In their continuing effort to tighten their grip on gritty, penetrating, psychological drama, Shoreline’s New Space winds up their run this weekend of James McLure’s “Pvt. Wars.”

“Wars” in and of itself doesn’t offer much of anything new in the way of insights into the toll that war takes on the soldiers who fight them. The story is about life in a VA hospital for three Vietnam War vets in the 1970s era.

However, the script and the cast, in close sync, do uncover McClure’s talent for moving war indoors; from the battlefield as pictured on CNN into the traumatized minds and tortured hearts of three patients struggling mightily just to get by, day by day, on a hospital ward. These wars, their wars, their “Pvt. Wars,” are infinitely more insidious, terrifying, deadly and lonely.

None of which is to say that this night out at New Space is without good-natured give-and-take, signs of resilience and the promise, however faint, of hope and healing. Push come to shove, you are made to like these three guys, care about them and pull for them.

New Space newcomer George Jonson wins you over as Gately; a Georgia-born, country boy with a big smile and a lazy, amiable way of doing things. Outwardly, Gately appears reasonably well put together, certainly well enough to be discharged and function.

But, inwardly, to Jonson’s credit, Gately is revealed to be fearful, fragile and far too paralyzed on the inside to sign himself out, which he and the other two patients are free to do at any time. Gately passes time putting together a radio, the parts to which are always disappearing when he isn’t looking.

Jason Adkins’ Silvio is a loud, aggressive bundle of raw nerves who flashes nurses for kicks.

Pranks, bravado and obnoxious behavior as cover-ups for impotence, self-loathing and undercurrents of near-hysteria could make of Silvio a buffoon and anything but empathetic. But Adkins molds him into a profile of courage in inner chaos. Adkins’ performance is an acting achievement.

Kevin Love makes as much of a case as there is to make for Natwick; the well-to-do bookworm who served as clerk in the military but who, even in that capacity, removed from actual combat, still cannot cope with experience in wartime.

Is Natwick understandable? Yes. But is he closely engaging and easy to identify with? No. Neither McClure nor Love can be expected to do much with those among us who are born to privilege and cannot function without it. That said, Love’s performance does do the part the justice it deserves.

Todd Szekely’s directing preserves the intensity and continuity of what amounts to about two hours, without intermission, of brief, scene sketches.

“Pvt. Wars” is a war story without spectacle or sound effects. Bombs and bullets play no part. The idea here is to show the effects of man’s inhumanity to man on personality through behavior.

Imagine wanting to leave a hospital, being able to physically and not getting up and going?

McClure calls “Pvt. Wars” “A Dark Comedy.” But it is hard to see the comedy in hospital life with only the fiction of discharge to hold on to.

Reactions? Comments? Email Dale Burrows at grayghost7@comcast.net.