The Warehouse Theatre will present Stephen Metcalfe’s Strange Snow with two final appearances this weekend.
David is a Vietnam vet covering his memories with alcohol. His sister, Martha, is a shay high school biology teacher yearning for connection. Their worlds are turned upside downby the arrival of the brash and charming Megs, David’s Vietnam buddy – who wants to fish for more than just trout. As something deeper than friendship develops between Martha and Megs, David fights his demons and struggles with the past.
Intended for Mature Audiences: contains adult language and themes.
To view additional information and to purhcase tickets plase visit www.warehousetheatre.com/event/2014-2015/strange-snow.
Director’s note:
As a baby boomer, I grew up during the height of the Vietnam War and became eligible for the draft in 1969. My Selective Service lottery number was 27 and, had I not gone to college from 1969 – 1973, thereby qualifying for a student deferment, I would have been drafted. The war ended during my senior year of college with the signing of the Paris Peace Accord.
I attended graduate school with a number of Vietnam veterans and first began to sense the psychological weight of their experience. The dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in 1982 (the same year Strange Snow premiered at Manhattan Theatre Club) helped bring national attention and greater focus to the hardship Vietnam veterans faced returning to a country indifferent or sometimes resentful of their service and largely disinterested in the pain of their trauma.
Strange Snow is a play I was familiar with because of a 1986 student production at Clemson University. When Paul Savas approached me with the opportunity to direct it, I frankly wondered why the Warehouse Theatre was producing a 30-year-old Vietnam play 40 years after the end of the war.
But once I read it, I understood, maybe for the first time, that the play is not just about Vietnam. Nor is it tied to its era as a period piece. It is about the physiological and human cost of any war, both in lost lives and in the forever-altered psyches of its soldiers. Its eloquence lies in its timelessness and in the craftsmanship Stephen Metcalfe brings to a hopeful and heartfelt love story. In this era of greater awareness of and empathy for the toll of combat, Strange Snow reminds us that listening and simple understanding are essential to both healing and love.
To learn more about the ongoing effort to serve and honor the veterans of Vietnam, go to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund at www.vvmf.org.
By Stephen Metcalfe
Directed by Chip Egan
Sponsored by Greenville Health System