Bang Bang You're Dead
Encyclopedia
- For the 1966 comedy film with the alternative release title "Bang! Bang! You're Dead!", see Our Man in MarrakeshOur Man in MarrakeshOur Man in Marrakesh is a 1966 British comedy film directed by Don Sharp, starring Tony Randall and Senta Berger.-Plot:...
.
Bang Bang You're Dead is a one act play written by William Mastrosimone
William Mastrosimone
William Mastrosimone is an American playwright and screenwriter from Trenton, New Jersey. He attended high school at The Pennington School and received a graduate degree in playwrighting from Mason Gross School of the Arts, a part of Rutgers University....
in 1999 to raise awareness of school violence and its causes. According to Mastrosimone, it “is a drama to be performed by kids, for kids” for free. The plot focuses on Josh, a high school student who murders his parents and five classmates. It is strongly based on the events surrounding Kip Kinkel's
Kip Kinkel
Kipland Philip "Kip" Kinkel is an American spree killer. In May 1998, at the age of 15, he murdered his parents and engaged in a school shooting at Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon that left two students dead and 22 others wounded...
shootings of his parents on May 20, 1998, 27 of his classmates at Thurston High School
Thurston High School
Thurston High School is a public high school located in the Thurston area of Springfield, Oregon, United States.-Academics:In 2008, 80% of the school's seniors received their high school diploma...
in Springfield, Oregon on May 21, 1998. As of October 2002, three years after its publication, the play had been performed over 15,000 times.
Bang, Bang, You're Dead is available for download at Icarus Plays in a package that includes the script and a letter from Mastrosimone. Also included is a character guide and production notes from the director of the première, a character and set description, press clips from USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
and The Register-Guard
The Register-Guard
The Register-Guard is a daily newspaper published in Eugene, Oregon, United States. It was formed in a 1930 merger of two Eugene papers, the Eugene Daily Guard and the Morning Register. The paper serves the Eugene-Springfield area, as well as the Oregon Coast, Umpqua River Valley, and surrounding...
, and a collection of promotions.
Purpose
William Mastrosimone intended Bang, Bang, You're Dead to be easily accessed and performed by teens “in any modest playing area," and therefore production requires “no set, no lights, no costumes (except for contemporary dress)." Its purpose is to raise awareness of the beginnings of school violence, which, as Mastrosimone writes in his notes on the play, are not always easily seen. Mastrosimone hopes that the play will help people “see tragedy before it happens." Mastrosimone stresses the importance of young people seeing the play performed by their peers, and therefore he does not allow the play to be on film or video. Mastrosimone hopes to reach out to potential killers in the thousands of audiences that the play continues to gather.Influence
Bang, Bang, You're Dead! was written in the wake of three school shootings: Thurston High School (Springfield, Oregon) on May 21, 1998, Heath High School (Paducah, Kentucky) on December 4, 1997Heath High School shooting
The Heath High School shooting occurred at Heath High School in West Paducah, Kentucky, United States, on Monday, December 1, 1997. Fourteen-year-old Michael Carneal opened fire on a group of praying students, killing three and injuring five more....
, and Westside Middle School (Jonesboro, Arkansas) on March 24, 1998
Westside Middle School massacre
The Westside Middle School massacre was a school shooting that occurred on March 24, 1998 in Westside Middle School in unincorporated Craighead County, Arkansas, United States, near Jonesboro. A total of five people, four female students and a teacher, were killed. Ten people, nine students and...
. The names of the cities in which these shootings took place are echoed multiple times within the script.
The tragedy most significant to the play was the shooting at Thurston High School. The play, based strongly on the events that surrounded this particular school shooting, premiered at Thurston. It was performed by Thurston students, some of whom had been wounded in the shooting by Kip Kinkel.
Mastrosimone wrote the first draft while troubled by a recent event at his son's school, in which an anonymous classmate of his son wrote a message on a chalkboard, threatening to kill his classmates and his teacher.
Première performance
Bang, Bang, You're Dead premiered at Peninsula High SchoolPeninsula High School
Peninsula High School is a public high school located in Purdy, north of the city of Gig Harbor, Washington. It is built on a hill overlooking Henderson Bay and Burley Lagoon.- History :...
in Gig Harbor, Washington
Gig Harbor, Washington
Gig Harbor is the name of both a bay on Puget Sound and a city on its shore in Pierce County, Washington, United States. The population was 7,126 at the 2010 census....
, and was directed by Nancy Wilkinson (a friend of the author).
