‘Heart’ Brings to Life the Horror of War

They have been deposited at the mouth of hell, they suddenly realize. These young nurses, who have just arrived in Vietnam, haven’t even learned their way around the operating room when choppers disgorge a stream of blasted, bleeding bodies.

The first soldier they encounter has lost half his face; his foot remains in the boot when it’s pulled off. He dies before they can do anything.

“Cover him,” their superior orders. “Move on. Next patient. Move on.”

Later, one of them will wail in frustrated agony: “A piece of my heart goes with each one of them.”

At Memorial Day weekend performances of “A Piece of My Heart,” viewers similarly left a piece of themselves with the women who served in Vietnam as nurses, Red Cross volunteers, USO entertainers, intelligence officers and so on. Shirley Lauro’s drama, inspired by the oral histories in Keith Walker’s book of the same name, was presented by Venture West Theatre from Friday through Sunday at the National Cemetery in West Los Angeles. The outdoor setting made the experience all the more powerful, for to the sides of the temporary stage, viewers could see row upon row of veterans’ white grave stones.

“A Piece of My Heart” interweaves the stories of six women who signed on for duty in Vietnam, some in search of freedom and opportunity they wouldn’t have had at home, some out of a deep desire to serve their country and to care for its fighters. The first act tracks their journey in and out of war’s horrors; the second charts their reentry into an America indifferent to what they have witnessed and endured.

Performers and viewers alike had to persevere through evening chill, extraneous noise and malfunctioning microphones. But from a Friday audience filled with veteran soldiers and nurses came knowing yelps, laughs and tears.

Johnathon Pape fluidly staged the show. The actors--Connie Ventress, Cynthia Carle, Elizabeth Morehead, Adrienne Brett Evans, Jeanne Mori, Juanita Jennings and Matt McKenzie (who played the male roles)--all gave earnest performances.

The story culminates at the 1982 dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington. To establish the setting, Venture West projected the wall’s white-lettered names onto the set, the performers and the audience, imprinting them onto everyone there.