Return of the ‘Heroes’
Heroes, Tom Stoppard’s loose translation of Gérald Sibleyras’ 2003 French play Le Vent des Peupliers (“The Wind in the Poplars”), won the 2006 Olivier Award for Best New Comedy – the highest honor in British theater, equivalent to Broadway’s Tony Awards. A year later, the funny, heart-warming work – about three aging World War I soldiers who spend a lot of time on the shared terrace of a French home for war veterans in 1959 – opened at the Geffen in Los Angeles in a production starring Richard Benjamin, Len Cariou, and George Segal.
Then, Heroes promptly more or less disappeared.
Considering its pedigree – Stoppard’s theater credits include Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and The Real Thing, while he also wrote the screenplays for Brazil, Empire of the Sun, and won an Oscar for 1998’s Shakespeare in Love – the play’s failure to catch on is something of a surprise. To local theater veteran Ed Giron, it’s also a shame.
“It’s very witty, and it speaks to things that are nostalgic but also current,” said Giron, who is appearing in the three-character play over six shows, from July 19-28 at Center Stage Theater, in what is believed to be Heroes’ Santa Barbara premiere. “It’s able to find both the humor and the pathos in people who are starting to get older and have some disabilities they continue to deal with. They’re curmudgeons, but they also have a lot of camaraderie.”
Giron stars alongside fellow Santa Barbara theater stalwarts Bill Waxman and Van Riker in portraying the three veterans as they pass the time recollecting, all the while dealing with memory issues, lingering injuries and PTSD from the war, and yearning for the adventures of their youthful past as means of escape from a mundane present. Gustave is grumpy, arrogant and agoraphobic, Henri has a major leg wound but is still complacent, while Philippe is suffering from a war-related neurological deficit that causes frequent fainting spells.
Yet, prompted by reliving their wartime glory, the trio dreams of adventure, scheming to get away from the home as if they were about to hit the battlefield.
“They talk about their ‘mission’ to escape, how to position themselves, studying the map, preparing in detail, bringing food and water, even though the expedition that they’re ultimately going on is just a few days,” Giron explained. “There’s a lot of humor in that.”
But there’s also something inspiring, he said.
“You see people who still want to have an adventure, and don’t believe it’s too late to explore new worlds, to get out of the isolation that they have found themselves in and to go on an expedition.”
For Giron, the Heroes will also have a lot of poignancy, as they represent the first DIJO Productions play since the passing of his longtime theater colleague and friend (and Montecito resident) Jerry Oshinsky, who died in April. Oshinksy produced many works with Giron and Waxman under the aegis of DIJO.
“Bill and I inherited DIJO, if you will,” Giron said. “I’m dedicating my performance to Jerry.”
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