Happy Few presented by Ratatat Theater Group at Santa Barbara Veterans Memorial Bldg. on Friday, November 8, 2013.

Many Americans confuse Memorial Day and Veterans Day, and only register at some level that these two holidays have something to do with men and women in uniform. The more thoughtful might read a book, or watch a TV special. Actor and playwright Casey Caldwell has raised the thoughtfulness bar much higher. The Artistic Director of Ratatat Theater Group interviewed nearly two dozen local veterans, and then carefully meshed their words with a skeletal edit of Shakespeare’s Henry V. The result is Happy Few, a full body immersion into the passions and vagaries of war as experienced through the hearts and shattered nerves of those who know it best, a dramatic march in the combat boots of another. Continue reading →