A play about gun control, mental health, Robert Kennedy, and the Umpqua Community College shooting that forms a cohesive message without hitting the audience over the head with an anvil? It’s real, it’s bold, and it’s here in D.C. thanks to playwright-director Ginger Dayle and New City Stage Company.
The concept is ambitious – both in topic and in style – but the cast and crew have succeeded in creating an engaging production focused on the history of gun law reform, gun violence, and its impact on urban and rural environments in the United States from Bobby to Barack.
The play is set mostly in Oregon. The first timeline follows Robert Kennedy’s presidential campaign on the West Coast in 1968, while the other timeline (woven around the first) takes place in 2015 focusing on Chris Harper-Mercer (the Umpqua shooter), his mother, and members of the Roseburg, Oregon community in the months leading up to Harper-Mercer’s attack at the school. Despite the seemingly disparate, coincidental connection of Roseburg – which is the location of one of Kennedy’s last speeches on gun control during the campaign – the piece rests on a strong foundation of the victims’ experiences in violent crimes.
Roseburg
closes July 22, 2017
Details and tickets
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It is difficult to summarize this jam-packed play without giving too much away. But there are three especially memorable aspects that any viewer should pay attention to. First, Dayle’s approach to manifesting technological communication on stage is striking. Coordinated actors, lights, and animated projections bring a scene in a Twitter chatroom to a level of familiar alienation and chaos that is hard to replicate in live performance, but smoothly executed in this production. Second, the quilted-arrangement of the script allows room for multiple viewpoints to be introduced in nearly every scene, and Dayle makes sure each point is given natural breathing room. Perspectives are not dropped for the sake of superficial acknowledgement – even if just for a moment, each point is received before the scene progresses. This is an impressive balance of motives for the playwright, who does clearly fall to one side of the issue when all is said and done.
And lastly, you should look forward to some excellent dramatic portrayals by the cast as a whole, especially from Russ Widdall (Bobby Kennedy), Ebony Pullum (Laurel Harper), and AJ Klein (Chris Harper-Mercer). Whether by choice or by circumstance, these people have become figures in American history, and these actors illuminate their characters’ experiences with precision.
Don’t miss this unique take on these prevalent issues – add Roseburg to your must-see list now!
Incredible piece of theater that needs to be done again soon. One of the few high quality pieces in this year’s fringe.
I really enjoyed the play as did the audience that was there on Saturday. I think these guys posting under fake names are a part of the white male patriarchy trying to suppress women and freedom of speech. Don’t these people have better things to do with their time?
Probably another angry resident from the actual town of Roseburg trying to silence the playwright. I saw the show in Philadelphia last year and again in DC and it was even better. These are the same people who threatened the playwright’s life when it was produced last summer. I would just ignore them because they hide behind the internet to try to scare people from making art. It’s the same thing they’re doing to Abortion Road Trip. I highly recommend you see both shows and continue to support freedom of speech!
Your comment makes no sense. The playwright says why she used the shooter’s name and defended her choice. What is disconnected and grandiose about that? Sounds like you’re jealous to me.
Your lack of “professionalism” and self-serving rant are the only alarming things here. You should really not drink and post.
Did you actually see the play and have an opinion? Because THAT IS THE POINT of the post. You can’t talk if you don’t know what it’s about, you grandiose fool who’s terrible with diction.
You’re clearly another weak-minded person hiding behind a fake name. LOL all the way to the bank because the festival is doing just fine without you, as am I.
Since I am a playwright getting commissions I’m doing just fine. And how many plays did you get produced this year? You’re lucky your comment didn’t get moderated. What you think is unprofessional is me exercising my freedom of speech. I don’t see you trying to keep anyone else from having the same freedoms as you. Good luck on your bullshit crusade. My play is stronger than weak-minded internet cowards like you.
Get a pair and post under your name.
Damn! Holy Hyper-Defensiveness Batman!
I think Ginger missed the point entirely. The OP was opining against the portayal of a murderer.
Her response was grandiose, self-serving and off-topic.
The OP raised a legitimate question regarding the glorification of a murderer. It was a technical question and not a challenge to the playwright’s authority or artistic license.
It’s appalling that a playwright would respond in such a hostile,disconnected and threatening voice.
This lack of professionalism is alarming. It sure doesn’t make me want to visit the festival.
Sorry, but I strongly disagree. Write your own play and do it anyway you want. But this is my piece and the best way I see fit to do it.
No one persecuted the award-winning writers of HAMILTON, FOXCATCHER or the OJ Simpson mini-series so I’m just fine doing my award-winning work the way I want.
And the only faceless coward here is YOU, hiding behind a fake name on the internet so you can attack another. Look in the mirror if you need someone to spew your hate at.
By naming the cowardly individual who killed for no reason you are perpetuating the violence. He should remain a faceless coward.