Mass
Donmar Warehouse London
★★★★☆
 

HATRED, revenge, blame, evil: these are the words of conflict in the world today, not only in war zones and battle grounds but on our streets and in our homes and schools.

That such gut responses are stoked by immersion in online networks and violent gaming sites seems self-evident, especially for children.

Mass at the Donmar takes one specific gun-fuelled massacre of 10 pupils, in one specific US school, by one specific teenage perpetrator, and explores not only the details of the event but, more importantly, the process of restorative justice that is attempted. 

And, as with James Graham’s highly acclaimed Punch on the same theme, it hits a note of immense emotional and psychological import.  

What marks the play out — apart from its complex and difficult themes — is the outstanding acting and the sure-footed and sensitive direction of Carrie Cracknell. What surprises is the unexpected and tricky setting in the functional basement space of an Episcopal church, designed as a naturalistic structure by Anna Yates yet with a feeling of abandonment as if this is an area assigned only to peripheral activities.

Perfunctory preparation for the meeting opens the play with teenager Brandon (Amari Bacchus) responding in a matter-of-fact way to the evident anxiety of church worker Judy (Susie Trayling). It is this anxiety that alerts us to the enormity of what is about to happen. And when process facilitator Kendra (Rochelle Rose) arrives, we gradually gain a sense of what is to happen from a drip-feed of information.

That the two sets of parents — when they arrive — are left alone together, sitting formally around a table, seems unlikely. Linda and Richard’s son, we learn, shot and killed Gail and Jay’s son (plus nine other teenagers) before shooting himself. Surely the facilitator would remain. But the performances of Monica Dolan and Paul Hilton as mum and dad of the killer, and of Lyndsey Marshal and Adeel Akhtar as the murdered boy’s parents, are so perfectly pitched that all disbelief is suspended and we hang on every broken-hearted word.

If there is a limitation, it is in the somewhat contrived premise of Fran Kranz’s original script where the parents are so uniformly articulate that the play is fundamentally a debate, despite the skilled character differentiation developed by the cast. Real restorative justice would surely carry more danger.

However, as the parents sit at their table, which rotates so slowly you can’t see it move, we are in no doubt that a vitally important process is at work before our eyes. And we are reminded of almost unchallengeable truths: firstly that not even a person’s own child — whom they have loved and nurtured by the minute — is ever fully known to them; secondly, forgiveness creates hope where hatred destroys.  

While the play could be seen as a touch self-righteous in concept, the powerful emotional journeys realised so expertly by the cast are gripping. And Amari Bacchus’ regular teenager earths the process in reality.

Kranz’s self-directed Indie film of Mass was well received in 2021. This play will likewise draw crowds.

Runs until June 6. Box office: (020) 3282-3808, donmarwarehouse.com.