Homecoming 1972 at Chicago Dramatists | Theater review

Against scenic designer Jack Magaw's backdrop of blown-up and silkscreened photos representing the nation's collective mood in the fall of 1972—images of American soldiers in Vietnam, of Nixon in China, of "Impeach Nixon" protests outside the White House and of McGovern on the campaign trail—Robert Koon's new play movingly depicts the same unrest in the microcosm of a small town in upstate Minnesota.

Homecoming 1972 hangs on the broken back of Frank (Matt Holzfeind), a hometown boy newly returned from the war and suffering from severe pain both physical, from injuries sustained in a helicopter crash, and emotional. Years before post-traumatic stress disorder became a commonly understood condition, Frank is flailing in his failed attempts to reconnect with his brother Joe (Brett Schneider), a state trooper, and Joe's well-meaning wife Maria (Greta Honold).

But Koon's dexterous work doesn't limit itself to the double meaning of the title, which covers both Frank's return and the high-school homecoming weekend over which it takes place. The playwright is also concerned with broader ideas of home, its comforts and its limitations. Maria is, in her own way, beginning to chafe at the constrictions of life in a town where identity and opportunity are both starting to recede.

Diner waitress Darla (a deliciously forthright Molly Glynn) represents a kind of stuckness that hometowns can exude, while a recent college grad (excellent newcomer Julian Hester) embodies a nation's nascent restlessness and desire to move on from quagmires past.

Kimberly Senior's production is thoughtfully staged and impeccably acted, remarkably fulfilling Koon's efforts to encapsulate a swath of social upheaval while still feeling organic; no idea or issue comes across as shoehorned in. The playwright impressively avoids cliché for the most part, even while covering well-trod ground; only in a couple of Frank's outbursts does boilerplate come through.