The Theater: Rags of Honor

THE BASIC TRAINING OF PAVLO HUMMEL

by DAVID RABE

A couple of G.I.s popping open beer cans with Mama-san and her whores. Through the bead curtain, a hand lobs a lump of steel. Thump and roll. "Grenade!" Soldier scoops it up, hesitates in stupid disbelief. FLASH! BLAM! So begins—and 140 minutes later, in an almost exact replay, so ends—The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel. Between these two unanswerable exclamation points, Playwright David Rabe strings the lifeline of the soldier, Pavlo; then on that cord he attempts to hang what he sees as the rags of national honor, bloodied by the Viet Nam War.

To...