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A soldier's blood has been spilled before the action of David Rabe's Vietnam War era play Streamers begins. Martin (Charlie Hewson), one of the just-barely adult soldiers stationed at a camp in Virginia, has tried slitting his wrists. He's hoped that his attempted suicide will be the thing that will get him sent home rather than overseas. More blood flows before the end of Rabe's 1976 classic, which opened in a solid, but surprisingly never invigorating revival at Roundabout Theatre Company's off-Broadway Laura Pels Theatre last night.

Streamers, which takes its name from an ironic and ghoulish revision to the classic song "Beautiful Dreamer," centers on four soldiers at the Virginia base. Richie (Hale Appleman), Billy (Brad Fleischer) and Roger (J.D. Williams) share quarters (their barracks has been carefully created by scenic designer Neil Patel), and despite considerable differences in temperament, background, and race, they've established a surprising camaraderie. Richie's effeminate and flirtatious ways are accepted, cautiously, by his pals, but Billy grows increasingly frustrated and angry about this well-heeled Manhattanite's goading and advances. As for streetwise Roger, he's convinced himself that all of Richie's airs are some sort of game, and that he's just a "regular" guy, and Roger does his best to convince Midwestern, college-educated Billy that he should relax around Richie.

Though their interactions are never completely stress-free, tensions between these three men are increased exponentially by the arrival of Carlyle (Ato Essandoh), an aggressive and angry soldier who's just arrived on the base, a member of an itinerant company. He's first come into the barracks looking for the other "black boy." Carlyle's hope is that he and Roger will be able to bond because they're both African-Americans. Initially, it looks like Carlyle's instincts may be on target: Roger easily slides into the slang that Carlyle uses. However, theatergoers soon come to realize that Roger is something of a chameleon (a trait beautifully evident in Williams' well-crafted performance), and he can easily adapt his behavior and demeanor to whomever he's nearest. It's why he and Billy can be so close.

The three guys cannot anticipate the sort of effect that Carlyle's volatility and quicksilver mood-swings (made absolutely fascinating and frightening in Essandoh's high-adrenaline turn) will have on them. When Carlyle begins to suspect the truth about Richie's sexuality, though, a string of events are set in motion, which results in bloody tragedy.

The young soldiers' interactions are interrupted at one point during the first act by the arrival of two older, and very drunk, sergeants. Rooney (John Sharian) is about to ship out to oversee demolition operations in 'Nam. Cokes (Larry Clarke) has just returned. Both men, veterans of America's two prior wars, are about as high on the prospect of returning to action as they are on the whiskey they freely swill. Their stories, and in particular one related by Cokes (delivered by Clarke with chilling gallows humor), indicate that the war is being run by a bunch of drunken, rowdy old men, who see war merely as a kind of game for grown men.

When Streamers debuted in 1976, its frank depiction of life in the army and of the racial and sexual tensions between the soldiers was heralded for its seemingly brutal honesty. Though some of the attitudes that the men have for one another may seem quaint by contemporary standards, director Scott Ellis and the quartet of performers bring the guys to life with such humanity and conviction that theatergoers can't help but be drawn in and empathize.

At the same time though, there seems to be almost too great an emphasis put on the humanity of the piece and too little on the brutality of the world that has forged these men. A sense of doom and bitterness exists, but it doesn't pervade. For instance, after Richie has showered Billy's bed in cologne, Billy doesn't react as he dives into his sheets. It's difficult to discern whether Billy's lack of reaction indicates that Richie's instincts about Billy's sexuality are true or if the scent is simply something that he's able to overlook because of friendship. The result is that things spiral out of control, and the violence fails to shock or move theatergoers. It's not difficult to understand Rabe's point: here's violence on America's own shores that stems not from warfare, but rather from bigotry and fear, but its edge has been lost.

It's unfortunate that Streamers doesn't feel sharper in this long-overdue revival. Carlyle's anger about being turned into cannon-fodder because of his race and socioeconomic background seems cruelly timely, but though audiences leave the production appreciative, they do not exit shaken.

---- Andy Propst

Streamers plays at the Laura Pels Theatre at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre (111 West 46th Street). Performances are Tuesday through Saturday evenings at 7:30pm, with Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:00p.m. Tickets are $63.75 - $73.75 and can be purchased by calling 212-719-1300 or by visiting www.roundabouttheatre.org.