Terror and Tedium . . . But Mostly Yearning

It’s wafer thin, yes, and formulaic, but with the right actors here and brisk direction, “Heroes” at The Ghent Playhouse is what theater ought to be: a brief escape into others’ lives. Written by Gerald Sibleyras and translated from the French by Tom Stoppard, it’s charming too.

Set in a French home for the aged in 1959, the play centers on three of the residents, all war veterans, all failing, all hiding out and yearning desperately for one final, flamboyant and defiant adventure.    

Gustave, Henri and Philippe (George Filieau, John Trainor and William M. Sanderson) have taken over a small terrace behind the great brick country house where they spend restless days bickering with each other, talking about the old days and avoiding the ferocious matron who we never meet, and who, Philippe claims, has the power of life and death over the residents. 

“She’s terrifying,” he tells us. “If she sees you’re afraid, she goes for you.”

So they live with terror and, mostly, with tedium. Gustave, who wears a medal on his coat and claims to be “a scion of the highest nobility,” sums up a day there: “room, terrace, tepid soup, beddy-bye.”

Now this terrace, their territory, is about to be invaded by other members of the home because of renovations on another part of the property. Their only course is escape into the distant hills where a grove of poplars sways freely, even when there is no breeze.

Of course there are impediments to escape: Philippe, whose head is peppered with shrapnel, is subject to sudden fainting spells; Henri, though verbally nimble, is physically lame; and Gustave, well, Gustave is afraid of people outside the home. Also, there is Hero the dog, a 200-pound garden ornament who must accompany them. But, as the three discover, escape is about being, not doing.

And the three actors, all terrifically entertaining, take us wherever they want.

“Heroes,”  neatly directed by Cathy Lee-Visscher, runs at The Ghent Playhouse through Feb. 8. For tickets, call 1-800-838-3006, or go to ghentplayhouse.org.