{"id":378537,"date":"2025-09-29T12:39:05","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T12:39:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/?p=378537"},"modified":"2025-09-29T14:36:28","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T14:36:28","slug":"neighbors-clash-over-firearms-in-friends-with-guns-at-silver-spring-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/2025\/09\/29\/neighbors-clash-over-firearms-in-friends-with-guns-at-silver-spring-stage\/","title":{"rendered":"Neighbors clash over firearms in \u2018Friends With Guns\u2019 at Silver Spring Stage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A sign adjacent to the box office at Silver Spring Stage proclaims \u201cNo Firearms or Weapons Allowed on Premises.\u201d It\u2019s a somewhat ironic introduction to the theater\u2019s production of Stephanie Alison Walker\u2019s 2019 play <em>Friends with Guns<\/em>, billed as a \u201cprovocative dark comedy\u201d in which conflicts arise from neighbors\u2019 clashing convictions on the vices or virtues of gun ownership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While there are scattered comic moments in the production, the play is essentially a play of ideas within a domestic drama. The play begins with Shannon (Vanessa Markowitz), a frazzled mother of two young boys misbehaving in a park, delivering a monologue displaying her extreme level of anxiety. Leah (Ellen Schiavone), another mother of young children, encounters her. A peacemaker by nature, she comforts Shannon. They bond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" src=\"https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Friends-with-Guns-1600x1200-1.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-378544\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Friends-with-Guns-1600x1200-1.jpeg 1600w, https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Friends-with-Guns-1600x1200-1-300x225.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Friends-with-Guns-1600x1200-1-460x345.jpeg 460w, https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Friends-with-Guns-1600x1200-1-768x576.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Friends-with-Guns-1600x1200-1-1536x1152.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Friends-with-Guns-1600x1200-1-696x522.jpeg 696w, https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Friends-with-Guns-1600x1200-1-265x198.jpeg 265w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Bri Caelleigh (Josh), Vanessa Markowitz (Shannon), Ellen Schiavone (Leah), and Smithchai Chutchainon (Danny) in \u2018Friends with Guns.\u2019 Photo by Leigh Rawls.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The two women and their husbands \u2014 Josh (Bri Caelleigh) and Danny (Smithchai Chutchainon), respectively \u2014 have much in common. They enjoy their neighborhood in Los Angeles, they share liberal political views (no Trump voters here), their kids get along well with each other. A dinner get-together goes swimmingly until Josh brings up his vigorous opposition to anyone or anything to do with guns. Danny and Leah, it turns out, have 11 guns in their garage. They are the most scrupulously responsible of gun owners. The guns are in a locked safe in a locked garage, stored separately from ammunition. Josh is horrified; their neighbors are \u201cgun people\u201d? It has not occurred to Shannon that nice people ever owned guns. The evening ends awkwardly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shannon remains drawn to Leah. They plan an outing, driving in a VW bus, delightfully realized in Sidriel Conerly\u2019s set design by a representation of the front of the vehicle placed in front of a movable box that has several uses during the play. Shannon asks Leah why she wants to have guns. Leah responds with the highlight moment of the show, a long monologue, beautifully delivered by Schiavone, detailing a frightening experience in which two men tried to break into her apartment and the police did not come quickly. As Leah\u2019s scene partner, Markowitz reacts with some of her best acting of the evening, as we see her beginning to understand and empathize with the roots of Leah\u2019s thoughts and feelings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The women visit Leah\u2019s target shooting range, where Leah teaches Shannon how to shoot. For Shannon, the experience is exhilarating \u2014 \u201cempowering,\u201d to use a word from the script. She begins to find relief from her anxiety, subsequently enjoying a surfing turn in the ocean with Leah, despite her previous germaphobic aversion to the Southern California seas. Shannon\u2019s character arc is the longest of any of the characters\u2019, and Markowitz navigates the changes effectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Knowing Josh\u2019s fixed opposition to guns, Shannon does not disclose her newfound interest in shooting to him. Josh and Danny have an extended debate on policy and constitutional issues. Josh cites studies showing that having guns in the home increases, rather than reduces, risks. Danny cites the Second Amendment (albeit without mention of that pesky \u201cwell-regulated militia\u201d clause). Both are dug in ideologically, and their views remain as far apart as American society\u2019s generally on the matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the shortest role in the play, Danny, played as a pretty cool sort of guy, is primarily used as a foil to Josh\u2019s arguments. But Chutchainon scores well on a key point, that as a person of color in America, Danny has reasons rooted in history to need to defend his family against whatever threats may come. Do we want only the right-wingers to have weapons?