WRENS explores the relationships between seven young English, Welsh, Irish and Scottish women. Through grace, candor and uncanny perception, Chicago playwright Anne V. McGravie has managed to transcend the growing category of feminist war dramas and get to the very basic human story of those who served in the Women's Royal Navy Service (WRNS) during World War II. On the eve of VE Day, seven women sharing a barrack fight inner conflicts centering on emotional growth, loss of innocence and biting questions about their responsibility toward others. Each is forced to examine her own self-absorption, morality and petty prejudices when one wren is raped and faced with the life and soul-threatening choices of what to do about her subsequent pregnancy There's a seamless sense of movement and warmth e that is sensitive e to each character's highly individual plight e And regardless of the changes at hand, these courageous but fallible souls downplay the tragedy and self-pity in favor of a reluctant kind of bondingemaking them more flesh-and-blood real than inaccessibly heroic. (New City) By the end of the gently feminist two-hour drama, these clearly defined young women are vividly etched. McGravie wisely lets the issues in her play (women's roles in the armed forces, abortion, class-based politics) slowly emerge from what appears to be the genuine interaction of character. (Chicago Tribune) One int. set. Approximate running time: 125 minutes.