The show was nothing like what I thought it would be. I figured it would be letters from one soldier in the three stages of his military career but instead there was 15 or so soldiers just recalling the letters from their career. There was one mother also talking about the letters she wrote and about her sons who were in the war.
I loved the beginning of it. All the performers run on to the stage and just say random things. Everyone is left confused until after a few of them step into the spot light and recall the letter. Then you realize, the random things they were saying was just the beginning of the letter. The soldiers were all very different and so it was a great way to get to see different perspectives on the military life and the challenges they had to face. The one solider that I was rooting for the entire time was a father. His wife and had just given birth to their daughter and he could not wait to see her. He had been deployed only days after his daughter was born and in his letter he kept talking about how much he missed her and how proud of her she was and how much he couldn’t wait to see her again. He felt sorry that he had to miss out on even part of her childhood and was telling her how he knew she’d grow up to be a wonderful person. Out of all the other letters, I feel like his was the most touching to me. Then for his last letter, he was saying happy birthday to his daughter on her first birthday. It had been a year since he had seen her and was expressing how he could not wait to see her soon. Then a slide came on that said he died only two days after his daughter’s first birthday. The part really hit me hard and I felt extremely upset. I feel like it was a good play because even though I’ve never had anyone close to me be in the military and I have been lucky enough to have my father in my life through every stage of my childhood, the play still managed to move me. It let me relate to someone I had nothing in common with and feel upset about losing him, even though I had only gotten to know his character for about an hour and half.
The letters were actually from real soldiers and in the end they showed the pictures of the true soldiers. Most of them died but few survived the war and are busy doing other things today. I wish more honors kids had came because it was actually really good and I enjoyed it.