It was a bit of a “fringe” moment for the first show on my docket at this year’s festival to be a comedy about school shootings. It was also, then, a bit “fringe” of me to love it.
It was a bit of a “fringe” moment for the first show on my docket at this year’s festival to be a comedy about school shootings. It was also, then, a bit “fringe” of me to love it. The Second Best School Shooting is true to its title. Two school shootings in neighbouring towns take place on the same day. Throughout the following week, best friends Parker and Ava process what it means to be the survivors of the shooting that receives less media coverage than the other (while theirs is a zero-casualty event, the other shooting leaves fifteen kids dead): Why do they get a vigil and waves of sympathy on social media? Is the other school just getting more attention because its neighbourhood is more affluent? And are Parker and Ava even victims if no one at their school physically got hurt?
What begins as a clever comment on the absurd normalization of gun violence in America quickly nosedives into a brilliantly complex dissection of multiple intersectional issues plaguing U.S. life. In just an hour, the play links the shootings and the steadily unfolding fallout in a teenager’s bedroom to corporate and political corruption, the climate emergency, and an increasing class divide – all from the hilarious perspective of two teenagers. It’s nothing short of impressive and a nod to one of theatre’s foremost reasons for existing: making the thorniest of issues of the day something we can still talk about.
Former US public school teacher Alice Stanley Jr has spent approximately four years, eight workshops, and hundreds of conversations with American teenagers to write this whip-smart two-hander. Directed by Riley Rose Critchlow and executive produced by Academy Award winner Adam McKay, The Second Best School Shooting doesn’t waste time trying to smack its audience over the head with a fiery message about gun violence. Instead, it goes right for a teenage gallows humor that effortlessly puts you in a pair of pumped up Gen Z kicks.
I myself am only about ten years older than the characters, and I walked away from the theatre with a different perspective on that generation’s struggle to thrive (let alone function) in a rapidly changing world, where the default is to distrust any promise of social, financial, or environmental security. It was humbling, disturbing, and chock-full of laugh-out-loud moments.
In many ways, Alice Stanley Jr’s own story gathering these kids’ perspectives – particularly their reactions to now-routine active shooter drills and the latest school shooting headlines – is a testament to how important artists are at this precise point in history. As a teacher, playwright, and comedian, Stanley’s unique creative perspective opens up an invaluable sixty minutes in which her audience can openly contemplate a topic from which Americans generally run away. Fast.
The few soapbox-y moments sprinkled throughout still tactfully tie together a play that rigorously offers more questions than answers – something news outlets might not have the privilege of doing but which the theatre sure does. With rigorous and community-informed questions, The Second Best School Shooting is a rich example of how the arts are our last remaining tool to hold leaders and governments accountable – to keep scratching the itch of the status quo until it’s no longer something we can ignore.
Show Listing: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/the-second-best-school-shooting
LISTINGS INFORMATION:
Venue: Baby Grand, Pleasance Courtyard
Dates: Aug 5th -30th (excluding 12th, 19th, 26th)
Time: 12:45 (60 mins)
Ticket prices: £16.50 / concessions £15.50
Fringe box office: 0131 226 0000 / http://www.edfringe.com
Suitable for 14+