Is it possible to write a play about the murder of a gay teenager without seriously depressing an audience? Vancouver playwright Dave Deveau has done it with My Funny Valentine—which isn’t funny except in some of the personal quirks of the half dozen or so characters he has created.

The play grew out of the February 2008 murder of 15-year-old Lawrence King in front of his teacher and other students in the computer lab of E.O. Green junior high school in Oxnard, Calif. Fourteen-year-old Brandon McInerney, a fellow student, shot King twice in the head with a revolver; two days later, on Valentine’s Day, King was taken off life support following organ removal.

Deveau reminds us that such incidents have a ripple effect that goes beyond the immediate families of the killer and the victim. His fictionalized characters—including the local reporter who made a career out of the story, a girl who went to the same school, the homophobic father of another boy, a little girl whose life will be extended thanks to the organ transplant and especially Helen, King’s teacher—are all played by Kyle Cameron in a exceptionally beautiful piece of work. His transformations from one character to another are simply superb.

These are meticulously scripted characters shot through with contradictions. Bernard, for example, is embarrassed that his journalistic career took off because of his coverage of the murder.

But it is distraught Helen who tugs at our heartstrings and makes us ask the most important question: how do we prevent such tragedies? Of course, the heartbreak is that McInerney is just as much a victim of a gay-intolerant culture as was King. Raised to adult court, he still awaits his fate as the case drags on and on.

Set designer Marina Szijarto rings the performance space with hundreds of copies of the documents surrounding the case—devastating reading if you take the time to browse.

Directed by Cameron Mackenzie for Zee Zee Theatre, My Funny Valentine is a well-researched and very moving tribute to the memory of King.

joled@telus.net