David Rabe's 'Fire' goes back to the '60s

For much of the '70s and early '80s, New York regularly had a new play by David Rabe over which to chew, fight and marvel. His Vietnam trilogy, which began with the 1972 Tony-winning "Sticks and Bones" and ended with "Streamers," was the first substantial art created from that war. But except for The New Group's 2005 revival of "Hurlyburly," his brutal tragicomedy from 1984, Rabe's muscular, troublemaking voice has been pretty much absent around here. It would be nice to be able to report that "An Early History of Fire," his first play in nine years, is Rabe in top form.

But the drama, also produced by The New Group, lacks urgency and fresh viewpoint. This is, presumably, a kind of memory play, set in 1962 in a Midwest town similar to the one in Iowa where he was raised. The Pill and pot and sexually liberated young women who read "The Catcher in the Rye" were working their way inland, while the guys, stuck in blue-collar jobs and high school memories, didn't know what to make of any of it.

There is potential in a story of insulated people on the brink. Despite the typically clear-eyed and tough direction by Jo Bonney, unfortunately, the play is a bit of a mess -- dense but not rich, with a lot of plot information that feels shoehorned in instead of sculpted.

But Theo Stockman, who plays the young man desperate for a different life, has an intense, genuine leading-man presence -- sort of a more handsome, younger version of John Malkovich. He lives in a small, claustrophobic house with his father (Gordon Clapp), a German immigrant so full of pride, shame and Nazi ghosts that he seems to wish this play were about him.

Instead, we get dabs of his story and bits of the stories of all the kid's buddies. We also get a lot of information, yet somehow not enough, about Karen (Claire van der Boom), the rich girl on college break who latches onto him for a "Lady Chatterley" fling with someone she thinks will be a weak-minded, strong-bodied adventure.

Everyone keeps running out to see fires burning on the hill, a none-too-subtle symbol of coming social change. It's OK for us to know what's coming, but not OK to feel bored and so much smarter than characters we are meant to embrace.

WHAT "An Early History of Fire"

SEE PHOTOS48 celebrities who've had Broadway roles

WHERE The New Group, 410 W. 42nd St.

INFO $61.25; 212-239-6200; thenewgroup.org

BOTTOM LINE Nothing new burning here