Theater of War

It was a different setting - actors David Strathairn on the left, Lili Taylor on the right and Bryan Doerries in the middle, with Doerries narrating a kind of life story - his - and how it led him to discover the ways scenes from Greek tragedy could help PTSD veterans (and their families) cope.

It sounds improbable, but imagine a soldier coming home from war, returning after months away, at the edge, surrounded by death.  As one soldier's wife told Doerries at a performance, "A returning soldier brings invisible bodies into a home, making it a slaughter house - of the mind if not body."
Doerries has found a healing in the trauma of these Greek plays; they resonate because the families, the soldiers, know tragedy and death - witnessing it together, facing the darkness in these tragedies, creates a kind of bonding, a shared discomfort and a sense that they are not alone.

Strathairn - one of our great actors - and Taylor (from Six Feet Under, The X-Files, Mystic Pizza) were terrific in telling these stories, Strathairn almost visceral in his portrayal of a soldier gone mad (in Sophocles' "Ajax") who wants to kill his comrades, but instead takes his own life.

It's an unexpected therapy called "Theater of War" - taken to settings, many military, all over the country (and at Town Hall Seattle Tuesday evening).

Strathairn:
“These plays are part of a 2,500-year history of mental and emotional pain for soldiers that run up to the present day.”

Doerries:
"Sophocles was himself a general, and Athens during his time was at war for decades. By performing these scenes, we’re hoping that our modern-day soldiers will see their difficulties in a larger historical context, and perhaps feel less alone.”

Does it work?
In the sense that the trauma of war is timeless, yes, and in the sharing of that pain, perhaps yes, too.

As one soldier said, at one setting - “I’ve been Ajax. I’ve spoken to Ajax.”

(I thought Doerries made perhaps the sharpest point of the night, re why so many soldiers do have a sense of isolation on returning home.  I don't recall the exact words but close to this:
"When a small subset of a population fights all of its wars, there's something wrong, something that in time undermines a democracy."
Hard to argue.)