Douglas students Tom Stevens, Christine Bortolin and James Forrester star in When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder? running Nov. 14-22.

Take a trip back to the time of free love, Cadillacs and the classic American diner. The Douglas Theatre and Stagecraft departments are taking a time warp this month to present the edgy comedy When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder?, running November 14-22 at the New Westminster campus.

Set in 1968, When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder? depicts the events of a single day at an American diner in a sleepy Southern town. But, business is anything but usual when a disturbed Vietnam war vet shows up for breakfast. Young and troubled local boy Red Ryder is thrust into the role of hero, and forced to confront his fears as the situation in the diner becomes dangerous.

The diner acts as a kind of microcosm for the United States at the time, when disaffected war vets were returning from Vietnam and trying to fit back into a society that had remained stagnant for many years, says director John Cooper.

"The late 60s was a time of big change. The core of the play is the Vietnam vet who shows up and enacts change upon the people in the diner. He's been disaffected through the war and he's come home looking for heroes. He forces these people to change. And here's this Red Ryder, who has the same name as a famous cowboy, and he becomes the centre of this vain search for heroes," says Cooper.

Though the play takes place 40 years ago, Cooper says the themes and issues raised are still relevant today.

"The fear of change is omnipresent. The play makes us look at ourselves, and how fear and loneliness keep us trapped in place."

Despite the serious subject matter, the characters are a great source of comic relief throughout the play, says Cooper.

"It gets quite dark at parts, but it is a comedy, it's hopeful at the end," says Cooper.

"It's a comedy...with teeth."

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