Southlake, by Mike Byham, is different from the usual (S2S2S) staged reading
by Audrey Liebross
Southlake, by Mike Byham, is different from the usual Script2Stage2Screen (S2S2S) staged reading. Because the scripts for most of S2S2S’s readings are still being rewritten, it would be unfair to review them as if they were finished plays. While I noticed minor tightening that could take place with Southlake, I believe that Southlake is not merely a work-in-progress, but a fully completed play that could be produced now.
Not only does Southlake come across as a finished piece, but it is incredibly moving. The S2S2S production is skillfully directed (by my Coachella Valley Theatre World colleague, Stan Jenson) and well-acted. I decided to write a quick review in the hope that people might choose to attend the only other performance (on Saturday, May 25th), assuming that there are tickets available.
The story centers around Vietnam and the problems of a returning vet in adjusting to civilian life. The story starts during a battle in Vietnam, and then jumps back and forth between two periods in Southlake, Texas, the 1970’s and 2022. The main character, Randy, is played by two separate actors, Jesus Sandoval as the young Randy and Rupert Smith as his 2022 counterpart. At the beginning, Randy and his fellow soldier, Cliff (Sabastian Reda), are pinned down by enemy fire. Cliff is wounded and Randy promises to get him home again. After Randy leaves Vietnam, he and his new wife, Rose (Jessica Lenz), have moved to Southlake and are expecting a baby. But demons from Vietnam still haunt Randy. Making things even worse is an unexpected visit from Cliff, during which he threatens to take Rose away from Randy.
US government photo of an operation in Vietnam
When the action switches to 2022, we realize that Randy is still fighting Vietnam problems. He has raised his daughter, Christine (Jana Giboney), alone, because Rose left him many years ago. But where she is and why Randy refuses to say anything about her departure remain a mystery. Christine’s daughter, Hope (also played by Jessica Lenz), now in high school, is the apple of her grandfather’s eye, and he promises to pay for her college because Christine, a single mother, can’t afford it. But it is clear that all is not well with Randy — he keeps receiving visits from a police officer (Steve Giboney) because of the dangerous ways he runs off trespassing teens. Is Randy just a curmudgeon, or is he unhinged, as the scenes in the 1970’s with Cliff show Randy’s earlier self to have been?
Southlake addresses the question of whether Vietnam left permanent scars on the young Americans who fought the war, even if they came home more or less physically intact. Those of us who are old enough to remember the war as a current event, as well as those for whom it is only something they have read about in a history book, are all likely to identify with elements of this play. Some of the later scenes are so emotionally searing that I longed for some kind of comic relief that never came.
Those of us who know the shameful way the public treated returning Americans who fought in the war can’t help but wonder whether their grievous emotional injuries came partially from the horrible way they were “welcomed” back — as if it were their fault that their government put them in harm’s way in a war that couldn’t be won. I want to tell those service members that I see them and appreciate their sacrifices. I only hope that my thanks are not too late.
playwright Mike Byham
Southlake is well-timed for Memorial Day weekend. Go see it at the Saturday, May 25th performance, at 7:30 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Desert (UUCOD), 72-425 Via Vail, in Rancho Mirage. UUCOD is located just off Dinah Shore, across the street from the Rancho Mirage dog park. Tickets are $15 cash or check at the door, or they may be purchased via PayPal on the website, script2stage2screen.com. Will call reservations can be made at script2stage2screen@gmail.com.
S2S2S’s last staged reading, before it permanently ends its theatre program, will be Engagement Rules, a comedy by Rich Orloff, on June 21-22, 2024.