Confronting evil: A brilliant stage production of “columbinus” at 1st Stage in Tysons

From left: Rocky Nunzio and Patrick Joy in “columbinus.” [Teresa Castracane/1st Stage]

By David Siegel

There is palpable rage in the all too disquieting, yet mesmerizing, docudrama production of “columbinus.” The play runs through April 20 at 1st Stage in Tysons.

First staged in 2005, “columbinus” combines fact and fiction into unforgiving dramatic theatrical imagination that slowly recounts the 1999 mass shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo.

Playwrights Stephen Karam and PJ Paparelli stitched together excerpts from real interviews with parents, survivors, and community leaders, as well as personal diaries and other relevant items to explore the Columbine shootings. The 1st Stage production coincides with the tragedy’s 20th anniversary.

In the first act, the playwrights provide a more general sense of contemporary teen life and cliques in any American high school.

In act two, the play pivots into the Columbine shootings that took the lives of 12 student and one teacher and wounded more than 20 others before the two perpetrators, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris committed suicide. The production has a coda in which the cast members become survivors and townspeople who reflect on the events.

The outstanding cast includes a believably cold-eyed, intimating, easily irritated Rocky Nunzio as the alpha-male Harris and an edgy, nervous, moody Patrick Joy as Klebold.

They are joined by Jennie Bissell, Brett Cassidy, Thais Menendez, Joe Mucciolo, Jonathan Del Palmer, and Alex Reeves who give bravura performances as high school students in a situation they could never have expected when they woke up that morning to go to school.

The 1st State team includes a masterful scenic design by Kathryn Kawecki that is never static as the cast members move pieces of furniture into any number of configurations. The sound design by Kenny Neal is a wonder of percussive music, with sounds that accompany characters’ thinking. Projection design by Robbie Hayes left me speechless at the show’s conclusion.

“columbinus” is not an easy show to watch, given its utterly realistic feel and the production’s ensemble of actors who dare the audience to look away.

Don’t turn away from the opportunity to see it and react to it. “columbinus” offers no easy answers to gun violence in schools or anywhere. Rather, the 1st Stage production, directed by Juan Francisco Villa and Alex Levy, provides the chance to have conversations about that particular shooting and those that have followed.

Where and When: 1st Stage presents “columbinus” at 1524 Spring Hill Road, Tysons, through April 20. Performances on Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays at 8, Saturdays at 2 and 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2. General Admission is $39. Seniors (65+) are $36. Student and military tickets are $15. Order tickets online or call 703-865-1856.

This piece is from a review by David Siegel in the Connection.