“Mama Mama:” Combat Burned Into Your Soul

Early in the Iraq War, a truck carrying four Marines cautiously patrols a perilous stretch of desert road near Iraq’s Euphrates River. Tensions run high, so high a couple of the jarheads imagine they see dinosaurs running alongside their vehicle. Explosive devices and suicide bombers are everywhere. Bad news awaits–and they all know it.

Suddenly, the truck is blown to bits, launching the riveting production of “Mama Mama Can’t You See,” now playing at the Studio/Stage on LA’s Western Avenue. Written by Stan Mayer and Cecelia Fairchild, “Mama” is not so much a war story, at least in the eyes of its creators, as a new way to tell a war story.

“Mama” draws on playwright and leading man Stan Mayer’s personal experience as a Marine Corps corporal, whose truck was blown up by a suicide bomber during the worst ambush of the Iraq War in 2005. During that first of Mayer’s five combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, several of Stan’s platoonmates died, including Lance Corporal Lance Graham, the truck’s gunner and Mayer’s closest friend–his memory clearly forever burned into Mayer’s psyche.

With much careening back and forth in time and place and much energetic choreography around a geodesic dome that serves to represent the truck and a good deal more, the play bends reality to portray the real lasting horror of combat. The terror the Marines experience is especially evident during the recreated firefight that follows the explosion, as the enemy closes in for the kill, the Marines fighting them off with desperate bursts from their machineguns.

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Guiding the four Marines in their journey–after the “explosion that killed some of us and did not kill some of us,” as one survivor tells it–are four lingerie-clad Civil War whores who shapeshift into the Marines’ mothers, wives, and girlfriends before and after the explosion that encapsulates the play.

Particularly memorable in this riveting performance in the synchronized choreography orchestrated by director Zach Davidson–half hiphop, half modern dance, all powerfully athletic–coupled with jarring lighting and sound effects that underscore the confusing dissonance of warfare.

In addition to Mayer, the cast includes Julián Juaquín, Ryan Nebreja, and Zack Rocklin–Waltch portraying the Marines, and Marguerite French, Kathleen Leary, Carene Rose Mekertichyan, and Hannah Trujillo playing the Civil War sex workers.

Play notes warn that the production is not for the faint of heart, with its vivid depiction of violence and simulated sex acts, coupled with strobe lighting, theatrical haze, and more than a few jarring explosions.

Mama Mama Can’t You See runs through December 10, with performances on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 7 p.m. (dark November 23 through November 26.) Tickets range from $5 to $35: general admission is $35. Studio/Stage is located at 520 No. Western Ave., Los Angeles. For reservations and information, go here. Arrive early as only street parking is available, and be sure to read signs carefully.