It’s a dog’s life in Tom Stoppard’s translation of “Heroes” currently at MetroStage — and what an interesting life it is.
This production had a 2003 premiere in Paris as “Le Vent des Peupliers” (“The Wind in the Poplars”), was retitled “Heroes” in 2005 and presented in London — to much acclaim — and had a 2007 American debut in Los Angeles. It’s easy to see why this show will undoubtedly continue to win critical and popular kudos for years to come.
The MetroStage production — under the direction of John Vreeke, who directed the acclaimed recent production “The Last Days of Judas Iscariot” — had a recent MetroStage audience shouting with laughter when they weren’t literally poised on the edge of their seats, listening to the clever wordplay, reminiscent of that in the classic “Waiting for Godot.”
That’s saying a lot, considering the production is set in 1959 Paris at an old soldier’s home. Doesn’t seem that the setting and its three war-wounded characters — brilliantly played by three of the area’s most beloved actors, Ralph Cosham (Gustave), John Dow (Phillippe) and Michael Tolaydo (Henri) — are the ingredients for a near laugh riot.
Yet the story is told with such genuine warmth, affection and introspection that it can’t help but elicit good-natured, laugh-with-you-not-about-you reactions as the threesome spend their idle time sitting on a park bench discussing their lives and the best way to reconcile their often heroic pasts during World War I with their current lives.
And while each seems eager to break out of the gentrified, yet boringly predictable, routine of their lives, none can quite muster the strength to do so despite a plan for them to either have a picnic, travel to Indochina or hike to the faraway poplars that wave alluringly from a far hill.
Their failure to realize their dreams — obviously due to Gustave’s terror at moving outside the home’s confines, Phillipe’s blackouts and Henri’s injured leg — is especially disappointing to a silent fourth member of the gang. That would be a 200-pound stone Dalmatian that “writes” a heartfelt message in the men’s collaborative journal that reduces most of the audience members to exuberant laughter.
This production is a perfect combination of dry humor, pithy wordplay, heartbreaking dreams and genuine wisdom that lures us into the men’s lives as we re-examine our own.
If you go
‘Heroes’
When: 8 p.m. Thursday and Fridau; 5 and 8:30 p.m. Saturday, 3 and 7 p.m. Sunday; through May 24
Where: MetroStage, 1201 N. Royal St., Alexandria
Details: $40 to $45; 1-800-494-TIXS, metrostage.org
