‘Strange Snow’ Melts Storm of War Into Images of Love

Stephen Metcalfe’s “Strange Snow” is going to be around a long time.

It’s one of those war plays that succeeds primarily because it’s not about war. Love is its subject, primarily about a romantic door that opens for two people who have never known love, and just as pointedly about the love that binds soldiers on the battlefield. And how sometimes the latter must be sorted out before the former can blossom.

It’s also about survival and the emotional fallout after the storm of battle has passed. In this production at Laguna Playhouse, director Robert Leigh catches onto these humanistic themes and molds them with sculptural solidity, sympathy and theatricality.

This play, written in 1983, almost always works to one degree or another, but Leigh has really gone into its core. In his hands, the revelations of the second act, about what happened in battle, are a shock even when you know what’s coming.

Megs (Ron Campbell) is a volatile, angry veteran, as he was an angry soldier. David (Andrew Barnicle) is silent and brooding. When Megs bangs on David’s door for an early-hours fishing date, what he finds is not so much the fulfillment of a promise they made to the buddy they left behind in Vietnam, but David’s plain, lonely high-school teacher sister Martha (Linda Gehringer).

Rarely have the tones and colors of Metcalfe’s writing been made so clear. Campbell is a superlative Megs, in his energy and lightness, he’s like a modern Puck, what Martha calls “endearing.” But there’s a volume of subtext going on beneath Campbell’s surface, details he slowly exposes bit by bit as it becomes clear that Megs has a maturity that David is slow finding. It’s a stunning performance that sticks in memory.

As Martha, Gehringer is gentle, even when she peaks, a perfect foil and balance as Campbell ricochets around her like a frantic puppy. Gehringer instills a sense of humor into the relationship that slowly builds between Martha and Megs as the action progresses, and her understanding brings new insights into the bond slowly building between them.

On the surface, Barnicle’s beer-guzzling brother David, who wanted to be a lawyer before the war and now drives trucks, is a stereotypical blue-collar type, living for the weekend benders that help him forget. But there is in his characterization also a hidden agenda that gives it richness. The scene in which Megs helps bring David out of the darkness of his guilt has never been more effective.

Jacquie Moffett’s living room/kitchen setting seems a bit expanded on the Laguna stage for the size of the action, but its look is just right and is warmly and evocatively lit in Paulie Jenkins’ lighting design.

David Edwards’ sound design is also a plus, a solo guitar invoking the play’s period and the period of the emotional cataclysm that holds Megs and David in its grip.

* “Strange Snow,” Moulton Theatre, Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach. Tuesday through Friday, 8 p.m.; Saturday, 2 and 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 and 7 p.m. Ends Oct. 9. $13-$22. (714) 497-9244. Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes. Ron Campbell: Megs

Linda Gehringer: Martha

Andrew Barnicle: David

A Laguna Playhouse production of Stephen Metcalfe’s comedy-drama. Directed by Robert Leigh. Scenic design: Jacquie Moffett. Lighting design: Paulie Jenkins. Costume design: Jacqueline Dalley. Sound design: David Edwards. Stage manager: D. Alexander.