Review: 26 PEBBLES at Actors Theatre Of Little Rock

Heart wrenching. Intoxicating. Love. Courageous. These performers in 26 PEBBLES with the Actors Theatre of Little Rock put out a powerful performance, and they still have a few more days to go. Located in the Pinnacle View Middle School in Little Rock now through Saturday, June 8, the docudrama is based on the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012. Had this tragedy have not happened, the 20 kids killed would have graduated high school this year. You do not want to miss this important piece of theatre.  

On Dec. 14, 2012, Adam Lanza killed his mother, and then went to Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, and killed 20 first graders and six faculty members before turning the gun on himself. It was a tragedy that shook the nation. The town was affected. The country was affected. The students, of course, were affected. Life in this peaceful town has never been the same, and after a little over a decade, people are still trying to heal.  

Written by Eric Ulloa, the play starts with the townspeople talking about how quaint and peaceful the community is. They are thrilled to live in a safe place to raise their families. A lot of these people have lived there for generations, and the ones that moved in love how friendly and charming the people are. After we learn how wonderful Newtown is, they shift to the parents finding out what is happening at the school and looking for their children. Some parents are lucky, some are not so lucky.  

After the incident is over, the people start processing the drama, and then they must deal with the outside public, including the media, which makes it worse. Now they have to grieve in front of a national audience. Still, the community bands together comforting each other whenever breakdowns occur. Then a concerned member on the internet decides that Newtown needs teddy bears and asks for others to send them to the town. People from around the world thinks this is a good idea and sends 65,000 teddy bears to their town. They had to have a volunteer to specifically deal with all of those stuffed animals. Letters were also a popular item sent to the town. At one point a girl decides to take pictures of the letters to document the out-pour of kindness and share them with others that may need something to cheer them up. Finally they decide to send the world home and try to go back to a normal life.  

Honestly, I don’t think there was not one person who wasn’t sniffling in the audience. It was that powerful. Most of the cast are around the age that the 20 young victims would have been now. Also, quite a few of them took on multiple roles. To say that I was impressed is an understatement. I could tell that each cast member internalized and projected the importance of what they were performing. They took the roles and embraced the severity as if it actually happened to them. Now understand, I am not downplaying this saying that they did great for actors under 21 years old. They put out work that was comparable to actors who have been honing their trade for years. They knew they had a huge responsibility for bringing this important piece of art to the stage, and they nailed it. This is definitely one you do not want to miss.  

The creative staff did an amazing job with the kids. This is Hope Hargrove’s debut with directing for Actors Theatre of Little Rock and I hope it isn’t her last. She cultivated an ensemble that worked as one to tell a powerful story.  

I am happy to read that they have a Mental Health Supervisor (Ash Campbell) available for the actors. With something this traumatic, it is great that the cast and crew has a professional to make sure everyone is handling the play without needing serious therapy afterwards.   

Setting the play at a middle school was a genius idea. I’m sure it would have been fine in the church basement, but physically placing it in an atmosphere that represents the actual location brought the audience that much closer to the horrendous event. Once I walked into the room, I knew my heart was in trouble.  

Play by play, ATLR continues to impress me with their creativity and vision with their productions. Mark A. Burbank is bringing amazing pieces of work for the viewing audience, and I have loved everything I’ve seen thus far. I can’t wait for the next show! 

26 Pebbles is rated PG-13 (contains mature content and discussion of mental illness, PTSD, death, and child loss.) Photo credit: Eric White.  

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