Reception
The première of Bang, Bang, You're Dead was met with some criticism and controversy as well as praise and even endorsement. Some locals, including Dennis Murphy, the fire chief of Springfield at the time, were hostile towards the production at first. Many thought that Mastrosimone was using the recent tragedies to “cash in.” The play was immediately endorsed by the Ribbon of Promise, a group dedicated to nonviolence in schools, formed in Springfield after the shooting .Characters
Josh—Josh is the play's main character. The play takes place in his jail cell, after he has murdered his parents and five of his classmates. He masks an immature, unsure boy with an overconfident, proud façade.Emily- Josh's best childhood friend, but also one of his victims. out of all the dead, she is hurt the most by Josh's actions
Katie—Katie is one of Josh's victims, but she is also his romantic interest. She does, however, have a relationship with Michael. Katie is Josh's childhood friend and next door neighbor. She is independent and passionate, and refuses to deal with Josh when he does not follow through on plans or promises, triggering much of Josh's anger.
Michael—Michael is the boyfriend of Katie. He is a strong, sensible presence and does not back down in the face of a challenge. When Josh pushes him out of his anger over Michael tearing his picture of his first buck, he begins to fight back.
Matt—Matt is an older classmate of Josh's, but had never met Josh prior to the shooting. He is a smart, academically driven boy who was “in the wrong place at the wrong time”.
Jesse—Jesse also did not know Josh. She is a quiet, mature girl with many dreams for her future.
The Ghost—Josh's inner "high", his other half, his inner darkness.
Actor 1—Actor 1 plays Josh's father, about 30-40 years of age, happily married and is fair, but does not understand Josh's pain. Josh's grandfather, and the public defender in the court scene flashback.
Actor 2—Actor 2 plays the judge in the court scene and the con in prison who threatens Josh.
Actor 3—Actor 3 plays Josh's mother and the witness in the court scene.
Actor 4—Actor 4 plays the prosecutor and the psychotherapist Josh is forced to see.
Actor 5—Actor 5 plays the school principal, and old headmaster of Josh's school, slouches slightly and squints frequently, intimidating. the jury forewoman, and the police officer.
All five actors act as a chorus, coloring Josh's would-be monologues. They also are the rumors in school and the voices in the dark that haunt Josh.
Plot synopsis
Bang, Bang, You're Dead! opens in Josh's jail cell after he has killed his parents and five classmates. The ghosts of those classmates demand to know why he killed them. Actors 1 and 3 enter as Josh's father and mother. Flashing back, Josh tries to manipulate his parents into buying the gun, his manipulation showing as his parents exit arguing. Josh laughs to himself and says “divide and conquer. Works every time.” The ghosts enclose and push Josh, describing the “hell” he will live in until he answers them. Josh tries to shrug off this torment, but the ghosts seize Josh and push him into his coffin. He screams until he is let out, and “begins to look at the deceased with new respect”.Josh flashes back to a hunting trip, narrated by the ghosts. Josh sees a buck, but he cannot kill it. The ghosts describe Josh's response to his struggle in a significant series of five lines that is repeated throughout the play:
Michael: So you make your face a mask.
Katie: A mask that hides your face.
Matt: A face that hides the pain.
Jesse: A pain that eats your heart.
Emily: A heart nobody knows.
Josh kills the buck, but is tormented by what he has just done. He hides his tears and brags about it the next day at school.
Josh is called to the school office and is accused of writing threatening words on a blackboard. Josh's parents take away his gun and send him to a pyschotherapist. Josh contemplates suicide as voices in the dark taunt him, overwhelming him. A voice in the dark tells Josh to “stop the voices another way.” Josh kills his parents, and, in a monologue, reveals the daily pain he endures. The scene changes to the school cafeteria, and the ghosts once again ask him why he killed them, smearing catsup where their gunshot wounds were. They then ignore Josh, speaking of what they miss and what they will never do. Josh, in realization, exclaims “I never thought I was taking away all that!” The ghosts tell Josh that they will haunt him for the rest of his life, shouting “DEAD!” one by one, and falling to the ground. The play ends with Josh's powerful monologue that Mastrosimone hopes will reach potential killers:
I didn't know it would be forever. I thought it was "bang
bang you're dead" again. I thought I could just hit the reset
button and start over. Why can't I have another chance?
When I killed you I killed all my possibilities, too.
I'll never have anything to look forward to. Never.
Is this the rest of my life?
(Josh goes to his knees, devastated)
Oh God. [sobbing]
Josh then, surprisingly, commits suicide as is shown by the dark side of his choking him. One by one the victims say their goodbyes then the show comes to a close.
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