'gUnTOPIA' Designed To Be A Conversation Starter About Gun Violence

Speaker 1: 00:00 The roust abouts theater company just opened the world premiere of will Cooper's dark comedy gun Topia, which takes aim at gun violence. KPBS arts reporter Beth Armando speaks with actor, producer Phil Johnson and director Rosina Reynolds about how this play is a conversation starter. Phil, you are one of the founding members of the roust abouts. So explain what this group is. The roster of arts theater. Speaker 2: 00:24 The company was started by three writers who were looking to put the material that we cared about most that we wanted to share. I'm from more of a comedy background and my other two partners, uh, had a dramatic background. So we tried to put a bunch of materials together that we thought was interesting and fresh and new and that would get the audience thinking. So that's what we started. And we're also, then we try to put as many new writers as we can into our programming as possible. We have readings of new writers that are happening right now and so we're always looking to, to help people out in that way. Speaker 1: 00:58 And Rosina, you are directing the current roster about production, which is gun Topia. So explain what this is about. A gun Topia is a satire. It takes place in um, a utopian environment where everybody is armed. The idea being that you're safer if everybody is armed because everybody is somehow on a level playing field and equal. But some of the elements that come out of that is how disconnected we become from our emotional lives. And what are the consequences of that. And the play continues on this path from a very satirical opening into a rather dark and unnerving ending. Talk about directing sat tire at this point in time. Cause it seems like we're at a tricky period where sometimes people are very sensitive to making fun of certain things and there's, I know I've talked to some comedians who say they are, they are afraid to tackle certain kinds of comedy because of the reaction that they might get to talk about directing satire and getting that tone. Speaker 1: 02:12 And how difficult or challenging that is with this particular play? I th th the way it's written, the strokes have to be big. It's in big strokes, especially at the beginning of the play. There's no room for evasive elements within the play. There's no hidden agenda. There's no things that aren't being said. Things I've said upright and forthright and right out there, there's no, there's no attack on anybody. It's not a satire in the sense that it's taking a very heated subject and then attacking it from one side or one perspective. It's taken a much broader perspective where we take this idea of everybody being armed and put it into this utopic environment, sort of like the fifties in some way. Costumes are very fifties in his style so that it's a happy land that these people live in because everything has been resolved because everyone is armed. Speaker 1: 03:07 But what that sense of empathy is something that we're curious about in the play because it's the empathy that is sort of lost. The emotional content is lost in this utopic world. So what happens when the cracks start to show in that empathetic way? What happens when just one person within that community starts to have feelings that aren't in line with how everybody else feels? The isolation for that person, the, the concern by everybody else, that that person is not part of this society anymore because they're flawed in some way or crazy in some way. Because for this society to work, everybody has to be in lockstep and think the same way and fill. You are taking a slightly new turn with Ross about in the sense that you are programming discussions and trying to use this play as kind of a conversation starter. So what kinds of things are you doing? Speaker 2: 04:07 Well, we are having what uh, what's called with theater talk backs. We do a lot of talk backs. We have one every night. And uh, I've tried to do something where we have a bigger conversation and we get people thinking about what they just saw. All of the talk backs relate to the play in some way. But, uh, not always in the way that you're thinking about. It's not, we have, uh, several, uh, experts who are coming in talking about second amendment. We're having Todd Gloria come in and talk about some, uh, political efforts. We'll be having some people who talk about getting involved in activists movements and then there's also a an evening where somebody telling us, talking about how do you talk to the other side, the national conflict resolution board, somebody coming from that group. So we're really trying to put in all different sides of looking at an issue like this because you have so many feelings at the end of this evening you will after you see this play. I think it's pretty effective in that way. And what do you do with that? You know, you could just go home and forget about it, but we're hoping that people take something home from this into their lives. Something for change, something for thoughts, something for growth. Speaker 1: 05:24 And this is a world premiere. So talk a little bit about the play itself and the playwright. Well a will Cooper wrote the play. I know he is very passionate about this whole gun control issue, but I think he his, I mean, I don't want to speak for him, but it seems that his approach was this satirical approach because he certainly didn't want to beat anybody over the head with a message because then who is it? Who is it going to? I mean, we're preaching to the choir so much at the time. Anyway. So what he wanted to do was create a scenario, a satirical prospective of this play. Take the idea that, for example, um, open carry is becoming more and more common in more and more States. Um, and then the argument that if, if somebody in the church or somebody in the school or somebody in the library was armed, then the bad guy wouldn't get away with it because that'd be stopped by the good guy with a gun. Speaker 1: 06:17 So he's taken those perspectives, which have become more and more prevalent within the country and he's taken it to the extreme and said that not only is everybody armed, but the law now is that everybody must be armed, including the children. The children are taught at school how to shoot. They take exams and tests and contests to see who is the best shot so that everybody in the play is now armed with the idea of the gun Topia with the idea that this utopian place therefore cannot go wrong. Right. But it's very, I think he's taking those themes and, and not beating you up with them as I said, but laying them out there in the broadest perspective and saying, is this really where we want to go? Speaker 2: 07:06 And let me just add to that, um, something that Rosina is very good with shifting and styles. I think the good thing, the amazing thing about this play that we'll road is it's about a difficult subject, the setting of the fifties sitcom idea. The satire setting really lets you in to this idea and lets you get comfortable in this world until you deal with the, the real meat of the play, the real cracks in this world at the end. But I do think the comedy brings you in and lets you sit back and look at it for a second until you can take it in. Speaker 1: 07:42 All right. Well, I want to thank you both very much for talking about gun Topia. Thanks, Bev. Thank you, Beth. That was Beth AGA speaking with Phil Johnson and Rosina Reynolds about gun Topia. The play runs through March 29th at Moxie theater on El Cahone Boulevard.