Sticks and Bones

Sticks and Bones

Infobox Play
name = Sticks and Bones


image_size =
caption =
writer = David Rabe
characters = David
Ozzie
Harriet
Rick
Zung
Seargent Major
Priest
setting = The family home, Autumn 1968
premiere = 1 March 1972
place = John Golden Theatre
orig_lang = English
subject =
genre =
web =
playbill =
ibdb_id = 3644

"Sticks and Bones" is a 1972 play by David Rabe. The black comedy focuses on David, a blind Vietnam War veteran who finds himself unable to come to terms with his actions on the battlefield and alienated from his family because they neither can accept his disability nor understand his wartime experience. Rabe explores the conflicted feelings of many civilians during the era by parodying the ideal American family as it was portrayed on the television sitcom "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet". Beneath the perfect facade of the playwright's fictional Nelson family are layers of prejudice, bigotry, and self-hatred that are peeled away slowly as they interact with their physically and emotionally damaged son and brother.

"Sticks and Bones" was the second play in Rabe's Vietnam trilogy, following "The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel" and preceding "Streamers". A veteran himself, he wrote it while a graduate student at Villanova University, where it was staged in 1969. The off-Broadway production, directed by Jeff Bleckner, opened on November 7 1971 at Joseph Papp's Public Theater, where it ran for 121 performances. The cast included David Selby as David, Tom Aldredge as Ozzie, Elizabeth Wilson as Harriet, and Cliff DeYoung as Rick.

Critical reaction and audience response were positive, and Papp decided to move the play uptown. With Drew Snyder replacing Selby but the rest of the cast intact, the Broadway production opened on March 1 1972 at the John Golden Theatre, where it ran for 246 performances.

In 1973, Robert Downey Sr. wrote the teleplay for and directed a CBS television movie based on Rabe's play. The cast included DeYoung as David, Aldredge as Ozzie, and Anne Jackson as Harriet. The subject matter was so controversial half of the network's affiliates refused to broadcast the film [http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/465044] .

Awards and nominations

;Awards
*1972 Tony Award for Best Play
*1972 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play - Elizabeth Wilson
*1972 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance - Tom Aldredge
*1972 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director - Jeff Bleckner
*1972 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Set Design - Santo Loquasto
*1972 Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Play

;Nominations
*1972 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play - Jeff Bleckner
*1972 Tony Award for Best Actor in Play - Tom Aldredge

External links

*ibdb title|8309
* [http://www.lortel.org/LLA_archive/index.cfm?id=3344&search_by=show Sticks and Bones] at the Lortel Archives Internet Off-Broadway Database
*imdb title|149145|Sticks and Bones (film)


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