Curio Theatre Company presents Joseph Heller's 'Catch-22'

Consider Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson's recent nomination debacle or General David Petraeus's embarrassment after providing classified information to his mistress. You can't help but notice the similarities while watching World War II bombardier Yossarian (Chase Byrd) deal with an amazing assortment of greedy, self-serving, and naive military characters.

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The play asks a lot of its audience. Only five actors (down from Heller's eight) play 35 roles at Curio. Ashton Carter, Aetna Gallagher, Doug Greene, Sarah Knittel, and Merri Rashoyan busily switch costume pieces (a vast array of military and medical period clothing, assembled by Victoria Rose Bonito).

However, the cast relies primarily on direct, specific acting to make multiple storylines clear. Sometimes they even change character midway through a scene. I read the novel more than 40 years ago but found the play easy to follow.

Particularly effective is Gallagher's touchingly sweet portrayal of pilot Nately, a 19-year-old who falls in love with an Italian prostitute (Knittel) and dedicates himself to making her his honorable American wife. Carter excels as ambitious Colonel Cathcart, who wants to be a general. His instructions to the base chaplain (Gallagher) to "keep away from the subject of religion if we can" bring to mind Paul Ryan's recent kerfuffle about firing the congressional chaplain.

Rashoyan stands out as Major Major, who instructs that visitors are only allowed in to see him when he is out; and Milo Minderbinder, whose conniving builds a black-market empire. Greene plays Cathcart's right-hand man Korn and a Central Intelligence officer broadly, but is most affecting as a reluctant doctor and the Italian prostitute's ancient grandfather. Knittel proves hilarious as the prostitute and as a Texan who may or may not be a secret agent.

These dynamic actors swirl around Byrd's nonplussed Yossarian, who keeps encountering Catch-22s, the now-familiar concept coined by Heller. Byrd plays a relatable Everyman, struggling with funny, yet also dangerous, absurdities.

That famous title

Yossarian wants out of combat duty, but Catch-22 makes it impossible: "If he flew [missions]," the novel explains, "he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to, he was sane and had to." Catch-22 is used repeatedly, in a darkly comic way, to show military bureaucracy’s illogical and repressive loopholes. An understanding of Catch-22 is indispensable today.

Paul Kuhn's set features a large playing area with a map of Europe from a bomber pilot's perspective painted on the floor. Upstage, a wall of filing cabinets hides many props and furniture pieces; others are on wheels, pushed into place by actors. The audience sits on three sides close to the action, and the upstage wall suggests that those cabinets go on forever. Amanda Jensen lights the space effectively and sound designer Elizabeth Atkinson supplies many ironically patriotic war songs.

Where this Catch-22 falters is in revealing war's horrors. There's a reason Yossarian doesn't want to fly again, and it's not just his logical desire for self-preservation. The story's powerful revelation, so haunting in the novel, should be more devastating here. Still, Curio gives us a fast-paced, theatrically imaginative, impressively acted Catch-22.