By John Lyle Belden

Center Stage Community Theatre of Lebanon, Ind., boldly presents the world premiere of the drama “Tail End Charlie,” by Joey Banks, directed by Matt Spurlock. This intense look at family dysfunction, mental health, and the hidden wounds of war might be considered daring for a small-town stage – yet apropos as it goes to the heart of the heartland with its setting in a fictional Lebanon-sized town (near Chicago), centered on a young man coming home from World War II.

But first, we see the soldier’s father (Tom Smith), his grasp on reality slipping, declaring both his sons are dead – Robert (Grant Craig), an Army Airman reported shot down over Normandy on D-Day; and elder son George (Davd A. Shaul), who lives but he chooses to see as a “ghost,” hated for costly alcohol and gambling addictions. Yet it is he, the old man, who will have passed away when our story gets under way the next summer, in 1945 with the War in Europe just ended.

Robert, who survived as a prisoner of war, gets home a little early, surprising his wife Dorothy (Sabrina Duprey) as she prepares the homecoming celebration. She is grateful to see him in the flesh, especially after the ordeal of being told he had perished the year before. George arrives with a cheerful greeting, but bad news: their father’s business, Dobson Manufacturing, which Robert would inherit and George managed in his stead, is in danger of being overwhelmed by big-city competitors. Remembering how his brother used to be, Robert rails at him for apparent incompetence until he sees the books himself – and the buy-out bids that would land them on their financial feet, as well as give a severance to the employees facing unemployment regardless.

As Robert mulls the difficult choices regarding his legacy, keeping at bay growing suspicions and unsettled memories, a slick character straight from a gangster flick (Matt McKee) walks in. The man says he’s Frank, a “friend” of George’s, who still owes him money.

Did George lie about giving up gambling? Or is Frank even real? The elder Dobson suffered from hallucinations, even calling one of them Frank, as his mental and physical health deteriorated. Is it just Robert’s overstressed mind, or is there something increasingly wrong with how his wife is behaving? Visits from Dr. Ross (Chris Taylor) offer little insight, though Robert feels confident enough while alone with him to relate haunting details from his crash and capture by the Germans.

Suspense and suspicion build to a tragic end, leaving us much to consider about the fragility of the mind, especially when forced to choose when there is no good choice. The play’s title refers to the vulnerable position of Robert’s aircraft, flying at the rear of the formation. In a way, his fortunes never get better.

Smith lends calm gravitas to the Dobson patriarch, even in a mental fog, delivering a scene that sets the play’s tone with a character whose lingering effect haunts both his sons. Shaul plays George in a way that deftly keeps us guessing – is this a redemption arc, or is he an exceptional liar? Duprey gives us a heartbreaking portrayal of “Dee,” a good-natured woman worn down by the stresses of the homefront, nearly broken with the news of the previous summer, and still struggling to do more than deal with other people’s circumstances.

Craig does well in giving us in Robert the soldier whose demeanor is not quite off the battlefield – survival reflexes now manifest in hair-trigger moods and snap reactions, compounded by the possibility of a sort of family curse, and the mental baggage he doesn’t dare unpack. Then there’s Frank, a merciless provocateur with the insight of a nagging conscience, which McKee plays with relish.

Language gets intense, though mostly PG-13; there is some impressively choreographed fighting; and we are alerted there will be a gunshot – the circumstances I’ll leave you to discover.

“Tail End Charlie” has two more weekends, July 25-27 and Aug. 1-3, at 604 Powell St. in Lebanon. Get tickets at centerstagecommunitytheatre.org.