I’ve had Fridays off all summer. I’m off today, too, actually, but I thought I’d break my seasonal silence to tell you about an experience I had last Friday that was worth “working” on my day off.

It’s no secret that I’m a fan of the equity-actor productions at the Chenango River Theatre in Greene, so when Bill Lelbach offered me a ticket to see the opening night of their current show, “Last of the Boys” (which he’s also directing), I jumped at it – even though it was on a Friday, and I’m generally averse to doing anything that requires me to think or act even semi-professionally on my day off.

But go to Greene I did. Am I happy I did? Well ... “happy” isn’t the word I’d use to describe my experience with “Last of the Boys.” In fact, by the time I was in my car on that long ride back to Norwich, I was pretty out of sorts.

Let me back up, and tell you what this one is about. “Last of the Boys,” written by Steven Dietz, tells the story of Ben (Bernard Sheredy) and Jeeter (Steven Patterson), two Vietnam vets who get together every year at Ben’s trailer in the middle of the California desert. The scene is a desolate backdrop for Ben’s equally vacant life – he enlisted because his father was once an aide to Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara (I don’t think I need to tell you how that turned out), and he’s been trying to rebuild his life ever since. Jeeter is less depressed, but no less screwed up. He teaches a college course on the 1960s and trades off his hippie vibe to pick up young coeds. Their ensuing “reunion” over the day or two of the play is filled with barbs, jabs and recriminations. Sure, there’s a laugh or two, but this is a friendship at once cemented and torn apart by a conflict that did the same thing to an entire nation.