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1600\" src=\"https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Friends-with-Guns-1200x1600-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-378548\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Friends-with-Guns-1200x1600-1.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Friends-with-Guns-1200x1600-1-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Friends-with-Guns-1200x1600-1-345x460.jpg 345w, https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Friends-with-Guns-1200x1600-1-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Friends-with-Guns-1200x1600-1-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Friends-with-Guns-1200x1600-1-696x928.jpg 696w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">TOP: Vanessa Markowitz (Shannon) and Ellen Schiavone (Leah); ABOVE: Bri Caelleigh (Josh) and Smithchai Chutchainon (Danny), in \u2018Friends with Guns.\u2019 Photos by Leigh Rawls.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>For the women, guns offer a sense of protection too. They are tired of being afraid in terms of how they dress, where and when they walk, who may pose an unexpected danger to them. What we never learn from Walker\u2019s script, however, is why Josh not only opposes guns in American society as a matter of policy, but why he is so deeply, at the emotional core of his being, incapable of dealing with anyone with different views. That mystery \u2014 no fault of Caelleigh \u2014 shrouds the motivation of the character.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a press release, director Julia Rabson Harris said that there are \u201cno bad guys\u201d in the play. I\u2019m not fully convinced. Seemingly depressed, drinking a bit much, hating his job, afraid of his wife distancing herself from him in favor of a new friend and set of interests, Josh becomes angrily controlling and even abusive toward Shannon. Contrasted with her growth and empowerment, Josh spirals downward toward bad-guy territory. I\u2019d have liked the play to tell us more about where that comes from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Conerly\u2019s set realistically represents a suburban living room and patio, loomed over by a large gun range target upstage center. Don Slater\u2019s lighting design distinguishes the different portions of the playing area well. Hamza Elnaggar\u2019s sound design uses classic rock for pre-show and scene change music. I wished the amplification of the actors \u2014 notably Shannon\u2019s initial monologue \u2014 had been less intense at times, and that the sound of the gunshots in the target range scene had been more realistically loud. Harris\u2019s direction maintained a normal, everyday conversational pace throughout most of the show, appropriate to the situation and characters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s not possible, of course, to view this show outside the context of an America beset with gun violence, whether daily acquaintance murders, political assassinations, school shootings, or Sunday morning\u2019s attack on a Michigan church. In this context, I question the play\u2019s theme of empowerment through firearms. The following lines from Sondheim\u2019s <em>Assassins <\/em>came to mind:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>And all you have to do is move your little finger<br>Move your little finger and<br>You can change the world<br>Why should you be blue<br>When you&#8217;ve your little finger?<br>Prove how just a little finger<br>Can change the world<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>How many people have there been, how many will there be \u2014 mostly not as suburban nice as the play\u2019s characters \u2014 feeling powerless, scared, angry, desperately needing a moment of agency, ready to move their little fingers on one of the millions of triggers available to them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Running Time:  Two hours and 5minutes, including one intermission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ssstage.org\/friends-with-guns\/\"><strong>Friends with Guns<\/strong> <\/a><\/em>plays through October 12, 2025 (Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 pm and Sundays at 2:00 pm) at&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ssstage.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Silver Spring Stage,<\/a>&nbsp;10145 Colesville Road, Silver Spring, MD. Purchase tickets ($28; $25 for students and seniors) at the door,&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ci.ovationtix.com\/35685\/production\/1244445\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">online,<\/a><\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ci.ovationtix.com\/35685\/production\/1205965\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong><\/a>or by contacting the Box Office at&nbsp;<a href=\"mailto:boxoffice@ssstage.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">boxoffice@ssstage.org<\/a>&nbsp;or 301-593-6036.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Friends with Guns<\/em><\/strong><br>By Stephanie Alison Walker<br>Directed by Julia Harris<br><br>CAST<br>Shannon: Vanessa Markowitz<br>Josh: Bri Caelleigh<br>Leah: Ellen Schiavone<br>Danny: Smithchai Chutchainon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Inside a domestic drama, the crossfire of America\u2019s dangerous dilemma.   By BOB ASHBY<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":378544,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,17],"tags":[95403,25537],"class_list":{"0":"post-378537","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-community-theater","8":"category-maryland","9":"tag-julia-harris","10":"tag-stephanie-alison-walker"},"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.0 (Yoast SEO v26.2) - 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