There's a War Going On?

A friend fresh out of the service argues that public apathy about Bush's war is a direct result of how well the effects of the conflict in our culture have been contained. Other than the immediate families and friends of service members, most of us never feel it. For the American prep-school boys of John Knowles' A Separate Peace, World War II is also a war of rumor and shadow, a horror from which routine has insulated them. This is only one of the heady themes key to Nadine Gilsenan's adaptation of Knowles' novel. And it's just the kind of thing we've come to expect from the KC children's theater that specializes in shows more daring and ambitious than almost any of the big-pants stages in town. Starting at 7 tonight at the Coterie Theatre in Crown Center (2450 Grand, 816-474-6552), director Jeff Church guides a cast of young bucks from rambunctious boyishness toward the slow, sobering effects of growing up. The world comes closer and closer to their lives, just as it does to ours. Maybe this will give us some pointers on how to handle it. Coterie Theatre
March 4-22, 2008