Los Angeles
July 1994

The setting for Paul Gillette’s Red River Rats (Burbage Theater) is a private party for eight air force vets who once shared the same brutal POW camp in Vietnam. Their nickname provides the plays title. As you might expect, they’re a rowdy bunch, profane to the max. Also as you might expect, before the evening is out, their macho veneers will be worn away by the reality of the way things were and are.

Though the cast is peppered with easily identifiable players, the key role of the most tortured prisoner is reserved for TV leading man Jack Scalia. It’s a definite star turn, and Scalia, making his theatric debut, displays as much presence onstage as he does on the small screen – maybe even more. ... Scalia meets the challenge of the play’s most dramatic scene with remarkable skill and sensitivity. It’s a surprisingly powerful performance.

Offering strong support are Jack Nance (a David Lynch regular) as a banker short on cash, Julius Harris as a soft-spoken retired general – the voice of reason-- Thom McFadden as a blustery car salesman, Bryan Kent as an aloof congressman, Tom Wideline, as a slap happy high school football coach, S.A. Griffin, as a dyspeptic airline pilot and Bert Kramer as the guy who may or may not have betrayed them all.

Also present are two ladies of the evening, well enacted by Catherine Case and Judi Diamond, who are at the beck and call of the former flyboys. Playwright Gillette provides Case’s character with enough putdowns to make it clear that he’s not endorsing the Rat’s chauvinism. But the sex scenes, which include nudity, are so vivid that they, at least momentarily, interfere with the play’s flight plan. Otherwise it’s Mission Accomplished.

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