Defiance is John Patrick Shanley's follow-up to his Pulitzer-winning Doubt. That one focused on ethical and hierarchical responsibilities at a Catholic school in the Bronx in 1964 on the cusp of Vatican Council changes. This one does the same for the U.S. military a few years later, in 1971 at Camp Lejeune.
With the Marine Corps winding down its role in Vietnam, white Lt. Col. Morgan Littlefield and his wife are talking about retirement even as he remains dissatisfied with his career to date. "I want my service to have meant something," he says, and means it. He wants "one shining, clean achievement."
GableStage's production's achievement is in bringing an effective measure of believable humanity to characters that are defined by their rank. When Littlefield learns of off-base housing discrimination against black soldiers, he takes that on as a cause and soon arranges a promotion for black Capt. Lee King. But low-profile King is loath to be a role model or assert much of an opinion on anything. In an early exchange between King and Littlefield's wife as they chatabout the new, Lutheran chaplain, Margaret asks,
"What do Lutherans believe?"
King: "That they're not Catholics."
Margaret: "You have just summarized every Protestant religion."
It draws an easy laugh from the audience, but in those few words Shanley not only establishes King's don't-make-waves demeanor but the thread of defiance that will run through the play.
Although Doubt might be seen as his religion play and Defiance his military play, Shanley doesn't abstain here from riffing on religion, most dramatically in tackling the consequences of the clergy's devotion to confidentiality.
The play hinges on a second-act disclosure that Littlefield was seen by a young private in an extramarital episode that would taint the colonel's career. The ensuing dilemmas of the men of various ranks and responsibilities feel a bit cobbled-together, but they serve the purpose of letting Shanley take on the limits of loyalty and the role of defiance. Littlefield reminds King that there's "an understanding among officers to protect our own." An exasperated King shoots back, "Against gunfire, against attack. I can't protect you against your own folly, sir."
Carrying Shanley's heaviest weapons, Bill Schwartz (as Littlefield), Reiss Gaspard (King) and Paul Tei (Chaplain White) score bull's-eyes. And Patti Gardner as Margaret Littlefield delivers a military wife throughout that is well above anything standard issue.
