Writer: Richard Vergette
Director: Andrew Pearson
Housed in the newly named Godber Studio, Leaving Vietnam is a gripping and beautifully shocking insight into the lived experiences of a war veteran.
Jimmy, played here by the play’s writer Vergette, arrives unshaven and clad in blue overalls. He’s a mechanic now and it’s clear that cars make him tick. Brought up by ‘his grandma and a photograph’ in Munroe City, Michigan, he recalls the misadventures of his service and the brutality of his harrowing past. Vergette’s performance is engaging; the audience held by the images he portrays through his own brilliant writing. The words are almost darkly poetic: wearing his heart on his sleeve whilst reminding us that “thinking isn’t always healthy”.
In this wonderfully constructed one man play, Jimmy talks us through the merciless and often unfeeling scenes of horror, with each line skilfully crafted, painting an image of the stark reality of those on the front line of this 20 year war.
This play is not for the faint hearted. Dealing with bold issues that are often difficult to digest, this is a hard hitting one-act drama. A stark reminder of the suffering and trauma of post-war America this cleverly written play is succinct and darkly moving. It is a real cry of protest against politicians who, in the late 1960s, sent a generation of young Americans to war. But, as our protagonist reminds us he was a marine, he wasn’t drafted, this was his duty.
The play poses an essential question to its benefit, with a surging rise in PTSD – does a war or the after affects of it, ever really leave you?
Leaving Vietnam is an extraordinary tour de force that is both uplifting and devastating in equal measure, with Vergette delivering the role with an honest and painful commitment to the story.
Following its date in Hull, the play moves to Edinburgh and it deserves every success at the fringe and beyond. Emotionally charged and utterly engaging, this is a sensitive treatment of a major moment in history. It demonstrates how the mind is a powerful tool and with the current devastation in the Ukraine it feels like the right time for this story to be told.
Vergette, antithetical of himself, gives a gripping and frank performance. The real star here though is the writing. Look out for the twist in the final moments.
Leaving Vietnam will stay with this critic for quite some time.
