Michelle Park (left) plays Kathleen Abedon, the mother of an alleged mass murderer, and Francesca Ravera is the author Jo Hunter, writing a book about the massacre from Kathleen’s point of view in Truth Be Told.
Written in the wake of the Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012, William Cameron’s Truth Be Told provides a lens into the grieving mind of a mother of a mass murderer. Directed by Kim T. Sharp, and sensitively performed by Francesca Ravera and Michelle Park, this searing psychological drama invites one to confront the elusive nature of truth.
Jo (right) visits Kathleen in her new apartment, where boxes haven’t been unpacked.
The play focuses on a true-crime writer, Jo Hunter (Ravera) and Kathleen Abedon (Park), whose 17-year-old son Julian allegedly committed a mass shooting at his workplace, a food warehouse, that left 14 dead, including himself. Structured into four emotionally intense scenes, Cameron’s play becomes a battleground between two women who are warriors at heart. Kathleen is fighting for her son’s legacy; Jo, to get Kathleen’s story before somebody else does.
Set one year after the massacre, the play opens with the two women in Kathleen’s new apartment, amid stacks of cardboard boxes that have yet to be unpacked from her move. Jo intends to interview Kathleen over three days, in hopes of allowing Kathleen to tell Julian’s life story from her own point of view. But there’s a wrinkle. Just as the interview begins, Kathleen questions the investigation results that found Julian guilty. She is convinced “the whole truth has yet to come out” and expects Jo’s book to correct that.
To further complicate things, Jo learns that Kathleen has recently spoken to Alan Covington, an opportunistic podcaster, about her story. Jo, typically even-tempered, struggles to remain calm and find the words to explain to Kathleen why exclusivity is important:
If you tell your story to Alan Covington and he slaps it all over his website where people can read it for free, then who’s gonna buy our book? Understand?
Jo also points out to Kathleen that she has a contract to respect, and, if she continues talking with Covington, her advance will be taken back and the remaining balance withheld. Strapped for cash, Kathleen is between a rock and hard place. She considers backing out of the interview, but Jo reminds her of the stakes involved—and the real purpose of the book: “Don’t you want the world to know that your boy wasn’t some common criminal? Don’t you want people to know there was goodness in him?”
Kathleen and Jo review the case in Truth Be Told at the Gene Frankel Theatre. Photographs by Bronwen Sharp.
Cameron’s play is well-balanced between the interview-in-progress and the two women exchanging personal stories. Scene 2 brings Kathleen’s personal history into focus. Jo prompts her to talk about her brief 5½-month marriage to George Abedon, which ended with his death in a car accident. Julian was only a month old. In Scene 3, Kathleen talks about her subsequent marriage to Harlan, a brutish man who physically abused Julian. Kathleen admits that Harlan and Julian had a volatile relationship.
Two interview scenes hold revelations that suggest Kathleen may well be in denial. The first is about Harlan’s murder. The second involves testimony by a woman named Emily Murdock about possible verbal and physical abuse of Julian by Harlan at the warehouse. Kathleen exasperatingly replies:
This Murdock woman, she tells the cops and next thing you know the TV people are telling the whole world! ‘Troubled Boy’s Violent History Revealed.’
As the interviews proceed, a genuine bond grows between Jo and Kathleen. Jo confides that she has had some rough patches involving shame for her 5-year-old son Jake’s bad behavior, particularly physical violence toward a girl in his class. When Jake angrily tried to punch the girl a second time, Jo grabbed his arm, and her fingers left red marks. “I was so ashamed,” Jo says with a sigh.
The acting is excellent. Ravera plays Jo with quiet determination and genuine compassion; and Park inhabits Kathleen with the desperation of a mother who has lost her most precious possession.
Elena Vannoni’s set is as uninviting as it gets, but it speaks volumes about the isolation and unsettled state of Kathleen’s life. Says Kathleen: “I know what people think. Everywhere I go. ‘There she is. The mother.’ Every time I leave the apartment—which I never do unless I absolutely have to.”
Truth be Told is not a feel-good play. But it does challenge one’s understanding of justice, media influence, and truth itself.
Truth Be Told runs at the Gene Frankel Theatre (24 Bond St.) through March 9. Evening performances are Wednesday through Saturday at 7:30 p.m.; matinees are at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. For tickets and more information, visit https://our.show/truthbetold.
Playwright: William Cameron
Director: Kim T. Sharp
Set & Costumes: Elena Vannoni
Lighting: Zee Hanna
Sound: Michaela Lind
