The Forgotten Heroes Who Also Served

For many of the men and women who came of age in the 1960s, the mere mention of one country is enough to induce flashbacks, night sweats, dreams of green jungles fetid with death.

Vietnam, for them, is less a country than a horror story--a cautionary tale. The name is invoked, in guilt and fear, every time an administration considers a war. We are not allowed to forget.

So why is it that artists, playwrights, authors drag us back there time and again to re-examine the pain of a generation? Is it really necessary?

To answer this, we might ask the audience of “A Piece of My Heart” as they wipe away tears at the end of a performance, or the actors who are bringing the rice paddies and raw fear to life every weekend at the International City Theatre in Long Beach.

The play remembers one largely forgotten piece of the war--the women of Vietnam. For actress Cindy Hanks, playing Martha, a Navy nurse, this has been emotional aerobics.

“It’s been an exhausting process. I’ve done a lot of research, reading books and watching videos on the experiences of women in Vietnam,” Hanks, 38, said.

“But it doesn’t really prepare you for the end. By the end of the play, everybody’s crying and standing. People come up and hug us afterward, or reach up to touch us as we exit through the audience.”

Hanks’ strongest memory from the war is relief: Her older brothers drew high numbers in the draft lottery. But for Martha, memories are anything but a relief.

Martha can imagine nothing more glamorous than being a nurse in a war zone, as her mother was before her. She willingly goes in-country to what she imagines will be a heroic effort to protect men and serve her country. The Tet offensive shatters that dream.

Like the other five women depicted in “A Piece of My Heart” by Shirley Lauro, Martha is a compilation of characters taken from a book of oral histories of the same title by Keith Walker.

Together, these women go through the war. Then they face the second battle of coming home.

The play retains some oral history techniques used in the book, but the stories are interwoven and each of the six women plays parts of the others’ stories. One actor plays all the men in the lives of these women.

The multilevel set brings back the rice paddies that cover much of Vietnam. Sound and light effects bring back the bombs, guns and choppers that inhabit most of these women’s nightmares.

“A Piece of My Heart” will play at the International City Theatre at Long Beach City College, Clark Avenue and Harvey Way, through June 20. Tickets are $16. The show plays Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 and 7 p.m.

Information: (310) 420-4128 or (310) 420-4051.