Winner of the 1976 New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for the "Best American Play,’ STREAMERS uses a room in an Army barracks as a microcosm for some of the most contemporary tensions in U.S. society, - racial, sexual, social - set against the uneasy 1965 backdrop of suddenly escalating American involvement in Vietnam. STREAMERS is the third in Rabe’s trio of controversial human dramas, following THE BASIC TRAINING OF PAVLO HUMMEL and STICKS AND BONES. The play’s title, Army slang for unopened parachutes that doom paratroopers to a swift end, reflects the author's concern with the sudden, random nature of violence and death in modern America. It is a masterly drama, attacking traditional notions of virility and macho war heroics, employing humor, pathos and impressive depths of understanding. This play makes you realize that sitting on the edge of your seat is more than an idle theatrical catch-phrase.