In ‘columbinus,’ a play about the Columbine massacre in 1999, high school and twenty-somethings bring the day-to-day life of Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris to theater audiences in Tampa Bay. Credit: Jeannine Borzello

Were Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris monsters? If they weren’t, how could they carry out one of the three deadliest school shootings in recent memory?

Questions about what makes a school shooter have no easy answers, and columbinus, Innovocative Theatre’s current production in Tampa, doesn’t provide a definitive answer. By the end of the play, though, the actors convincingly convey one message: These boys weren’t monsters. Mentally ill doesn’t mean monster. But man, isn’t it easier to think of them as monsters instead of mentally ill young men who struggled — no so differently than most teenagers do — until some neuron in their brains fired in a way they didn’t have the ability to address and no one who could have helped, did? The system, the adults, doctors — they all failed these two young men. The play makes that clear (the script draws from interviews with survivors, parents, community leaders and also police evidence) and the actors drive it home: Society failed these boys, and this is what happened.

Honestly, seeing columbinus won’t make you feel better about anything. You will walk out of the play not only feeling the weight of the Columbine tragedy — and the Sandy Hook tragedy, and the Parkland tragedy — and you'll also feel how adults failed two still-growing boys. That’s the bitch of columbinus, how the actors — some of whom still attend high school — drive home this point so well that you walk out feeling the weight of every school shooting draped across your shoulders. But still, you are going to see it, I hope. It’s a tremendous production, well-acted and cleverly designed (thanks to scenic designer Jeannine Borzello and video producer Jake LaMay).

The characters seem sketched from a John Hughes film, with names like AP, Faith, Jock and Loner and, while they offer audiences stereotypes, you remember all too well that stereotypes exist for a reason — each character could have been pulled from my senior class. Or yours. This isn’t a new point to make, that stereotypes exist in high school; who reading this has not seen The Breakfast Club? Well, think The Breakfast Club, but with guns. Would it have been out of character for John Bender and Brian Johnson (Judd Nelson’s character and Anthony Michael Hall’s character, respectively) to come to school with guns? If John Hughes were alive, I wonder if this is the film he would make today.

What disturbed me even more was the barely half-filled house — and that was with the opportunity to speak with Manuel Oliver and Patricia Padauy-Oliver, whose son Joaquin died in the Parkland massacre. What kept people away? Too real for theater? Too close to home? Something else to do?

Look, I get it. A play about kids dying might not be how you want to spend your Saturday. But the message of the play aside, Innovocative has mounted a moving, well-produced play. Also of note: The cast, with the exception of one person, are all under 25, with at least one of them still attending high school (Blake High School, the Tampa Bay’s preeminent theater school).

Think about that as you watch the show: Columbine happened 20 years ago; most of the cast probably doesn’t remember a time where adults didn’t think about increasingly inevitable school shootings. For my 46-year-old self, that’s a lot to wrap my head around.

But that also might be why the acting rings so true: This is their reality.

And, for a couple hours, they will make it yours.

At the Jan. 19 matinée, the post-show talkback will include representatives from the National Alliance on Mental Illness Hillsborough, the Tampa Police Department and former school resource officer turned psychotherapist Jesse Collins. The Jan. 20 matinée talkback will be with executive director of Safe and Sound Hillsborough Freddy Barton and representatives from Kids Demand Action.

Cathy Salustri is Creative Loafing’s arts + entertainment editor; contact her here, and subscribe to Creative Loafing's weekly Do This newsletter to stay informed about Tampa Bay theater happenings.

This article appears in Jan 10-17, 2019.