“Why me, Josh? You liked me. Why did you have to kill me?” Katie implores, anguish resonating in her voice.
This questioning theme echoes throughout Bang Bang You’re Dead, an insightful and cautionary look into school violence. Directed by Guilford alumna Amanda Roop, Bang Bang was performed Oct. 2-4.
Written by award-winning playwright William Mastrosimone, Bang Bang You’re Dead explores the mind of a teenage murderer. The play opens with Josh sitting in his jail cell the night after he entered his school cafeteria with a rifle and shot five of his fellow students. These students visit him in his cell and all ask him, “Why?”
The students lead Josh on a journey through the events that led to the killings: Killing a buck while hunting, being dumped by his girlfriend, losing his “cool” status, writing threatening messages on a school blackboard, being expelled for the year…
All of these events link together to paint a picture of a troubled youth, a kid trying to establish himself in his world. A kid who will go to any lengths to silence the mocking voices.
Josh’s victims tell him of all the things that they will miss and that he will miss. In intense scenes of overlapping dialogue, they list cheeseburgers, brownies, cruising, laughing, loving, living. Josh sits, tears in his eyes, until he cries, “I can’t bring you back to life! If I could, I would! Don’t you see that? It’s over!”
Although it is obviously difficult, and perhaps dangerous, to identify closely with a killer, first-year Noah Forman drew from his own personal experiences to create Josh’s character.
“I looked at all the things in my life, times when I felt excluded … trying to put myself in his shoes,” Forman said about preparing for this role. “I’ve been dumped by a girl, I thought about how that felt.” He portrayed this role well, looking near to tears at many points and truly horrified when he fully realized what he’d done.
“It was difficult to die twice in a night,” said junior Catherine Milner, who played Katie, Josh’s ex-girlfriend and later, victim.
In the stunning and harrowing climax of the play, the students crawl frantically through the cafeteria under a strobe light while Josh stands on a table, shooting. The stage goes black, and when the light returns, Josh’s victims are strewn about the room in various poses of death. Josh stands in shock, and then says, “I didn’t know it would be forever. I thought I could just hit the reset button and start over.”
Bang Bang was performed in cooperation with the Early College at Guilford. Bruce Young, 15-year-old Early College student played Matt, one of Josh’s victims.
“It was a thought-provoking play,” Young said. “I think it really made an impact on many of the audience members.” The play closely touches high-schoolers, and their presence in the show and audience was important.
Although there were some laughs, this play dealt with a grim subject and was performed with that in mind. It ended with a brief movie listing three major school shootings and their victims.
“[This show is] something to think about,” said director Roop. “It’s a very, very serious issue.” After the movie faded, the audience sat in silence, still reeling from the subject; then the standing ovation began.