AN EERIE INSURRECTION: Bury the Dead gives a voice to soldiers killed in action

Stay with us.
We want to hear the sound of you talking.
Don’t be afraid of us.
We’re not really different from you. We’re just…dead.
That’s all.

Fallen soldiers in Irwin Shaw’s Bury the Dead



A military detail goes about its duty, preparing dead soldiers for transport home. The sad routine is interrupted when one of the corpses lurches to his feet. Another rises up, and another. The burial detail is soon faced with six soldiers, all killed in action, who refuse to be sealed in their body bags. Orders from commanding officers and pleas from loved ones cannot sway them. Stoically, poignantly, the dead ask to remain among the living.

This eerie insurrection is at the heart of Irwin Shaw’s seminal antiwar play, Bury the Dead. First produced in 1936, the script has been given new life by the playwright’s son, writer Adam Shaw. The younger Shaw’s modern adaptation reflects the realities of 21st–century combat—MRE ration packs, IED booby traps, body bags, the never-ending war on terror—while staying true to his father’s original intent and language.

The new adaptation of Bury the Dead will premiere in Los Angeles in a co-production by the International Classical Acting Project (ICAP) Theatre Company and The Union Film and Theatre Company (UFTC). The production begins its six-week run at the Park La Brea Theatre on Friday, November 2.

Anthony Di Pietro, artistic director of the UFTC and director of Bury the Dead, has a long-standing attachment to the play. In the early 1980s, while a student at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, he performed in it when it was assigned as an “exam play.” “I played The General—probably poorly, with much bombast,” smiles Di Pietro.

He grows serious as he speaks about the special resonance the play’s themes of military service and loss had for him. The son of a career Marine who served in Korea and Vietnam, Di Pietro grew up near Camp Pendleton in the southern California community of Oceanside. “I remember [my father] being gone for long stretches during the 60's,” he says, “and we often socialized with other Marine families. I saw a lot of tragedy as a kid during those times—the wounded, the dead and the haunted.”

To me, these men were more than soldiers. They were people, with wives, kids (whom I played with), problems, humor, and dreams. These men were my Little League coaches, moonlighted as gas station attendants, were at our house for barbecues, played softball with my dad. Most were not remarkable men, but average joes like my dad—but they were my mentors and I loved them.”

Di Pietro’s upbringing left him with an acute awareness of how a single death in battle can affect so many people in so many ways. “Whenever the U.S. goes into a conflict,” he says, “I hold my breath and brace myself for the impact of hearing about soldiers who are killed. Now, as I am older and farther removed from any military, I see the young ages in the obit column every Sunday under ‘Military Deaths,’ and I am saddened even more than I was as a kid.”

About a year and a half ago, Di Pietro came across a copy of Bury the Dead in a bookstore. As he leafed through it and reminisced, he says, “The idea struck me of how these characters from a pseudo World War I could be just like those boys in the obit column.”

What also struck me was how the play wasn't so much an antiwar play as it was a ‘what if’ situation that Shaw so cleverly crafted at the ripe age of 23. Shaw is allowing the dead to speak again, after they have made the ultimate sacrifice of dying for their country. Ingenious! What would a soldier say? That the cause of war, any war, was or wasn't worth dying for? Now that they are dead, where do their loyalties lie? What do they miss most?”

Most importantly, says Di Pietro, he was struck by how the play humanizes and personalizes those who fall in battle. “These soldiers are not faceless cogs in some fighting machine that we hear about, but real people—those same men I grew up with.”

A re-reading of Bury the Dead made Di Pietro realize what an impact the play could have today. “I could easily imagine a mother, a brother, a cousin, or a friend sitting in the audience who had a relative serving in Iraq or Afghanistan—or worse, a relative lost to the war. Possibly, they could even see their son or daughter up there on stage speaking again. What a responsibility to take on.”

Haunted by the idea, he contacted Irwin Shaw’s estate. (The author—who after Bury the Dead went on to serve in World War II, be blacklisted during the McCarthy era, and pen bestselling novels such as The Young Lions and Rich Man, Poor Man—died in 1984.) Di Pietro learned that the estate was managed by Shaw’s son Adam, who lives in France. Also a writer, Adam Shaw has worked as a UPI foreign correspondent and a Washington Post reporter and is the author of Sound Of Impact: The Legacy of TWA Flight 514.

Di Pietro and Shaw began discussions regarding the play. “[Adam] was very open to the idea of an updated version of the play for modern-day Iraq,” says Di Pietro. After much deliberation, they decided that Adam would write a contemporary—but faithful—adaptation of his father’s early work. The UFTC acquired exclusive rights to the play.

Di Pietro made inquiries to several theaters regarding Bury the Dead, ultimately agreeing on a co-production with ICAP, a Los Angeles-based international theater company headed by friend and colleague Elizabeth Huffman. While ICAP’s primary focus is on classical works, the company often explores more modern plays that have enduring and relevant themes. (ICAP is presenting Jose Sanchis Sininsterra’s The Siege of Leningrad in repertory with Bury the Dead on Tuesdays from November 13 through December 4.)

In keeping with UFTC’s mission “to creatively reflect or interpret the ever-changing issues and concerns of our community” and Di Pietro’s own passion for topical and relevant projects, selected performances of Bury the Dead will be followed by post-show discussion and debate on the situation in Iraq. After the opening night performance on Friday, November 2, there will be a debate featuring longtime activist and former California state senator Tom Hayden and LA County Lincoln Clubs executive director Peter Bylsma. Other speakers include Bill Rumble, president of the Northeast Democratic Club of Los Angeles (Saturday, November 3) and Larry Roberts, Vietnam veteran, pacifist, and librarian for LibraryOfPeace.org (Saturday, November 10).

As opening night draws near, Di Pietro says, “We are knee deep into rehearsals, and the cast of 21 actors is taking on this tremendous task with a serious fervor, commitment, and passion. And what a strange and heartbreaking task it is—breathing life into dead soldiers.”

BURY THE DEAD. Approximate run time 1 hour 20 minutes, with no intermission. Presented by ICAP Theatre Company and The Union Film and Theatre Co. at the Park La Brea Theatre, 475 S. Curson Avenue West, Los Angeles (inside the Park La Brea residential complex). Fri.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. Nov. 2—Dec. 9 (no shows Thanksgiving weekend or Dec. 8). Tickets $20 ($10 for students with ID). Reservations (323) 549-5458. For directions to the theater and detailed parking information, visit www.icaptheatre.com.

Cast: Danny Barclay, Rick Crawford, Akiva David, Tracy Drolet, Travis Goodman, Michael Harrity, James N. Jolly, Jennifer Jonassen, Olga Konstantulakis, Valerie J. Ludwig, Nicole Montano, Rita Rani, Frank Schultz, Ian Stanley, Joy Sudduth, Collin Sutton, Eric Sweeney, Robert Thibaut, Claudia Vazquez, George Villas, and Edmund Wyson.

Article copyright 2007 by Karen Kahler.

Photo copyright 2007 by Jai Khalsa. Used with permission.