Tim Robbins' "Embedded" is like a theatrical grenade, sending satirical shrapnel in all directions: Masked lampoons of the leaders who sent soldiers to war without having ever gone to war themselves; self-congratulatory, fatuous journalists; and a hard-driving drill sergeant with a weakness for show tunes. These broader jabs are juxtaposed with a more naturalistic depiction of soldiers writing letters to their wives and a thinly-veiled version of Pfc. Jessica Lynch, the pretty blonde who the military claimed they rescued from imprisonment under heavy fire, but later was revealed to have been in a hospital where an Iraqi doctor had carefully tended her wounds. Excerpts from actual news reports--such as rapturous descriptions of the statue of Saddam being pulled down, or a BBC report of a coalition plane bombing its own troops--are presented side by side with mock reports. This collage theater piece, captured in a performance at the Public Theatre in New York City, wants to mirror the chaos of the politics surrounding the Iraq war, but the cumulative effect of the clashing styles grows more diffuse as the piece goes on. Still, the agitprop zest of writer/director/actor Robbins ("Bull Durham", "Mystic River") is valuable in an era of timid journalists and hypocritical politicians; what will stick with you, when the play is over, are nonpartisan moments of paradox, confusion, and personal loss. "--Bret Fetzer"