Ugly Side of Military Life in ‘Nebraska’

Keith Reddin’s dark comedy “Nebraska” is hardly an endorsement of the state or the “be all that you can be” aspect of military life. The nomadic lifestyle of base-hopping leads to bed-hopping and awkward social moments. In “Nebraska,” it also brings tragedy as a mismatched set of characters attempt to be a community.

Unfortunately, this Company of Angels presentation at the Angels Theatre mostly misses the comedic aspects, although it features some poignant performances by Suanne Spoke and Austin Kelly as an older couple whose marriage is imploding.

Air Force Lt. Dean Swift (K.C. Marsh) and his wife, Julie (Kate Asner), have just finished an assignment in Germany that left Julie hating the Germans, German food and Germany. Dean’s infidelities increase Julie’s dislike of military life.

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At the Strategic Air Command base outside Omaha, Dean’s commanding officer Jack (Austin Kelly) is a hyper-friendly but socially inadequate man whose boozing wife (Spoke) soon becomes Dean’s lover. When Jack throws a barbecue, more than just hamburgers get burned.

Director Paul Brennan hasn’t got the tuning of characters or their timing quite right. As Dean, Marsh is deadpan serious, but not enough to be funny in a psycho-patriotic way. Brennan is more successful with the dramatic aspects of dying marriages. Marsh and Asner move toward bitterness, while Kelly and Spoke are alternately estranged and nostalgic, missing possibilities for rekindling love and plunging straight ahead toward tragedy.

Reddin shows the ugly side of military life, marriage and friendship that rips through pretenses of duty and loyalty.

* “Nebraska,” Angels Theatre, 2160 Hyperion Ave., Silver Lake. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays,3 p.m. Ends Oct. 18. $15. (888) 566-8499. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.