"On the Exhale" An Anti-Gun Stun also Aims to Explain the Absurd Appeal of Lethal Power

The public has become innured to the daily death tolls tallied by shooters.  Note:  it's the person not the gun that wields the killing.  Martin Zimmerman's blazing play "On the Exhale" at the RoundAbout is a 1 ACT, 1 Woman (Marin Ireland) stunner that is a shot in the arm wake-up to end the senseless destruction of so many lives.  Ireland gives a rousing performance as a bereaved, single mother whose only child, Michael, is gunned down along with his teacher & 1st grade classmates: a Newtown scenario that is not named because it's anytown on any given day.  The mother, the nameless Woman gives a very close & personal account of her life, her grief, her disbelief "{you} can't begin to imagine the sea of mourning parents."  The succinct storytelling shares her persistent paranoia that proves prophetic & far more painful than feared.  The Woman feels judged by her peers & psychiatrist for being too preoccupied with her narrow, all consuming focus on Michael & for perseverating on safety precautions against an armed phantom aiming for her.  Many issues are banged about:  the NRA, lack of mental health care, liberal gun laws, unmitigated grief & fatal shootings despite being unarmed with hands held up in supplication.    The Woman's grief drives her to the gun retailer where her son's assailant legally purchased his assault weapon.  Her mission to confront the guilty arms seller gets turned around.  She ends up purchasing the weapon & becomes obsessed with firing the gun.  The omnipresent bruising on her shoulder from the gun's pushback is her red badge of penance which keeps Michael alive.  The playwright takes a hard edge against the impact of gun violence & death.   He also gets us to perceive the powerful, compulsive drive firearms maintain over a massive population.  The simple solution is to demand action for gun sense in America.  Alas, common sense has succumbed to Americans' seduction with firearms.   "On the Exhale," has the markmanship of a sharpshooter and should serve as a clarion cry to reduce the madness & mayhem.  Nonetheless, innocent victims will continue to be killed with every breath.