Ted Kaczynski Killed People With Bombs: A Play With Seven Songs, One Reprise and Three Epiphanies

Drama / The intention of the first act is to explore our impulse to "explain" why horrific acts are committed. A character called Wild Nature-sprung from a passage in the Unabomber manifesto-leads a group of actors in the performance of six "explanations" for Ted Kaczynski's behavior: his childhood; the Murray experiment at Harvard; his two years at Berkeley; mental illness; unrequited love; and Wild Nature-some brand of ungovernable psychosexual rage. Wild Nature and the acting troupe take their bows and exit. Act II opens exactly as Act I opened: Wild Nature begins to perform the identical show until s/he realizes the same audience has returned. Since they can't trot out the "explanations" again, they abandon this and decide to just tell the story, letting the questions live. In awarding the 2003 PEN USA Literary Award for drama, the judges wrote: "Carter has constructed a kaleidoscopic postmodern exploration of the real-life events and influences that unleashed the Unabomber. Her comprehensive research and keen eye for insightful details result in vivid, gripping portraits of the alienated terrorist and those who knew him. By skillfully blending thoughtful analysis with humor, sympathy and occasional quirky song, Carter lulls us into thinking that the distrubed mind of a homegrown terrorist is explainable, perhaps even forgivable-before lowering the emotional boom as the focus shifts from the eccentricities of the bomber to the horror inflicted on his victims...Carter's cautionary drama uncovers deeper truths that endure long past the limited shelf life of a media event. (Cast: 3m., 3w)