Hollow- Having a hole or empty space inside:  Without significance:   Insincere: Phrase example: beat someone hollow
 
Some came with questions, some came seeking answers and some came for entertainment alone —  but none left unchanged. As audience members left The Gilbert Theater’s preview, debut performance of Hollow Men, by local playwright Stephen Miles, some were subdued, cocooned in silence, while others were incensed with denial or revulsion, yet others met and questioned the cast about their experience with the subject matter, script and its affect on their performance and them as fellow human sojourners. Has a serious theatrical work performed its task and completed itself with provoking thought in its audience? I think not.  

In the Gilbert’s Green Room following the play, lead actor Stanley Seay spoke of his preparation for the play, which included frank conversations with neighbors and acquaintances about their experience in the military, reliving eyewitness accounts of horror and devastation as well as camaraderie and the thought of someone “having your back.”

In the play, Gerry and Sandra Oxford’s, played by Stanley Seay and Nicki Hart, lives are changed forever by Gerry’s wartime trauma and his struggle for recovery at the famed Walter Reed Hospital. We witness first hand his spiral downward into depression and substance abuse.
Fellow soldier, medic and friend, John Sadler moves to their small town to open a much-needed medical clinic and attempts to rekindle their friendship through scenes of concern and tough love but the dye is already cast.

 The cast describes it best in statements given during an interview with Brandon Herring for WNCN News:

"It's not an upbeat play I'm sorry to say, but I think it's a realistic one," laywright Stephen Miles said. "I hope it makes the audience think about what our nation does in our name and the cost. Whereas I went to Vietnam for two tours, they're going five, six and seven tours. I can't even imagine that."

"It needs to be told. It shouldn't be swept up under the carpet. It shouldn't be ignored,” actor, Stanley Seay said.

"Let's be honest. PTSD is not happy and fluffy. This play could maybe turn that blind eye into an open eye so that they can do something to help their neighbor, or their friend or their family member," said actress, Nicki Hart.

“This play is very visceral and raw,” added actor Sebastian Arroyo.

"This is something that's important to the community,”' said director Brian Adam Kline. "It starts a conversation.”

Lead actors, Seay and Hart are dynamic in their creation of the tension and deep psychological grief experienced by their characters. I commend them on their craft because this type of character analysis and preparation does not come without cost. As a reviewer, I would have liked just one scene of reminiscence between the medic and the wife about the man they both respected and loved. It would have provided the audience with a respite in this depiction of the “storm and stress” of life.

Local physician, Andrew Morfesis stated that he “admired Miles courage in telling this story of which Miles must have had personal experience to be so insightful.” The playwright indeed served as an Army helicopter pilot in Vietnam for 18 months in the late '60s and early 1970s and was wounded in combat. He first confronted his military experience onstage with his play "Deros: A Vietnam Trilogy" staged at N.C. State University. The play won a 1986 playwriting award. Scenes from the play were presented during Fayetteville’s “Heroes Homecoming: A Tribute to Local Vietnam War Veterans” in 2011.

Hollow Men runs through July 27 at the Gilbert Theater, 116 Green Street. Call the box office for additional information at 910-678-7186.