Review: One-woman play ‘The Gun Show’ is outstanding theater

To me, there are few things in theater more courageous than an actor performing in a one-person show. When that actor is talented, has a good script and a good director, it is combination that makes for great theater.

That is what Black Box Theatre’s current production of “The Gun Show” is – jaw-dropping, gut-wrenching, outstanding theater.

Credit two people: Cassandra Galban, because her performance is brilliant, and director Joshua Taulbee, himself a talented actor who is directing for the first time, because he created a simple but evocative set and helped Galban find all the nuances –- the highs, the lows, the humor, the sorrow, the truth –- in playwright E.M. Lewis’ powerful script that explores gun ownership and gun violence from multiple perspectives.

There are no set changes or costumes changes in this one-hour, one-act play; only one entrance and one exit, one table, one chair, one cardboard box and one fearless, intelligent, appealing and gifted actor.

Galban connects with her audience the moment she walks on stage. She held our attention on opening night from lights up to lights down with an energy like a ball of fire that moved with her every step and filled every corner of the stage and the entire theater.

Go see this show. It will make you think and it will make you appreciate how truly great theater can be.

Remaining performances of “The Gun Show” are 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, March 25-26 and April 1-2; 2:30 p.m. Sundays, March 27 and April 3; and 7 p.m. Thursday, March 31.

Tickets are $15 regular admission, $12 for students and seniors over age 65. All seats for the Thursday, March 31 performance are $10.

Black Box Theatre is located at 430 N. Main St. Downtown.

For tickets, call 575-523-1223 and visit www.no-strings.org.