‘All the Rage’ Is Gunning to Stress a Moral Point

The play starts out innocently enough, with a man killing someone he claims he thought was a burglar. But as the plot unfolds, it begins to grow to almost Shakespearean complexity. “”All the Rage” comes complete with cross-dressing women, eccentric billionaires, a retired cop obsessed with that one case that got away, and an assorted cast of other oddballs who constantly interact in a series of intertwining stories.

Gunning for Control?

The performance was delightful, in itself. The characters were well written, and the dialogue witty. The staging was Spartan, but effective even so. I took notice with one issue. Mr. Reddin, the author, was, at times, a little heavy-handed with his lesson-of-choice, which, as I understood it, was the importance of gun-control. One character, Chris, played with obvious enjoyment by Daniel Jay Shore, makes repeated references to how safe he feels owning a gun. He goes so far as to warn his estranged lover Tim, played by Michael Sean McGuinness, that if he comes home after midnight (as he is prone to), Chris might accidentally mistake him for a burglar, and kill him. This admonishment comes just moments after Tim, a lawyer, returns from defending a client who had used the same argument in his defense, and before the aforementioned client threatens his wife with the same outcome.

Postscript

Everything comes to a head in the second act, of course. Though I am loathe to spoil the ending, it would suffice to say that in shows with such dark undertones, people rarely live happily ever after.

Culver City’s acting troupe, the Actors’ Gang, launches its fourth holiday show on Saturday afternoon at the Ivy Substation, with considerable help from Culver City schoolchildren. Pirates search the Seven Seas to learn about holiday traditions around the world in Holidays on the Sea II: The Island of Holiday Ghosts, which plays at 2 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays, through Dec. 17. Admission to the original show, written and directed by Actors’ Gang veteran Andrew E. Wheeler, is free with donation of a new, unwrapped toy for Operation U.S.A. Mr. Wheeler’s ensemble is made up of a combination of Actors’ Gang company members and 28 students from La Ballona School. Lights and sound will be run by Culver City middle and high school students who have participated in the Actors’ Gang’s after-school programs. In Holidays on the Sea II: The Island of Holiday Ghosts, Captain Sally is shipwrecked with her crew on a mysterious island ruled by a benevolent enchantress. Ghosts and visions from Kwanzaa, Christmas, Ramadan and Chanukah are awakened, and the pirates are off to learn the meaning of the holidays on a magical adventure replete with puppets, shadow plays, music and dance.