!

Jason: Shoot!

Nick: They want to know... in our opinion... what is the function of the performing arts?

Brant: The function?

Nick: Yes! Of the performing arts! (Pause.) So what should I tell them?

Long pause.

Matt: As opposed to the fine arts?

Nick: Well, I wouldn’t necessarily term it opposed but...

Jason: (Lobbing hand grenade.) Well... for me, live performance is all about what’s living, what’s alive right in front of you... at that particular moment, right?

Matt: Yeah, I’d agree with that..

Jason: That immediate connection between audience and performer. I mean, one of the most consistent features of Four Humors shows is our lack of a fourth wall. To us, it’s not about putting up a barrier, but rather embracing that there are people here, all with a shared goal, a shared vision, to come together and be a part of one night. It’s like a well-planned party.

Matt: Yeah. It’s there and then it’s gone.

Brant: There is an undeniable energy to live performance. Witnessing the show on the night, seeing the successes, the mistakes...

Jason: Exactly. To see an actor miss or forget a line when I’m watching a show, it’s about the most nerve-wracking thing to witness as an audience member. I mean I get nervous for them. And I would never have that feeling watching a film or looking at a painting or reading a novel.

Matt: By the same token you might be lucky enough to be there on the best night the troupe ever had. I’ve seen shows where every aspect of the production is so perfectly executed that the hair on the back of my neck stood on end, but afterwards it’s incredibly difficult to put into words the combination of sight and sound that caused it do so.

Brant: You had to be there.

Matt: You had to.

Nick: The live aspect of theater makes everything a bit riskier, more dangerous. There’s this sense that at any moment, the whole thing can come crashing down around you.

Brant: And every audience has a different feel. I think we’ve all walked on stage, and immediately known that this audience, this particular group of people loves us. They might be a bunch of strangers, but for some reason they are here to love us. Of course there are other times you set foot on stage and immediately sense that this audience wants nothing to do with you. You can feel it, there’s this cloud... obviously it’s an invisible cloud-

Matt: Unless they really hate you.

Nick: Then it’s nerve gas.

Brant: Nerve Gas!

They all scramble to put gas mask on. Moment while they wait.

Jason: All clear.

They remove the gas masks.

Brant: (Speaking softly to the butterfly that has just landed on his fingers.) It’s so delicate... Everything... delicate. (Silence.) There were a couple times on the road, during the Mortem tour, that we would walk out on stage for our first performance in a new city and there’d be seven people in the audience, and from the get go it would be clear that they wanted nothing to do with us. Of course the very next show, a different group of people, are cheering, and hooting and hollering before we even start. And I think to myself, “You people don’t know us. Why are you doing that? Why are you doing that?” (He crushes the butterfly.) I guess I just had to know why, ya know? I couldn’t just let them love me.

Matt: An audience’s laughter won’t push a movie to be funnier.

Nick: And I think too, one of the great advantages for theater artists, we can use this immediacy of the live performance to our advantage. A novelist can’t peer over the shoulder of every single person who reads his book. All the reactions are after the fact: they read the book, they stewed on it, they wrote a review in a magazine or on a message-board. With the theater you get that general reaction, but you also get that specific, personal reaction during each moment of the piece. You’re tied to the audience in its entirety.

Jason: (Taking aim.) You’re aware of everyone...

Jason fires. A sniper falls dead, stage left.

Brant: Because they’re right in front of you. I’d say of the eight shows we’ve created together over the last three years, Mortem is probably the one most shaped by this audience reaction. We performed it over thirty times in five different cities, and the show really evolved throughout the tour.

Matt: If a new bit didn’t work, the crowd let us know immediately.

Jason: I don’t like to use the word ‘ritual’, but there is still that feeling when participating in a live performance. Not necessarily in the sense of “put on a suit and tie, we’re going to the theater,” but you know you can’t answer your cell phone, you know there are certain things you just cannot do at a live performance. There is still a little bit of sacredness to the performance arts that is missing from the other forms. I can go see a movie when I’m in the worse mood, but I could never go see a play. I know I’d be a bad audience member, I know that I would affect the performance. I know that I’m about to be a part of an event, versus just sitting back and doing my own thing.

Brant: You have to partake. I mean, somebody might bring you up on stage.

Jason: Which is our favorite type of theater.

Matt: (Laughs.) Bring ‘em up on stage, make ‘em feel uncomfortable.

Brant: (Laughing) You’re all right, Baseball.

Brant is shot in the chest. He looks down, confused.

Brant: Feels like November. I always hated November. Tell my wife...name our baby... Name our baby after me...

Jason: What if it’s a girl?

Brant dies.

Jason: (Shaking Brant.) Brant... What if it’s a girl?!?!

Nick: Incoming!!!

Lights out on everything.

We see four candles, down stage. Audience must sit and wait until all burn out.

The End. ❦