Capital Fringe: Dance of the Wasp and Spider

– by guest writer Larry E. Blossom –

All you have to say is, “Newtown, Aurora, Columbine.” Instantly, as if they have been scorched into a collective memory, we are transported to tragic deaths and horrific violence. And the questions follow: What, or who makes a shooter? Why do neighbors always seem shocked when that “nice but kind of quiet” kid goes on a shooting rampage? Why didn’t the family get him help? How does he transform from being the friend, brother, son you love and know so well to the embodiment of evil on the evening news?

Dance of the Wasp and Spider takes a piercing look at these questions.

Six months ago, the unimaginable shootings of innocent children and adults at Sandy Hook took hold in my thoughts and invaded my inner world where stage plays take form. As a mental health professional with over thirty years of experience in the field, I mourn the victims and also wonder what could have been done to prevent a lone shooter from crossing a line into a world of madness and violence.

Knowledge and imagination quickly blended. A story emerged.

Dance of the Wasp and Spider transports the audience to the months, weeks, and very moments before a shooting rampage, into the very heart of the shooter and his family – a family not that different from ones we know or our very own. What emerges is a complex understanding of something simple: the power that human relationships have to heal or harm.

Once firmly ensconced in the family, more questions emerge: What would you do if you began to suspect your son, brother, friend, or neighbor could be the next shooter? How could you even suspect such a thing? Could you even say it out loud? And what if he isn’t the social misfit or embodiment of evil with which we’ve become so familiar on the evening news?

Part cliffhanger and part psychological drama, “Dance of the Wasp and Spider” promises to be the Capital Fringe show that will spark animated debate and unexpected insights as well as generate your own unique interpretations from the Rorschach of an ending.

This production is presented as a part of the 2013 Capital Fringe Festival, a program of the Washington, DC non-profit Capital Fringe.

— Larry E. Blossom is a playwright, producer, and Co-Director of Dance of the Wasp and Spider. —
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