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Born in the USA (Leaving Vietnam)

 
Rebecca Vines Review by Rebecca Vines 4 Published: 9 Aug 2024 C ARTS | C venues | C alto Show Dates: 31 Jul 2024-25 Aug 2024

Vietnam veteran Jimmy lives an okay enough life, poking around his garage in rustbelt Michigan, enjoying the gruff banter between friends and customers. He tells us a little bit about how he came to be here, his relationships, the people he meets. He seems an all right kind of a guy. A little on the crusty side, but basically sound.

A compelling and reflective piece of layered meaning and morality

We then delve back a little further: into Jimmy's service with the Marines in the Vietnam war. A war which then, and since, has become a byword for interventional futility. A war which awoke the sleeping giant of collective social activism and noisy dissent. A war which saw nearly sixty thousand American soldiers and an estimated three million Vietnamese civilians and fighters lose their lives.

And a war which has left indelible scars on Jimmy's consciousness.

Writer/director Richard Vergette paints the horrific pictures of Jimmy's tour with a casual brusqueness which belies the pain he has lugged with him for decades. And a guilt omnipresent by its absence. He embodies Jimmy with the weary physicality of a life that has been lived. This is a man who has seen. Who has heard. And it has shaped who he is and what he thinks.

The narrative is a clever piece of storytelling which resists the temptation to lead the audience towards one-dimensional empathy or opprobrium for Jimmy. He is what he is: and is not seeking our - or anyone else's - approval. But there is something that still can shock us: and seeing him reach for that infamous red baseball cap and grip it like a talisman gives us that sinking feeling of disappointment so familiar across politics in recent years.

Vergette has brought his previously acclaimed show back to the Fringe at a time when our interest in the soap opera of American politics is sky high. The reasons that Jimmy picks up that MAGA cap are complex and - crucially - unjudged; and the audience is invited to consider what might drive someone towards extremism rather than leap to reductive conclusions.

This is a compelling and reflective piece of layered meaning and morality. At its close, we are left with hope that Jimmy - or rather this family's love for him - will not only redeem and heal him, but their own little piece of America.

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The Blurb:

Trump’s populist slogan ‘Make America Great Again’ appeals to disillusioned war veteran Jimmy in rustbelt Michigan but his new-found politics threaten to tear his family apart – until an unexpected visit leads to a profound emotional reconciliation. Original, humorous, intensely moving storytelling, redemptive and hopeful, about overcoming trauma, and having to face it to overcome it. From award-winning actor-playwright Richard Vergette. ‘Multi-layered and masterful’ (HackneyCitizen.co.uk). ‘An excellent storyteller’ (BritishTheatreGuide.info). ‘Compelling, heart-wrenching… gripping piece of new theatre writing that should be experienced by all generations’ (FringeReview.co.uk). ‘Extraordinary tour-de-force… uplifting and devastating in equal measure’ (TheReviewsHub.com).