The Columbine Project 

Reviewed by Paul Birchall 
Loft Ensemble 
Through May 20 

RECOMMENDED 

There have been so many terrible shootings since the Columbine massacre in 1999 that I actually had to google it to recall the specifics of the case — which particular dysfunctional loner or sociopath went into which school with which weapons. So many of these terrible events have happened that we now almost take it for granted when there’s a new one. We have become depressingly familiar with the various stages of anger, outrage, and acceptance that occur afterwards.  But Columbine still has the dubious honor of being the first school shooting to spark the call for gun control. Sadly, as happens most of the time, this reaction dies down until the next school shooting.

Paul Storiale’s drama, which combines archival material with dramatic extrapolation, was first performed in 2009 shortly after the Columbine attack. It’s a politically neutral work, less interested in the arguments surrounding gun control than in looking at a group of kids, all victims of a world which ignores the lonely and those who are different.  Although it still packs a wallop, the world, alas, has changed: there are now so many public shootings that it seems no more or less tragic than dozens of others.   

The play is a compilation of the letters and interviews surrounding the Columbine event, which took place on a high school campus in a small Colorado town, where outcast students Eric Harris (Marc Leclerc) and Dylan Klebold (Tor Jensen Brown) opened fire on their fellow classmates, killing a number of them.  The story is told from various points of view, flashing back and forth in time, both before and after the killing.  We see Leclerc’s steadfastly evil Harris wearing down the adoring Beta Dog Klebold until they’re armed and ready to take their school out. 

There are also thumbnail portraits of other students, including sweet, religious, doomed Rachel (Victoria Anne Greenwood), tortured thug Brooks (Dantzen Debusk), who’s briefly suspected of being in league with the gunmen, and a veteran teacher (CJ Merriman). Merriman offers a nuanced turn as the adult who calls 911, then hides in a closet saving herself before saving her kids. 

It’s powerful stuff, particularly during the harrowing final scenes when the two murderers go on their rampage and the characters we’ve been watching are killed (or not — the show definitely underscores the idea of death’s randomness).  The final coda, when Harris and Klebold look upon the havoc they’ve wrought, then turn their guns on themselves, is painful to watch; it’s a tense moment, far more so than others in the play such as those which deal with the perpetrators’ psychology.  

Director Bree Pavey’s staging is dynamic, and the ensemble offers astoundingly heartfelt and organic performances.  The problem is that the world has moved on: other disasters have eclipsed Columbine, most recently the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shootings in Parkland, Florida.  Care must be taken; we need to realize that just feeling sorry for the characters and regretting the situation is not enough to prevent the next shooting. 

Loft Ensemble, 13442 Ventura Blvd, Sherman Oaks; Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 7 p.m.; through May 20. loftensemble.org or (818) 616-3150(818) 616-3150(818) 616-3150616-3150(818) 616-3150616-3150. Running time: two hours with an intermission.