Heroes, running November 19 – December 13 at Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Lowell, MA

By Gerald Sibleyras, adapted by Tom Stoppard

Left:  Jonathan Hogan, Ron Holgate & Ken Tigar, Center: Jonathan Hogan, Ron Holgate and Ken Tigar, Right: Ken Tigar, Ron Holgate and Jonathan Hogan. Photos by Meghan Moore

Aging WWI Vets in a 1950’s French nursing home attempt to muster what they’ve got left for one last mission, hoping to escape the tedium of their lives on the terrace in one of the funniest comedies I’ve ever seen.  The characters will touch you with their frailties, just under the surface of their bravado, and the combination of the three personalities is a set-up for a terrific farce. The award-winning cast is perfect: Johnathan Hogan as Philippe, a sweet soul with a piece of shrapnel inching towards his brain, Ron Holgate, as Gustave, an ex-commando who is now terrified to go beyond the doors of the patio, Kenneth Tigar as Henri, the optimistic, rational one, who has made the best of living with a peg leg, and a two-hundred pound stone statue of a dog, played by himself. The brisk repartee goes from touching to hilarious.

The MRT, outstanding in its set design, doesn’t fail with a perfect replica of a patio, but I can imagine how the characters must have tired of it, because halfway into the hour and a half show, I wanted a little variety.  It finally came when the garden hose became a rope, in a delightful scene where the characters practice their intended escape.  Later, we get some fall leaves dropping which Henri sweeps away, but I was wanting the very green shrubs to have a tinge of autumn red in them as well.  That however, is a very small point in what was overall a very satisfying, delightful, and almost perfect production.

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