The Things They Carried
The Things They Carried
Streaming November 9-22, 2020
Single tickets, click here
Group tickets (adults & students), click here
The award-winning novel by Tim O'Brien
Adapted for the stage by Jim Stowell | directed by Ron Peluso | History Theatre production February 14-23, 2017
Running time: 80 minutes (show and Q&A)
Based on the quintessential book about the Vietnam experience, Pearce Bunting (All the Way, The Great Society) plays Tim O’Brien, whose personal journey took him from Macalester College to the jungles of Vietnam and back. The Things They Carried is a powerful, clever, and provocative story of loss and redemption.
Who is Tim O'Brien?
William Timothy O’Brien is a renowned American writer, famous for writing novels on Vietnam War. His chief works include The Things They Carried and Going After Cacciato.
Born on October 1, 1946 in Austin, Minnesota, O’Brien grew up in Worthington. Worthington played an instrumental role in shaping his imagination and developing his artistic sensibility. Moreover, the location also modeled for a number of stories in The Things They Carried. He attended Macalester College and earned his bachelor‘s degree in Political Science in 1968. In fact, he was elected for presidency of student body during college years. Although he was against war, he was conscripted into United States Army and sent to Vietnam where he served for two years. As soon as he returned from the military service he resumed his studies. He graduated from Harvard University and briefly interned as a reporter at the Washington Post.
Subsequently, he started off his writing career in 1973. His war experience inspired his first publication, titled If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home. His memoir incandescently reflects depression and misery wreaked on soldiers by Vietnam War. In fact his literary work, The Things They Carried (1990), is a blend of memoir and fictional stories. He employed the philosophical concept of Verisimilitude in his works, which blurs between two realms; fact and fiction. His incorporation of metaphysical approach attributed a rich quality to his writing style. In one of the chapters of The Things They Carried, O’Brien discussed and drew out two kinds of truths; “story-truth” and “happening-truth”. According to him, sometimes the fictional truth is more realistic than factual one. It is because of the fact that fictional truth appeals to the emotion and feelings which makes the literature more meaningful. Read more
Learn more about The Things They Carried:
- Writer Tim O'Brien hopes to create 'something that endures' (by Graham Shelby, Louisville Magazine, 5/22/13)
- Revisiting the painful legacy of the Vietnam War (Minnesota Public Radio, 5/29/06)
- The Things They Carried,' 20 Years On (NPR, Talk of the Nation, Neal Cohen, 3/24/10)
- The Things They Carried Quotes to Understand the Vietnam War (Nancy Snyder, bookriot.com, 11/14/18)
Reviews about The Things They Carried
- 'The Things They Carried' is a Vietnam-era soldier's somber look at war
- 'The Things They Carried' review: One-man show recalls Vietnam with words, sounds
- The Things They Carried at The History Theatre
- 'The Things They Carried' and 'Lonely Soldiers: Women at War in Iraq' at History Theatre: What you can do to help
- Wartime Confessions: First-person accounts tell true stories from the battlefield and the barracks
- History Theatre looks at war on two fronts
The Cast
Pearce Bunting
Artistic Team
Ron Peluso - Director
Anya Kremenetsky - Artistic Associate
Tim O'Brien - Author
Jim Stowell - Dramatizer
Barry Browning - Lighting Designer
Martin Gwinup - Sound Designer