Review: Fear and Violence in "Office Hour"

Columbine. Virginia Tech. Newtown. None of these schools are mentioned in Julia Cho's play “Office Hour” now at the Public Theater, but you can't help thinking about them. And as happens after every mass shooting – including this past weekend's at a church in Texas which left 26 dead – what could have been done to prevent it? What if the shooter had not been be able to buy a gun? What if a family member or friend had said something earlier to authorities that could have stopped the attack?

In Cho’s play, Gina (Sue Jean Kim), an English instructor at a nondescript college is warned by fellow teachers that a student in her class, Dennis (Ki Hong Lee), is dangerous. He writes violent, sexually graphic stories and sits silently in class wearing a dark hoodie, baseball cap and sunglasses. It’s clear that Dennis wants to scare people, and he does.

Gina, however, thinks she can connect with him and makes Dennis meet her during office hours. While they are both Asian and both are defying their parents’ wishes by wanting to become writers, it’s not really clear why Gina thinks she can somehow connect with a student who may or may not be carrying a gun in his backpack.

That question about a gun (or guns) is answered fairly quickly, and startlingly, especially if you miss the warning at the top of the stairs before entering the theater, “This performance contains loud recorded gun shots, live blanks, violence, and strobe effects” (note to self, take the stairs next time, not the elevator).

After that first scene of gun violence, however, the play rewinds the clock and shows how the story could turn out, if only things went a little bit differently, if only the right thing was said (or not said). It’s like a video game where you can “start over” after your character dies and try it again, this time getting it right.

That is, until you don’t. As “Office Hour” progresses, there are more resets that progressively build and become even more unsettling to watch and hear. If you’ve ever wondered what it must have been like to stand outside the Mandalay hotel in Las Vegas or hide in a classroom at Columbine, director Neel Keller and sound designer Bray Poor do a good job (if that’s the right word) of recreating that experience.

As the gunshots multiply, it becomes a challenge to sit through. You can turn your head and try not to look, but the sound is all around you. And that’s the point: The creative team wants you to experience the shootings and see they aren’t happening somewhere “out there.” Cho is saying we all have a responsibility to look and even more, do our part to prevent these attacks from happening.  Just how we're to do that, she doesn't say. As Gina says to another teacher at one point, "Figure it out."

Office Hour

through December 3, 2017

at the Public Theater

425 Lafayette St., NY

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this review incorrectly stated the name of the playwright. It is Julia Cho.