Musical explores cruelty, connection and beauty

Misogyny is a hateful weapon in Dogfight, a production being staged by Dry Cold Productions through Sunday that features music from Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the team that scored hits with La La Land and Dear Evan Hansen.

Set on the eve of the assassination of U.S president John F. Kennedy, Dogfight — with a book by Peter Duchan, based on the 1991 film of the same name — follows a group of U.S. marines waiting to go to Vietnam. On the town in San Francisco for one last night, the young men participate in a revolting tradition: they throw their money into a pot and whoever can find the ugliest date will ship out a few hundred dollars richer.

“It’s a tradition that actually existed and probably to a degree, still exists today,” says director Justin Stadnyk. “The justification that they used at the time was by desensitizing themselves and dehumanizing the other, the soldiers wouldn’t have feelings, so that when they go to war, they’ve stripped themselves of any sensitivities to taking another life or treating another human like an object.”

In the rehearsal hall last Friday, the metaphor of misogynistic weaponization was actualized as the cast was led through a replica-firearm safety seminar by Manitoba educator Dave Brown. “This isn’t John Wick,” said Brown, whom Keanu Reeves has called “the Jedi master of firearms training.”

Brown, who’s been a firearm safety co-ordinator in theatre and film since the 1980s, then quoted Thomas Hobbes when describing the brutality of war and the unforgiving nature of a mishandled, disrespected prop. “It’s nasty, brutish and short,” he said.

As Brown walked the cast and crew through his workshop, Stadnyk, along with star Katie German and producer Donna Fletcher, considered the potent messages at the heart of the play, the latest in Dry Cold’s mission to produce musicals not seen before on local stages.

Fletcher says the ‘60s-set work belongs to the same lineage as swashbuckling 1940s musicals like Anchors Aweigh and On the Town, except it pokes holes through the nostalgic, innocent filter often associated with previous generations, helping to shed light on the tensions at play in contemporary times.

“Like Band of Brothers or Saving Private Ryan, this isn’t about the glory but the cost and not just the cost to entire generations, but to individuals,” she says.

“There’s a lot of focus on the men in the show, but all of the women have specific moments where they hold a lot of power,” says German, whose waitress Rose challenges the outlook of strapping marine Eddie Birdlace (Reid McTavish). “Even if the women aren’t onstage for as much time, the things they say and do are so integral to changing how the characters move in this space and I found that really curious too.”

For German, who directed this season’s Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre production of Little Women, Dogfight feels pressing because it forces audiences and actors to redefine beauty.

In the theatre world, every actor is confronted by both self-image and expected appearance, she says.

“As a woman going through it, it’s challenging to see the breakdowns for productions and being like, ‘Can I fit into this mould that you think I should be fitting into?’ So this show is a really interesting commentary.”

“There’s a great line in the show where Eddie says to Rose, ‘I don’t care what you look like,’ and she simply responds, ‘I wish you did,’” Stadnyk says.

“As a mom, this show is a really nice teaching tool,” says German, who has two children. “Theatre is a wonderful, safe way to introduce these concepts, provided that you have the conversations afterward.”

While the show traces its way through emotionally charged material, Stadnyk says the heaviness is balanced and juxtaposed by Pasek and Paul’s “young, testosterone-fuelled music.”

Will they ever stop singing that same old song?

ben.waldman@winnipegfreepress.com

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