Zulu Time

Testosterone and jet aviation fuel can be a lethal mix—according to “Zulu Time,” a poignant and startlingly original drama set on an American aircraft carrier during the civil rights era. A Navy pilot’s refusal to apologize for voicing an urge to bomb the Watts rioters threatens to ignite mutiny on a warship headed for Vietnam…and awakens ghosts from the carrier’s past battles. While the play is in part an insider’s often ribald chronicle (written by a Navy pilot) on how men and machines are readied for war, it is also a poetic and insightful revelation about the deadly but intricately beautiful ballet orchestrated on the decks of a vessel of stupefying power.