Stranger Than Fiction

It’s been tackled in film and on television, in memoirs, diaries, novels, and nonfiction. And despite all of those words and perspectives, there’s still plenty to be said about the war in Vietnam and its riveting effect on American society. The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel adds to the discourse by revealing the war’s devastating effects on a particularly impressionable recruit and his mysterious officer, who guides us all through the trials -- by fire and worse -- of what could blithely be referred to as “the Southeast Asia conflict.”

David Rabe, who wrote this Obie winning play, knows that Vietnam has global ramifications still being felt today, and he confronts them well through Pavlo. Ground Up & Rising will stage what it calls its “biggest production to date” at the theater in the M Building of Miami Dade College’s Kendall Campus (11011 SW 104th St., Miami), through August 26. See it tonight at 8:00 p.m. Admission costs $15 and $20. Call 305-726-4359, or visit www.theatermania.com.
Aug. 2-26, 8 p.m.