The Vietnamization of New Jersey

By Christopher Durang

Subjects: Families, Vietnam War, 1961-1975, Drama

Description: "The scene is a middle-class home in Piscataway, New Jersey, where Ozzie Ann (the mother) and Harry (the father) await the return of their Vietnam veteran son, David, and his native bride, Liat. Also on hand are younger brother Et, a sex-obsessed high school junior who eats cornflakes from his unzipped pants; and Hazel, the irrepressible black maid (portrayed by a male performer) who is the real power in the household. When David and Liat arrive they are both blind (which he demonstrates by walking into the refrigerator) and she is an ex-hooker (who later turns out to be a displaced orphan named Maureen O'Hara). Thereafter come suicide, adultery, the feeble intervention of a homosexual priest and the arrival of a super-patriotic, war-mongering uncle--plus a staccato of outrageous comments by the cynical Hazel. The final result is a scathing, irreverent indictment of the worst aspects of the American character, made real by the incisiveness of the author's writing, yet hilarious by the wild originality of his vision."--