Preston Montfort: An American Tragedy (Ryan Campbell)

The third installment of this year's Carlotta Festival of New Plays, Campbell's play appropriates the Greek heroic tragedy--there were nods to Euripedes' Herakles and Sophocles' Ajax--and its conventions--most pointedly the doomed hero and the chorus of naive citizens--to comment on the US's repeated global military intrusions to preserve the American way of life while destroying the lives of innocents abroad and the lives of the soldiers it sends. 

The opening monologue and the closing dialogue between Preston and his buddy, Chris, are the most powerful segments of the play. Though the lines are sometimes leaden and off key, some are lyrical: "I'm a breathing gun, a walking bomb, a knife that slithers in the night."  (Scenes involving Preston's brother Edward are tedious; his character and his scenes could be eliminated without crippling the play in any way.)

It is an ambitious play, and we look forward to seeing more of Campbell's work.

Recommended.