‘The Guys’ presents raw views of 9-11

For moments, days and weeks after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, many Americans sat helplessly and watched the tragedy unfold on TV. Stomachs were churning, hands wringing and hearts breaking. What could regular citizens – so far away, so unprepared and unskilled for emergencies – do to help?

Anne Nelson, an editor and veteran journalist on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, felt these emotions keenly. She had nothing to contribute to ground zero, and it bothered her. Truth was, plumbers had more to offer the scene than did intellectuals and scholars. Nelson felt left out. Then, through friends, she heard about a New York City Fire Department captain who needed help writing eulogies for the men he lost in the attacks. Nelson found her place. Twelve days after the towers fell, she and the captain began their wrenching project.

Not long after her good deed, the Flea Theater in New York City commissioned Nelson, then the director of the international program at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, to write a play based on her time with the captain. “The Guys,” which opened in New York City in December 2001, and is running through July 17 at Acadia Repertory Theatre in Somesville, tells Nelson’s story. She changes all the names, but the story is, essentially, her record of personal and public catharsis.

Joan, a Nebraskan turned New Yorker, and Nick, a Brooklyn resident, make up the cast of this two-person, 90-minute drama that is largely narrated by Joan. Her wholesome values, friendly personality and intrepid curiosity make it easy for her to connect with Nick, who is grief-stricken and guilt-ridden. (He was at home the morning of Sept. 11.)

Ken Stack presents Nick as a man struggling to understand his own life in the shadow of his colleagues’ deaths. His pain is visceral, but a grace rises from his responsibility to the living. In some way, he is the real hero of the play. Stack’s performance is also heroic in its depiction of an ordinary man facing extraordinary circumstances. Stack could have squeezed an overwrought display out of the part; instead he is subtle and richly human.

Joan, on the other hand, is a character who sometimes gives too much credence to her own intellectual wanderings. Cheryl Willis gives the role an elegant physicality but does the character a bad turn by making her too large, too emotional and often too flustered. This is a girl from the heartland who has made it in the city without losing her soul, and Willis hits the hard-core reporter-New Yorker note a little too loudly. It doesn’t help either, that her accent is neither from Nebraska nor New York but somewhere way east of them both – the U.K.

As the fourth anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks approaches, “The Guys” is a poignant reminder of national shock and loss. Fresh, horrific relevance came yesterday with news of bombs in London. Returning to the visceral reaction may be the greatest value of Nelson’s work, which has made its way into theaters around the country. A limited release art-film was also made in 2002, and many well-known actors, the most famous of whom are the originators of the roles, Sigourney Weaver and Bill Murray, continue to offer live performances of the work.

While this is not a dramatic masterpiece – Nelson wrote it in under two weeks, and it shows – “The Guys” catches a moment of raw, unfiltered confusion. As Joan and Nick each raise their questions, we begin to realize just how few answers time and our leaders have given us.

Acadia Repertory Theatre will present “The Guys” 8:15 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday through July 16 and 2 p.m. July 17 at the Masonic Hall in Somesville. For tickets, call 244-7260 or visit www.acadiarep.com.