DISTANT FIRES
Distant Fires is a good example of this kind of writing. Less than 90 minutes long, it’s utterly simple and plain. Six construction workers–three white and three black–spend a hot summer day in 1971 pouring concrete on the tenth floor of a skyscraper under construction in Ocean City, Maryland. Down below is the beach that’s transforming Ocean City into a popular resort. And in the distance, the workers can see the smoke rising from Cambridge–a black neighborhood that, the night before, erupted in violence.
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Not much happens during this single workday. A hardworking black man named Thomas (Darryl Alan Reed) is competing with a white guy named Beauty (Bruce Manion) for a well-paid job as a bricklayer. Foos (Charles Glenn), a sullen young black man from Cambridge, is angry because he was roughed up by the police as the riot was developing. Angel (Peter Goldfinger), a naive Catholic college boy whose father helped him get this lucrative summer job, gets into a fight with Beauty. And through it all, Raymond (Tony Smith), an easygoing black man, keeps up a comical banter that dissipates tension and adds some fun to the arduous work. Raymond even keeps his cool when the white foreman, General (Richard Komenich), makes one of his sudden appearances, causing the men to scramble for their hard hats and look busy.
Without resorting to homilies or strident debates, Heelan reveals the thoughts and emotions that underlie racial prejudice. His simple, well-crafted script is highly effective, and the Company Players play it for all it’s worth.
