Raven Theater takes an provocative look at Columbine

Returning to their seats after intermission at Sunday's opening of Raven Theatre's "columbinus," audience members had to sidestep Jamie Abelson.

Abelson sat on the floor at the back of the theater -- his head bowed, his arms on his knees -- while people stepped around him. His character Eric Harris -- who with Dylan Klebold (played by Matthew Klingler), murdered 12 Columbine High School students and a teacher on April 20, 1999, --spent the better part of the first act tormented and stepped on by his classmates.

It was a disturbingly effective way to usher in the second act of PJ Paparelli and Stephen Karam's provocative, unsettling examination of the Columbine massacre in an incendiary Chicago premiere directed by Greg Kolack.

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Dubbed a "theatrical discussion" by Paparelli, "columbinus" recalls Tectonic Theatre Project's "The Laramie Project" in its docu-theater approach combining survivor accounts and dramatic license along with Harris and Klebold's journal entries, e-mails and interviews to create an unsettling, authentic and immediately recognizable picture of high school life that could have been set at any public high school.

Underscored by Gary Jules' haunting remake of Tears for Fears' "Mad World," the fictionalized first act begins with actors plucking from the air props (a baseball cap, a compact, glasses) that will define their roles within the entrenched social order. Significantly, outcasts Harris and Klebold, have no such defining accessories. The familiar snapshot of outsiders harassed and intimidated emerges with the locker room and cafeteria as ground zero for the abuse.

Locker room humiliations, too-fleeting moments of compassion and the failure of oblivious adults to recognize adolescents in trouble inspire sympathy for Harris and Klebold. So does the cafeteria isolation articulated by a bully's cringe-inducing taunt "You'll remember high school as the sick feeling you got every day around noon trying to find a place to eat lunch, and I'll remember it as the best years of my life," a painfully true observation that makes us ache for the loners.

That's discomforting, especially since we know what follows. Karam and Paparelli ultimately place the blame where it belongs, but deserve credit for revealing the motivation and for their subtle indictment of parents and authority figures for their laxity and for the lack of tolerance that allows abuse to go unchecked. It's necessary if we're to understand what inspires such violence.

Earnest and unflinching, Act I concludes with an agonizing scene set to The Verve's "Bitter Sweet Symphony" that reveals the anxiety, self-doubt, fear and shame these young people share. The massacre unfolds in the relentless second act via an actual 911 call made from the library where most of the students died and a description of the killings made all the more harrowing by the quietly understated recounts of the cast punctuated by the sound of fists slamming into metal lockers.

Any sympathy the killers generates evaporates with the ruthless cruelty with which they dispatch their victims.

Kolack's fierce, kinetically staged production features excellent young actors including: Todd Aiello as the brain; Devon Candura as the beauty; Michael Peters as the jock; David Rispoli as the joker; Laura Schwartz as the Christian and Jenny Strubin as the artist. Last but not least is Abelson's galvanizing turn as the unhinged Harris, who emanates rage from every pore and Klinger's searing performance as Klebold, consumed by hate. Scrabbling, prowling and stomping across the stage screaming "You made me. You made us" they go from pitiful to frightening to hateful. Bravo.

"Columbinus" offers no new insight. It does not answer the question why? Because like other dramas that have dissected the subject, it remains inscrutable as the evil in men's souls.

"columbinus"

3#189; stars out of four

Location: Raven Theatre, 6157 N. Clark St., Chicago

Times: 8 p.m. Thursdays to Saturdays; 3 p.m. Sundays through March 15

Running time: About 2 hours, including intermission

Tickets: $20, $25

Parking: Free lot adjacent to theater, street parking

Box office: (773) 338-2177 or www.raventheatre.com

Rating: Violence, strong language; for older teens and adults (no one under 14 admitted)