Content warning: This article discusses a show heavily themed around gun violence.
On Oct. 3, Thunder River Theatre Company (TRTC) premiered its second main stage show of the season — Kyle John Schmidt’s “The Secretary.” This dark comedy follows Ruby Ruth, the owner of a small town gun store selling products specifically marketed to women and often named after a woman who used the same gun to save their life or the lives of others. Products include “The Lone Widow,” “The Bridesmaid,” and “The Babysitter” and each carries a story with certain fabrications. The show runs roughly 90 minutes and has no intermission and TRTC is only the seventh theater in the nation to produce it.
The play opens with the titular character, portrayed by Nina Gabianelli, interviewing a young woman named April, portrayed by Pax Wild, for a secretarial position at the gun shop at the recommendation of April’s half-sister. In the first conversations we see between the characters, it is apparent that not every story behind these guns is entirely true — some are partially embellished to help sell guns with a combination of fear and the promise of empowerment.
One trope that I found interesting for this production was this use of “femvertising.” Femvertising refers to gendered marketing tactics targeting women. Traditionally, we have seen guns brandished in the media by men, whether they are good guys or bad guys. In this play, we see guns being advertised to women as a means of protection — think of the phrase “a restraining order is just a piece of paper.”
“The Secretary” offers a broad and nuanced examination of each character and their motivations for handling these weapons, allowing the audience to determine for themselves who is justified in their actions, what constitutes a “solution” and what truly is accidental. Before the audience draws any conclusions, they coaxed to laughter in one moment only to have the wind knocked out of them by sudden and abrupt acts of violence.
It is apparent from the opening scene all the way to the very end how guns offer both a realistic sense of power and a paradoxical sense of safety for those who have let fear consume their lives. This is made especially apparent when Shirley, the secretary at the local school portrayed by Kristin Carlson, takes action against a student for making threatening remarks toward herself and other students. While her fears were valid, the audience is left to ask if her actions were, too. When this student’s mother, portrayed by Cassandra Trascik, comes to the gun store seeking answers, she is enraged to see that Ruby has named her newest product “The Secretary.”
Another office worker, Lorrie, portrayed by Libby Rife and understudied by Wendy Perkins, obtains a gun she claims goes off even when her finger is nowhere near the trigger. The all-female cast will have you on an emotional rollercoaster as the events that unfold grow darker and darker each time bullets are unloaded in the events on stage. This show does an especially jarring job of illustrating what can happen when people take up arms without sound reason.
Rather than being preachy on one side of the aisle, the show converses with the audience on a hot-button issue. While there is truth in gun ownership being an empowering thing for many cool-headed people, “The Secretary” does a phenomenal job of showing the potential consequences of empowering people living in fear, anger or even grief with tools of destruction. Each character resonated with me in one way or another, whether I saw myself, someone I know or once knew, or even as the embodiment of concepts I have witnessed unfolding since I first became aware of gun violence.
There are a lot of elements in this show that reminded me of growing up in a small, rural and very conservative town. A town where phrases like “accidents happen,” “stupid people get guns and do stupid things” and “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” were vehemently thrown around every time news of a school shooting broke. One could observe that rural places, where everyone is connected by one degree of separation, are the perfect setting for tragic events like those depicted in the show. Still, it soundly encapsulates how more nuanced conversations surrounding guns need to be happening nationwide.
While you can anticipate laughing until your sides are bruised, expect your soul to come out a bit banged up as well. You can expect deep conversation to follow once the bows have concluded.