Playwright Ponders ‘The Why’ Behind Violence

Amid endless debate over the proliferating horror of school shootings, one perspective in short supply is that of the most impacted demographic--teenagers. The Blank Theatre Company compensates for some of that neglect with an all-professional staging of 19-year-old Victor Kaufold’s “The Why” at the Hudson Mainstage Theatre.

A finalist in the Blank Theatre’s Young Playwrights Festival, Kaufold’s play articulately explores this urgent issue. Through two parallel stories about teen snipers, Kaufold wryly contrasts complexities of “real life” troubled teens with media excesses that pass for journalistic inquiry. Juxtaposing the real and the surreal fuels both the narrative and visual dynamics in Daniel Henning’s inventive, raucous staging, which slyly satirizes the unfocused energy of youth and the dwindling attention span of newscasts.

Both serious and satirical story lines converge in characters played by Fred Savage (“The Wonder Years”). “I think kids are doing it for the wrong reasons,” Savage’s 16-year-old assassin, Robert, blandly confides to a sympathetic prison counselor (Steve Lipinsky). More chilling than his lack of affect is Robert’s assessment that he is not a monster, just a typical suburban kid.

Perhaps. Robert is thoughtful and, we learn, capable of genuine remorse. His aberrant behavior seems rooted in a perceived absence of meaning. Unlike the philosophic existentialism of the past, however, this angst is armed and dangerous.

For all its authenticity and insight, “The Why” is still the work of a very young playwright, needing and benefiting from accomplished performances. Joining the versatile Savage and Lipinsky to flesh out 26 roles are “Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s” James Marsters and “Real-Life Brady Bunch” alumnus Antoinette Spolar, who compensate for the play’s sometimes mannered construction as primarily a series of monologues.

One solution to the play’s limitations might also solve the question it poses: People should talk to one another more.

BE THERE

“The Why,” Hudson Mainstage Theatre, 6539 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. Mondays, Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends Aug. 28. $15. (323) 661-9827. Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes.