Last Of The Boys, theatre review: Clumsy but perceptive tale of loss

Steven Dietz's play pictures the uneasy relationship between two veterans of the Vietnam war. Now living in a mobile home in an obscure corner of California, Demetri Goritsas’s Ben survives on a diet of cheap beer and barbed conversation — most of which is with Jeeter, a history professor at a local college. They’re “comrades in armchairs”, united by their memories, but also crumpled and haunted.

John Haidar’s production of a piece that premiered in Chicago in 2004 makes a solid case for this vision of men damaged by the events of their youth. Yet Dietz’s compassion doesn’t prevent him from recycling clichés, and some of his ideas don’t resonate.

The two female characters, Jeeter’s new girlfriend and her mother, are poorly drawn. What’s more, to demonstrate the psychological trauma caused by political grandstanding, Dietz has Ben channel the spirit of Robert McNamara, the chief architect of the Vietnam war. These trance-like moments feel awkward and contrived.

Still, Max Dorey’s design is evocatively grubby and the leads are strong. Goritsas is adept at suggesting the defence mechanisms that Ben has carefully adopted and Todd Boyce captures Jeeter’s strange mix of cynical disdain, restlessness and mysticism. While Dietz grapples rather clumsily with history, he is undeniably perceptive about loss and friendship.

Until June 4 (020 7407 0234, southwarkplayhouse.co.uk)

Follow Going Out on Facebook and on Twitter @ESgoingout