Bang Bang You're Dead
I saw "Bang Bang You're Dead" at Los Medanos College some time ago.
Part Noh, Part Performance Art, Part Preachy PC Drivel:
A Critique of "Bang Bang You're Dead"
~
"I wanted to kill you... but I didn't want you DEAD."
These are the frustrated words of the haunted high-school murderer in
"Bang Bang You're Dead", and this is the theme which characterizes the
one-act play which can be described as both artful and flawed at the
same time.
The play opens with the prisoner, Josh, confronted by ghosts: the
memories of those he has killed, each
asking: "Why me?". Josh hears the mocking of his classmates in his
mind, from the beginning of the
play, to the end - he has been mocked by them prior to shooting them,
and alone in his jail cell,
he continues to be mocked.
As the story develops, we learn the following about Josh: we find out
that he is mocked by his classmates. We learn that his
girlfriend has left him for his best friend. We learn that in order to
become a man, he must take the life of a buck:
and it would seem that in order to become a man instead of a betrayed,
powerless child, he must take the life of human beings.
The story is told through simple means: actors who take on many parts;
a small, dark space in which the story unfolds, mirroring both the
literal and figurative steel cage in which Josh has found himself, and
creating a claustrophobic environment in which the
audience becomes a surrogate for Josh in the experience of the
nightmare that is unfolding.
Many of the parts are interchangeable. Only a small handful of actors
play only one character: these are Josh and his murdered agemates
Emily, Jessie, Matt, Michael, and Emily. Interestingly, the actors who
play authority figures, are seen playing several authority figures.
For example, Elba Gomez plays both the Judge and the Prosecutor;
Jessica Guitierrez plays both a police officer and the school
principal. Freddy Gutierrez plays the father, the grandfather, and the
Public Defender.
The point which seems to be made via the interchangeability of the
actors, would seem to be that authority figures in Josh's life are
interchangeable: Mom, Dad, Judge, Psychoterapist, Presecutor for
example are not specific entities but instead a parade of adults who
exist only to push Josh around and deprive him of his voice. I found
this treatment reminiscent of the Japanese artform of Noh, where one
actor may play many characters, and changes masks to denote a change
of character.
Additionally, Josh's victims also seemed to lack individuality. Each
was a type or stereotype, or the embodiment of a specific emotion. I
found this to be rather similar to the reductionism in "Throne of
Blood", Kurosawa's interpretation of Shakespeare's MacBeth, where each
character is flattened and reduced to a symbolic type akin to the
masks worn by a Noh actor.
Emily, Josh's childhood friend, is the embodiment of love: over and
over, her ghost haunts Josh with the idea that he has robbed himself
of the opportunity to know love.
Matt is The "Nerd" - a type we are all familiar with. He has been
deprived of the chance to ever play Dungeons & Dragons once again, or
to lose his virginity.
Katie is the betraying girlfriend who has left Josh for another young
man, because Josh's inner conflicts cause him to neglect his duties as
her boyfriend.
Michael is the EveryGuy, the Big Man On Campus. The star athlete and
star student. He has taken away Josh's girlfriend Katie, even more
"rubbing it in" that Josh can never be the Big Man; he will only ever
be the tormented young man that he is.
The "peanut gallery" offered by the other actors - the voices in
Josh's mind - form a sort of Greek chorus. They chant in the
background, and Josh argues and fights with them throughout the play.
Where "Bang Bang" is unsuccessful, is that at times it seemed as if
the point were overstated while the supporting events were
understated. All we see are the immediate events leading up to the
murders. We do not see any of Josh's childhood, or the psychology
which has brought him to commit his crimes. Chants such as "a gun in
your hand is a Ph.D." make the play seem like a long "just say no to
school violence" advertisement, rather than a dramatic work; the
discussion which is offered after every production of this play,
further makes the play seem "preachy", like a travelling Evangelical
revival show.
To my mind, "Bang Bang You're Dead" was not a realistic play, but a
moral fable in which the main characters are symbols which are
manipulated in order to make the point that the director is trying to
make.
