Usually Dependable Circus Theatricals Misses the Mark With ‘Harm’s Way’
As happens with most wars, it took a couple of years for playwrights to capture various aspects of the armed conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now, however, it seems battle-fueled works are premiering every couple of weeks on an L.A. stage.
Shem Bitterman, best known for his work The Job, which won an L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award, collaborated last year with Circus Theatricals on Man.Gov, about an arms inspector whose life is altered radically when he is suspected of leaking information to a reporter.
Bitterman and the Downtown Los Angeles theater company have followed up this season with Harm’s Way. Both plays, directed by Steve Zuckerman, are scheduled to open off-Broadway in New York next year, but this latest effort falls short as both a revelatory exploration about the war and a family drama. The plot lacks surprises and the dialogue is predictable, but there are …