My initial interest in seeing GAUC at DC’s innovative Woolly Mammoth Theater was to see how they would take the tragic story of a mass murder victim and mold it into a two-hour play that an audience would pay to see. As in the past, the ground-breaking company succeeded on stage and added a complimentary attention-grabbing exhibit in its lobby.

In the production, Manual Oliver, the father of Joaquin “Guac” Oliver, who was killed in the Parkland, Florida mass shooting, turns his pain into a show. On stage, Daddy Oliver humanizes the otherwise “just another” victim, his family, and the family’s journey from Venezuela to Florida while inspiring all of us to become active against gun violence.

Oliver masterfully tells the story while punctuating it with seemingly impromptu jokes. “Venezuelans are not Mexicans,” he says with contemporary humor.  Daddy Oliver can sometimes be so comical that one cannot know if he really forgot his lines as he quips or if he is being impromptu and interactive. Either way, he makes the meaningful, one-man show work.

Equally impressive is the mini-museum in the theater’s lobby. The displays include memorabilia, original art, interactive displays, and an eerie book I am contemplating getting:  “Joaquin’s First School Shooting.” The children’s book comes with two holes instead of the “o”s in shooting. The exhibit dramatically adds to the show’s aura.

While the show and exhibit are powerful, during the show, I found myself making mental notes on when the show could end. However, as I was leaving, impressed that Woolly had pulled off another tremendous non-traditional play and that most of the audience had joined Oliver in the ending celebration, the lady sitting next to me said she felt inspired.

I couldn’t say that I felt more inspired, but that the performance left me more emphatic to those suffering from permanent earthly separations due to violence.  And, as we review new children’s book in this issue, “Joaquin’s First School Shooting,” left me unable to ignore a new reality.