STAGE REVIEW : ‘Biloxi’ Shows Insight

With “Biloxi Blues,” the North Coast Repertory Theatre has completed each play in Neil Simon’s bittersweet trilogy about alter ego Eugene Morris Jerome.

It’s been quite an undertaking for this small but gifted company, representing nothing less than an homage to Simon’s best work to date.

After the opening of “Biloxi Blues,” it’s safe to say the North Coast has pulled it off--and done so nicely. It’s a threesome of which artistic director Olive Blakistone can and should be proud.

Remarkably, the company, for those who followed the three, has maintained a consistency, in part by keeping the same lead, the wide-eyed Paul Epstein, as Eugene, and Eugene’s same foil, Dan Wingard, who played Eugene’s brother in “Brighton Beach Memoirs” and “Broadway Bound.”

In “Biloxi Blues,” which takes place in Eugene’s Army regiment, stationed in Biloxi, Miss., Wingard plays Arnold Epstein, the closest thing Eugene has to a brother in the play--the only other Jew in Eugene’s group, a person who advises him, admires him and infuriates him, a person who, in short, reminds him of his brother. It’s an additional inside joke for those who do remember Wingard as the brother in earlier productions.

Under John Highkin’s intelligent direction, the actors play off each other sharply, although Wingard--who shows deft comic timing in the part--could suggest more wear and tear over the course of basic training. Wingard’s character has been singled out as the object of most of the sergeant’s wrath, and one could better appreciate his gutsiness in standing up for himself if we could better see the price he pays for his beliefs.

The ensemble work, too, is fine; the tension crackles--although in a play like this, it would work better at an even higher pitch.

But the major achievement is that, even in the midst of Simon’s ever-abundant flow of jokes, you never forget that these boys are preparing for war and not all will return. And those that do may not come out whole.

Of the three plays, “Biloxi Blues,” is the least-produced--possibly because it is the least sentimental of Simon’s works and gets its humor from such uncomfortable places. Simon raises his most serious philosophical questions here and, as in the later “Broadway Bound,” achieves poignancy without sacrificing the one-liners.

He takes six teen-age soldiers, most of them reluctant draftees, and shows how the Army tries to reverse a lifetime of training in compassion, independence, dignity and a revulsion for killing.

On Day One, they cast off the roast beef sandwiches their mother packed them for the ride in favor of Army rations, they march until exhaustion, perform under pressure, acquire enough fear for their commanding officer that they will obey orders without question, and develop enough frustration, anger and pent-up hostility that they will kill on command.

Each soldier responds to the boot camp method differently. Joseph Wykowski, played with proud bullheadedness by John Carroll, laps it up. Mike Strickland (Roy Seldridge), a natural follower, follows suit. Don Carney (Scott Ripley) has his doubts. James Hennesey (Tim Tulumello) remains a cipher, to be discovered later. Eugene just watches, takes notes on his companions in his composition book, and tries to stay out of trouble.

Only Arnold Epstein, the seeming wimp, takes on Sgt. Merwin J. Toomey (Mark Howen). He sabotages Toomey’s disciplinary methods by volunteering for punishments that would otherwise fall on the whole group. He refuses to give up his ideals or become a follower--even when Toomey tries to force the kids to understand that obeying orders without question may mean the difference between life and death in a battle situation.

But who is right in the end, Epstein or Toomey? Simon as writer is just as cagey about this as Eugene, the character. He does not take sides.

The impressionistic set by Ocie Robinson (who also did the subtle lighting), serves this play well by underlining the hypocrisy in the world these recruits inhabit. Behind the netting that drapes the back of the enlarged wooden stage are slogans and newspaper clippings from the day, including a Whites Only sign--a reminder that the United States Army of World War II was segregated, even as it went off to fight Hitler’s racism.

The sound design by Michael Shapiro is simple and unobtrusive, although more could be done to suggest the sea of soldiers surrounding this six-man island. Daphne Gilman suits up the soldiers with authenticity and has fun with a rose-studded black negligee for Susan Scher, who does a fine comic turn as the Mississippi prostitute whom the terrified Eugene visits, hoping to lose his virginity.

Amber Rae seems young and innocent enough for the shy Catholic girl to whom Eugene loses his heart, although her accent could stand more than a little Southernizing.

After watching Simon struggle through his latest play, “Jake’s Women,” a work-in-progress that only the Old Globe Theatre has staged, it’s nice to be reminded of the earlier Simon, who made the well-made play seem so effortless.

And yet, from “Biloxi Blues” to “Jake’s Women,” Simon is still struggling with the issue of whether as a writer he is getting the characters in his life right. He also challenges himself as to his life as a writer--does he observe life at the expense of living it? Is it cowardly to record other people’s stands instead of taking his own?

According to the program notes, Simon, who just completed work on a new movie, “The Marrying Man,” is now at work on a new play, “Lost in Yonkers,” set in 1942. Perhaps in that play he will continue to explore these ongoing questions.

“BILOXI BLUES”

By Neil Simon. Director is John Highkin. Set and lighting by Ocie Robinson. Sound by Michael Shapiro. Costumes by Daphne Gilman. With Mike Strickland, John Carroll, Scott Ripley, Paul Epstein, Dan Wingard, Mark Howen, Tim Tulumello, Susan Scher and Amber Rae. At 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and 7 p.m. Sundays through Sept. 2. At Lomas Sante Fe Plaza, Lomas Santa Fe Drive, Solana Beach, (619) 481-1055.