Charles Mancini, as war photographer Warren Zinn, talks about the distance that the camera puts between the photographer and his subject. He explains that while the camera is a barrier in some ways, things like smell and sound obviously get through. The play Out of Frame, has a similar barrier—because it is verbatim theatre, Mancini only has the actual words of Zinn and of people speaking about Zinn’s famous photograph of Specialist Joseph Dwyer rescuing a wounded child in the early days of the war in Iraq. These words put a distance between the audience and the subject. It’s a case of having to tell, rather than show, and although some of the emotions do filter through and Mancini has a likeable and natural stage-presence, this is a play that could be rewritten for more dramatic impact.
Neptune Studio Theatre, 1593 Argyle, Thu May 14, 8:30pm, Fri May 15, 8:30pm, Sun May 17, 7pm, $20/$15, 429-7070
This article appears in May 14-20, 2009.