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No bones about it: Simpatico Theatre Project's latest play, The Why, is a weird show. And the timing of its production, although accidental, makes it weirder. This review is coming in late because I've been struggling with how to write a review of a dark comedy about a school shooting, when earlier on the day I saw the production, news of a school shooting in Ohio broke; the next day, one would be attempted in our own backyard. Because it is a comedy. A real comedy. The kind that makes the audience laugh out loud – first with the self-conscious knowledge that they shouldn't, and then with the mentality that "it's okay, everyone else is doing it, too."
But there's a serious aspect to it, too. At the very core of the story is sixteen-year-old Robert, who "allegedly" killed three of his classmates and disfigured a fourth. (There's nothing alleged about it, as early on in the play, he admits to a psychiatrist that he's guilty.) But rather than exploring what it was that made him snap, or if he didn't snap, why he was so filled with hate (the "why" of the play's title), it is, instead, more focused on the way society perceives these acts of violence – and the way that the news media asks society to perceive them. The Why is fiercely political in this way, pointing fingers not just at the people who wield the weapons, but at the society that causes them to feel that it's their only alternative.
So, does it work?
Sometimes. Believe it or not, the play works best when it's at its most absurd and comical. Robert's psychiatrist (played with the appropriate combination of sympathy and befuddlement) is also an amateur playwright, who thinks he "gets" teenagers – not because he works with them, but because he was a teenager once, himself. Scenes from the psychiatrist's play-within-a-play are presented with the notable performance of Tim Gross, playing the bully when only moments before, he'd played Robert. More of the absurdly comical is evident when, at the beginning and end of the play, four gun-wielding stereotypes take the stage in a shootout over who-knows-what. Matteo LeCompte's over-the-top Eastwood caricature is especially memorable, a week after seeing the production. Later, Kate McLenigan's reporter character's badgering of a troubled youth gives a satirical view of the kind of media circus that springs up the moment that tragic events unfold.
Things work less well, though, when they get serious. In an effort to first try to identify the "why," and then to show that most of the time, the "why" is elusive, if it exists at all, playwright Victor Kaufold presents us with too much drama to counteract the comedy, rather than the straight facts and matter-of-factness that would allow us to see the events in a more objective light. While it's appreciated that Robert doesn't want to talk about his parents (in fact, he's insistent that they had nothing to do with the incident), their absence makes the show feel less "real," and all of the pathos of the piece feels highly elevated and overly-intense. All you get are two survivors' stories. It's not enough and too much, all at the same time.
At the end of the evening, you have a brief, well-executed production of a play that leaves a certain unidentifiable something to be desired. It's not because the subject matter is unpleasant, or far, far too timely (and it is both of these things), or because it might be inappropriately funny. No, I think that it's because in an effort to create a play about an inhuman act, you're left, in this case, with a play that, sadly, isn't quite human enough.
Image: Matteo LeCompte, Liam Castellan, Kate McLenigan, and Tim Gross have a shoot-out in The Why, the current production of the Simpatico Theatre Project. The Why continues at the Second Stage at the Adrienne through October 28. Tickets are available online.
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