'Heroes' delights with tale of three WWI veterans

CORVALLIS - "One must strive for a little of the epic," says Gustave in Willamette Stage Company's "Heroes," a tale of three unlikely friends scaling the heights of old age together.

French playwright Gérald Sibleyras wrote the acclaimed original work called "Le Vent des Peupliers" (The Wind in the Poplars) about three decorated World War I veterans living in an old soldiers' home in rural France in 1959.

In turn, famous British playwright Tom Stoppard (who also wrote "Arcadia" and co-wrote the screenplay for "Shakespeare in Love") is responsible for the English version "Heroes," which won the 2006 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Comedy.

Three of Willamette Stage Company's seasoned actors will star in the Northwest premiere of the work at 8 p.m. Saturday, April 4, in the Corvallis High School Black Box Theatre, at 1400 N.W. Buchanan Ave.

Those actors are Marion Rossi (who plays Henri), Calvin Ward (as Philippe), and WSC artistic director Robert Hirsh, as the romantic Gustave.

The trio of curmudgeonly old men meet daily on an outside terrace in the quiet company of a stone statue of a dog, where they relax, read and discuss life, regularly complaining about the food and the fearsome Sister Madeleine, who runs the home.

"Is there to be no end to this mania for celebrating birthdays?," Gustave grumbles early on.

Philippe has his own paranoid take on this question, which brings about the first of many laughs in the course of the expertly written script.

Things go from amusing to hilarious when the men learn that the other, more popular, terrace at the home is scheduled to be dug up for repaving.

They worry that "the troops will fall back" onto their cherished outpost.

Their fanciful defense plans include:

"Barbed wire, sandbags, trenches, it'll be like the old days," Henri says.

"Two machine guns deployed there and there to set up a crossfire to spray the whole grounds," Philippe adds.

"No, too defensive. What would do the job better is a 75 field gun over there, only higher up," Gustave amends.

Eventually, the three hatch a plan to escape the home altogether and scale a hill across the valley to visit a grove of poplars that they often watch swaying in the wind from their terrace.

The play, always comedic, is also touching and unexpectedly poignant in places.

These three men are not caricatures, but complex characters who each bring unexpected layers to the gentle tale of tedium at the end of their long and heroic campaigns through life.

Gustave, who claims "I need to be where it's all going on," is actually even more of a hermit than the other two. He never leaves his room except to come to the patio.

Philippe is prone to periodically passing out due to an old war injury, and allows Gustave to answer all his letters for him, much to the confusion of his family.

And Henri, who hobbles along on a maimed leg, is actually the most active of the bunch. A highlight of the trio's summer is his discovery of a school for young girls nearby the grounds.

All throughout the play, the qualities of friendship and loyalty are ingeniously exposed, as despite their bickering the characters figure they might as well stick together.

After all, "There's so many lunatics around," Gustave says.

CHECK IT OUT

WHO/WHAT: Willamette Stage Company's 'Heroes'

WHEN: 8 p.m. April 4, 10-11, 17-18; and 4 p.m. April 5, 12 and 19.

WHERE: Corvallis High School Black Box Theatre, 1400 N.W. Buchanan Ave., Corvallis.

TICKETS: $19 for adults, $16 for seniors and students.

INFO: 368-7092 or www.willamettestage.org.

CAST: Marion Rossi, Calvin Ward and Robert Hirsh.