Part Noh, Part Performance Art, Part Preachy PC Drivel:
A Critique of "Bang Bang You're Dead"
~
"I wanted to kill you... but I didn't want you DEAD."
These are the frustrated words of the haunted high-school murderer in
"Bang Bang You're Dead", and this is the theme which characterizes the
one-act play which can be described as both artful and flawed at the
same time.
The play opens with the prisoner, Josh, confronted by ghosts: the
memories of those he has killed, each
asking: "Why me?". Josh hears the mocking of his classmates in his
mind, from the beginning of the
play, to the end - he has been mocked by them prior to shooting them,
and alone in his jail cell,
he continues to be mocked.
As the story develops, we learn the following about Josh: we find out
that he is mocked by his classmates. We learn that his
girlfriend has left him for his best friend. We learn that in order to
become a man, he must take the life of a buck:
and it would seem that in order to become a man instead of a betrayed,
powerless child, he must take the life of human beings.
The story is told through simple means: actors who take on many parts;
a small, dark space in which the story unfolds, mirroring both the
literal and figurative steel cage in which Josh has found himself, and
creating a claustrophobic environment in which the
audience becomes a surrogate for Josh in the experience of the
nightmare that is unfolding.
Many of the parts are interchangeable. Only a small handful of actors
play only one character: these are Josh and his murdered agemates
Emily, Jessie, Matt, Michael, and Emily. Interestingly, the actors who
play authority figures, are seen playing several authority figures.
For example, Elba Gomez plays both the Judge and the Prosecutor;
Jessica Guitierrez plays both a police officer and the school
principal. Freddy Gutierrez plays the father, the grandfather, and the
Public Defender.
The point which seems to be made via the interchangeability of the
actors, would seem to be that authority figures in Josh's life are
interchangeable: Mom, Dad, Judge, Psychoterapist, Presecutor for
example are not specific entities but instead a parade of adults who
exist only to push Josh around and deprive him of his voice. I found
this treatment reminiscent of the Japanese artform of Noh, where one
actor may play many characters, and changes masks to denote a change
of character.
Additionally, Josh's victims also seemed to lack individuality. Each
was a type or stereotype, or the embodiment of a specific emotion. I
found this to be rather similar to the reductionism in "Throne of
Blood", Kurosawa's interpretation of Shakespeare's MacBeth, where each
character is flattened and reduced to a symbolic type akin to the
masks worn by a Noh actor.
Emily, Josh's childhood friend, is the embodiment of love: over and
over, her ghost haunts Josh with the idea that he has robbed himself
of the opportunity to know love.
Matt is The "Nerd" - a type we are all familiar with. He has been
deprived of the chance to ever play Dungeons & Dragons once again, or
to lose his virginity.
Katie is the betraying girlfriend who has left Josh for another young
man, because Josh's inner conflicts cause him to neglect his duties as
her boyfriend.
Michael is the EveryGuy, the Big Man On Campus. The star athlete and
star student. He has taken away Josh's girlfriend Katie, even more
"rubbing it in" that Josh can never be the Big Man; he will only ever
be the tormented young man that he is.
The "peanut gallery" offered by the other actors - the voices in
Josh's mind - form a sort of Greek chorus. They chant in the
background, and Josh argues and fights with them throughout the play.
Where "Bang Bang" is unsuccessful, is that at times it seemed as if
the point were overstated while the supporting events were
understated. All we see are the immediate events leading up to the
murders. We do not see any of Josh's childhood, or the psychology
which has brought him to commit his crimes. Chants such as "a gun in
your hand is a Ph.D." make the play seem like a long "just say no to
school violence" advertisement, rather than a dramatic work; the
discussion which is offered after every production of this play,
further makes the play seem "preachy", like a travelling Evangelical
revival show.
To my mind, "Bang Bang You're Dead" was not a realistic play, but a
moral fable in which the main characters are symbols which are
manipulated in order to make the point that the director is trying to
make.