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(L-R) Michael Landers, Michael Monks and Kent Claiborne play three soldiers fighting off fear and boredom as they wait to be shipped to Vietnam in David Rabe's Streamers, the 50th show staged by the Know Theatre Tribe.

It's no startling insight that wars bring out the best and the worst in human beings. More than four centuries ago, Shakespeare explored this fact in Henry V, his tale about a brotherhood of fighting men. That play still resonates with contemporary audiences, from its single-minded and focused king and his devout followers to the comic troop of common men who make up his seemingly overmatched army. (See review, page 42, of the Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival's current production.) Shakespeare caught the essence of what can drive men -- Henry V is a play fueled by testosterone -- to great deeds in the face of daunting odds.

A more recent depiction of what happens when men are compressed into confined situations and exercised by the onset of war is David Rabe's Streamers, currently produced by the Know Theatre Tribe. Although the play debuted in 1976, it evolved from a shorter piece written in 1968: The action is set in 1965, as U.S. military expanded its presence in Vietnam. Yet, despite its historical context, this play, like Henry V, is startlingly timeless: These could be soldiers in 2005.

Streamers is a violent story of three young men in an unnamed basic-training facility somewhere in Virginia, awaiting shipment to Southeast Asia. Roger (Michael Landers) and Billy (Chris Guthrie) have become friends, even though Roger is an urban African-American and Billy is white boy from a small Midwestern town. Completing the trio is Richie (Michael Monks), a spoiled, effeminate soldier whose sexuality and behavior is uncomfortably accepted by Roger and Billy.

The catalyst for Streamers' conflict is Carlyle (Kent Claiborne), an angry, foul-mouthed soldier, furious to be attached to a unit charged with menial tasks. He stirs up confrontations between the three soldiers and brings about a violent and bloody denouement. Stumbling in and out of this dramatic mix are two boozy sergeants, Rooney (Matthew A. Pyle) and Cokes (Reginald Willis).

"Streamers" is the sergeants' colloquial term for paratroopers whose parachutes fail to open -- so they "stream" through the sky to their deaths below. (They sing their own inebriated version of the tune "Beautiful Dreamers.") Men in uncontrolled free fall become a metaphor for each character in Streamers. Richie is adrift, in search of his sexual identity; Billy, although not conflicted over his sexuality (in fact, he fiercely disputes Richie's self-told stories), knows his intellect puts him at odds with the rest of the world. Roger internalizes his own doubts about how a black man fits in, trying to impose order by cleaning, listening to music and playing basketball, but it's evident he's troubled by what goes on around him.

Streamers opens with a scene of tragic maladjustment: A soldier (Jeff Groh) has tried to commit suicide by slashing his wrist. His buddies are shocked and try to explain it away, but it underscores their own fears, despite the bravado supposedly instilled by their basic training and their imminent assignment to combat. While they're "killing time" waiting for their fearful future, they also know another kind of "killing time" will soon be upon them.

Carlyle's arrival accelerates that moment. He harasses and intimidates Richie; he antagonizes the naíve but honest Billy; and he manipulates Roger because they are both black. The oblivious sergeants -- Rooney is responsible for the men; his drinking buddy Cokes is on leave for medical reasons, apparently afflicted with leukemia -- provide iconic commentary, the hard-asses the younger men have been trained to become.

Know Theatre's 50th production offers a potent cast, and Streamers is knowingly staged by Jason Bruffy. Over its six-year history, Know has too often suffered from inconsistent casting. Not this time. Bruffy grabs your attention and won't let go: He keeps his able ensemble tightly focused, continually underscoring the tension. Claiborne's Carlyle is electrifying; you can sense the danger his character barely contains. Guthrie, a veteran of the Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival, makes Billy's complex naivety believable. Landers contains straight-arrow Roger in a buttoned-down mode, nicely contrasted to the more emotional characters around him.

Monks is a shade too flamboyantly gay as Richie: At least initially, his orientation is meant to be in question, but Monks' performance leaves little doubt. That does not diminish the character, but it removes a key dimension of Streamers' dramatic tension. Know veteran Pyle is too young to be the been-there-done-that sergeant -- he doesn't seem much older than the soldiers he harangues -- but he's such a convincing actor, it doesn't matter much. Willis, another Know regular, is perfect in a subtle performance oscillating between humor, knowledge and pathos: Cokes literally has no idea how his final speech summarizes the tragedy of Streamers -- "We could be doing this forever," he drunkenly opines.

Streamers is all the more effective for being staged at Gabriel's Corner (1425 Sycamore St., Over-the-Rhine): The constricted church basement puts the audience right on top of the action -- it's impossible to look away when you're no more than three rows from what's happening. That makes the breathtaking violence all the more visceral. On Jan. 7 (one of two sold-out "pay-as-you-can" performances for the show's opening weekend), the audience of 90 was nearly one-third African-American, solid evidence that Know Theatre is achieving its goal of being a multicultural contemporary theater.

Luke Brockmeier's grungy barracks for Streamers evokes transience and claustrophobia, and Shawn Savoie's lighting design (especially some subtle coloration that heightens the violence in Act 2) further enhances the production's impact. In fact, Know Theatre uses all its assets, limited though they might be, to present a nearly 30-year-old play that's completely relevant in 2005 -- about war, about race, about sexual orientation. If gut-wrenching theater turns you on, get a ticket for Streamers. Grade: A-