The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel

David Rabe’s bruising, surrealist anti-war tragedy 'The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel' is a monumental milestone of 1970s American realism that explores the brutal psychological conditioning of the military apparatus. The narrative tracks a naive, deeply insecure young misfit who enters the U.S. Army during the height of the Vietnam War, tracing his systematic transformation into a cold-blooded, pathologically detached combat soldier, only to meet a senseless demise inside a gritty brothel. Most famously presented in the multi-Tony-winning 1977 Longacre Theatre Broadway revival starring Al Pacino in a legendary tour-de-force performance, the work remains an essential dramatic pillar.