I got the chance to see the Stockton Theatre Club’s performance of Hello Herman. The show focuses on the story of a boy, Herman Howards, who murders about forty people in his high school. A reporter tries to learn the reason why Herman has committed such a violent crime. As they speak through his journey more characters are revealed and parts of Herman’s past are relived. From Herman dealing with his parent’s divorce to seeing his sister die, after be hitting by a car, while he gets bullied, the reasons for his crime become slightly more clear. Herman discusses how he wants to be remembered like no one else, how there will be more of him, but once the reporter turns off the camera, everything changes. Mikey, the actor playing Herman, began to shake and speaks of how scared he is and how he wants to take it all back. It is too late for Herman however. The next day, he is executed.
This show definitely has a darker side to it than most of the shows I have seen. Friends of mine left feeling sick and completely disturbed. Their feelings were created by the remorseless acting of Mikey, along with depressed Ms. Howards, played by Taylor. The other characters in the show also added to the cringe factor that the lines already held. This show is not like most, in the sense that you watch people get murder by a teenage boy, the reporter beat a man with a bat, a mother have a hysterical break down, or an electrocution. All of these events are seen in Herman and leave you feeling just a little too close and in touch with what happenings before, during, and after a school shooting. While this closeness was disturbing I think there is a very relevant point in doing it. School shootings happen all to frequently, and while we mourn them, many are not a part of them. This show brings you deep within what it is like to be tangled with characters like Howard, his mother, and the reporter. Disturbing, as it is this play shows you the true horror of death and destruction.