stage matters / By Margaret Thomas Kelso and William Kowinski

This Season in Ashland

Welcome Home,*Jenny Sutter*by Julie Marie Myatt joins a long line of stories about soldiers returning from war, dating back to Homer’s Odyssey. And like Ulysses, Jenny Sutter does not take a direct path home. But instead of Calypso’s island, Iraq war veteran Jenny detours by way of Slab City, Calif. (an actual abandoned Marine base populated by squatters), in her own odyssey to find herself before reconnecting with her family. Unlike Ulysses, she is coming home injured: She suffers from PTSD, survivor’s guilt and an amputated leg. And as a woman, she faces greater expectations to emotionally reunite with her children. The play asks: Can she heal herself enough to be able to face the rest of the journey home?

Approximately 200,000 women have served in Iraq and Afghanistan so far, and more of them have faced hostile fire and resulting injuries than women in the military ever before.

The director, Jessica Thebus, discovered the perfect tone for the piece: amusing, gritty and without a trace of sentimentality. The performances are all strong. Gwendolyn Mulamba plays an acerbic and ironic Jenny, while Kate Mulligan as Lou, a professional itinerant trying to give up her many addictions, is an upbeat foil for the laconic Jenny. Other residents of the slabs are Buddy, Lou’s sometimes boyfriend/preacher (skillfully played by David Kelly); Cheryl, Lou’s hairdresser/therapist (K.T. Vogt); and Donald, an emotionally damaged cipher. Gregory Linington’s deft performance prevents this character from sliding into romanticism.

Richard Hay created a simple set that serves flawlessly while maintaining a bit of magic in the scene transitions that OSF does so well. Allen Lee Hughes’s lighting not only supports the action and mood but creates locales. Except for several extended lifeless scenes, the direction was skillful and sensitive, honoring the pain, celebrating survival and finding the humor in a challenging situation.

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