THE SET-UP
Seth is a young Marine serving during wartime. Nicholas is his civilian longtime companion who waits back home. In addition to the strain on their relationship caused by distance and absence, they must hide their love for one another behind code words and secret identities because of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy barring gays and lesbians from serving openly in the United States military. Seth’s mother Anne assists them by providing the cover of a woman’s handwriting for Nicholas’ daily letters, but Nicholas and Seth’s resolve is starting to weaken. Jonas, another young gay Marine in Seth’s unit just coming to terms with his identity, forms an intense bond with Seth overseas. Tyson, a former Army soldier who got fed up with “don’t ask, don’t tell” and didn’t reenlist, now works alongside Nicholas, providing temptation as well as a reality check. When Seth returns home for an unexpected leave, with Jonas at his side, and post-traumatic stress following him from the battlefield, old relationships are tested, and new ones bloom. In the end, the realities of war call on one man to make the ultimate sacrifice.
The play began with ANNE visiting this grave, a monologue available here on the website under the title:
Graveside Thoughts
Now again, toward the end of the play, we return to this grave site.
Music/Sound Cue to accompanies the following transition
ANNE appears out of the dark, dressing for a funeral. After a few moments of this —
TYSON walks out of a different part of the dark, dressing for a funeral. After a few moments of this —
NICHOLAS re-appears out of a different part of the dark, dressing for a funeral. After a few moments of this —
Light reveals the gravestone.
JONAS appears in his desert camo, goes to kneel by the gravestone.
NICHOLAS, ANNE, and TYSON finish dressing for a funeral and converge together, walking toward the gravestone.
After a few moments of the four of them there at the grave — SETH appears, full dress uniform, folded flag under his arm, and joins the others.
NICHOLAS takes Seth’s hand.
It becomes clear now that the other four are there to pay their respects to Jonas, and thus, he must be the one in the ground, and the JONAS before us is some form of spirit.
Music/Sound Cue fades.
“Even now, first through the door. I’m hesitating.”
JONAS
Yeah. My grave. Sucks, huh?
Maybe if I’d been a better Marine —
‘Cause I’m always the first one through the door.
But once I’m through, I hesitate.
I need to go first.
‘Cause I don’t think I could watch someone drop in front of me, and wonder if I could have saved him, if I’d just been quicker, right behind him.
That’s what sends me through the door first.
I know the others have my back.
Makes no sense but that’s how I feel.
Then I get through the door.
And I see the guy.
And he sees me.
He’s just a guy.
We’re both the same.
Scared to death. Fighting for something we believe in.
So I hesitate.
Not because I’m scared, or I don’t believe.
But I see me, in his eyes.
I hesitate.
He doesn’t.
I take it in the chest, one leg, the other foot, the gut.
I know I’m done.
I fall to my knees, the guys behind me take him out.
But not before he pulls the pin on the grenade.
The grenade falls to the floor about the same time I do.
I see it in front of me.
Time crawls, time flies.
With all I’ve got left, I drag myself across the floor to the grenade.
Scoop it up, and pull it underneath me.
Boom.
Last thing I see – Seth, reaching out to touch my face.
He’s OK.
The guys are OK.
I see some of this from outside my body, what’s left of my body.
The transition’s always weird. ‘Least that’s what they tell me.
The boundary, where one ends and the other begins, things get muddled.
Even now, first through the door. I’m hesitating.
(photo: (foreground, fully lit) James Doyle as Jonas; (background, in shadow, left to right) Tina Sigel as Anne, Derek Ewing as Tyson, Ryan Henderson as Seth and Jack C. Kloppenborg as Nicholas in the 2011 Minneapolis production of “Leave” by Urban Samurai Productions; photography by Ron Ravensborg; scenic design by Erica Zaffarano)
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