Columbinus

by Stephen Karam

A play sparked by the April 1999 massacre at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, probes the psychological warfare of alienation, hostility and social pressure that goes on in high schools across America. Created by The United States Theatre Project, written by Stephen Karam and PJ Paparelli, with dramaturgy by Patricia Hersch, and conceived and directed by PJ Paparelli, columbinus weaves together excerpts from discussions with parents, survivors and community leaders in Littleton as well as diaries and home video footage to bring to light the dark recesses of American adolescence. -Doollee.com

Genres: Plays, Drama, School

131 pages

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Stephen Karam is the author of Sons of the Prophet, a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize and the recipient of the 2012 Drama Critics Circle, Outer Critics Circle, Lucille Lortel and Hull-Warriner Awards for Best Play. His other play is Speech & Debate, the inaugural production of Roundabout Underground; columbinus (New York Theatre Workshop). He wrote the libretto for Dark Sisters, an original chamber opera with composer Nico Muhly (co-produced by Gotham Chamber Opera, MTG and Opera Company of Philadelphia).

Reviews

[J]

I found the first few scenes of this play to be just revoltingly bad: trite and inaccurate and obvious. It was like watching The Breakfast Club reimagined - I found it impossible to believe that the playwrights and their friends had discussed their high school experiences and come up with the most typical high school stereotypes possible: the prep, the jock, the smart kid, the rebel, the freak, the loner - REALLY?

Supposedly, the playwrights made an attempt to break these stereotypes - the popular kids have problems, too! - but it was still tired: the rebel slits her wrists? The popular girl has an eating disorder? The jock works out to deal with his stress? Wow, innovative.

Nonetheless, the stereotypes COULD have some dramatic value if they're considered in the context of how the Columbine boys might have seen their classmates. So for that, the play has some potential.

Further, any story about Columbine can't help but be compelling - the reenactments of the shooting that avoid direct portrayal of the violence, the transcribed dialogue from the boys' videos, the 911 recording: all are powerful and horrifying and fascinating.

Ultimately, this play doesn't answer any questions, but it claims that it doesn't want to. It just sheds a little more light on an event whose questions CAN'T really be answered.

[Thérèse]

The play is decent... I guess I just don't understand the point of it? This offers no new insight into the events of Columbine or the people involved. It hardly goes over the events either.

I like that some lines are taken word-for-word (or sometimes they're paraphrases) from Eric and Dylan's journals, tapes, etc. However, I did often have issues with their portrayals in this play. I'm not sure why Dylan is referred to as Loner in Act One, since he had many more friends than Eric.
In Act Two, Dylan argues with Eric about taking their lives during the massacre— but the actual Dylan was suicidal and had been wanting to take his life for a while.

There is this popular assumption that Eric was the mastermind and a psychopath, while Dylan was the follower and simply depressed. This play sort of perpetuates this. In Act One, Eric (referred to as Freak) is the first to discuss wanting to commit a massacre. In reality, Dylan was the one who came up with the idea. This does not fit the "follower" narrative however, so it is not included.
That narrative is not only wrong but also dangerous and I have issues with how this play utilises it.

[reese ⋆｡ ﾟ☁︎｡ ⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡ ⋆]

single handedly the most impactful piece of literature i’ve ever read. i recommend everyone reads this at some point

[DuckNuggets]

I would probably like it more if I saw it staged, but kind of mixed on it at the moment. Has an interesting concept and some very good moments, but in my opinion it leans too much into high school trope stereotype stuff in a way that doesn’t feel particularly truthful or delicate. Once it moves past that it becomes more interesting, and the ending is certainly impactful, but I think a lot of the first act is wasted on the stereotype stuff.

[Rebecca Madeline]

Wow. I read this for columbinus auditions at Mini Mirage but this was such a powerful play. The imagery of the stereotypes was so impactful. I also really liked how they showed that no matter what your "stereotype" is, everyone has issues and insecurities that they don't always reveal.
Truly a play that asks everyone "what does it cost to be kind".
Being kind can save your life.

[Addison A]

Reading plays in one-sitting is the norm for me. That's not how I read this one; I had to take at least three breaks because it was so hard to read (in the best of ways).

[Jay]

This play made me want to learn more about what really happened at Columbine.

[Carlos]

I think there was a lot of honest effort here, however I’ve seen it staged and read it for my dramaturgy class and this dramatic elegy for what happened at Columbine just ended up not so moving.

[Keaton]

Holy fuck.

[behsforensics]

2018: NSDA Duo Finalist

[Jackie Leibowitz]

3.5 ⭐️

[Emily]

Just sort of embarrassingly bad. Like...so much awful language (N-word, homophobic slurs, just constant swearing) for one thing, and almost all of it feels totally unnecessary. And I felt, reading it, that it completely undercuts some genuinely great moments with way too much meandering shock-value nonsense that means its greater messages are probably going to be lost in the middle of the attempts to be edgy and relevant.

[Gypsysoul_]

I still cannot find a script about Columbine that is capable of genuine emotion w/o the hype. I think reading this script is hard due to the beginning (more like a prose style than traditional lines), and the rest barely scratches the surface of the depth of their stories.

[Daniel]

No real original insight into the events, so just reads as a rehash of 'complicated' high school stereotypes.