When It Happens Here
What do you do when it’s your sons doing the shooting?
In Breathe, now playing at The Mark Theatre in North Hollywood through this weekend, the unthinkable becomes intimate. Two young men—one Black, one white—commit separate acts of senseless gun violence that force their families to confront not only their sons’ crimes, but their own illusions about safety, race, and responsibility.
Playwright Javon Johnson doesn’t flinch. His script dives headlong into the question that rattles every parent’s core: How could this happen in my home? The play examines both the fractured psychology of the boys and the quiet unraveling of their parents—ordinary people undone by extraordinary grief.
John Russell Proctor, Jah Shams (left) • Marie-Francois Theodore, John Russell Proctor (right)
Joseph Russell Proctor and Cody Sechrist deliver gripping performances as the two teens who meet in a jail cell, destined to spend much of their lives behind bars. What begins as racial tension slowly transforms into a fragile bond, forged through their shared love of the rap music that they perform together—providing moments of beauty amid wreckage.
Their parents—played by Jah Shams, Marie-Francoise Theodore, Brian DeMarco, and Andrea M. Anderson—embody two Americas. One family, Black and college-educated, has fought its way into middle-class respectability. The other, white and working-class, is already fraying at the edges. Johnson and director Levy Lee Simon skillfully draw out the class and racial contrasts that shape how each family grieves, blames, and seeks redemption.
Jah Shams, Marie-Francois Theodore, Angela M. Anderson, Brian DemarcoThe six-member cast approaches this harrowing material with sincerity and artistry, making Breathe both difficult to watch and impossible to turn away from. It’s a work that forces audiences to sit with the uncomfortable truth that violence is not something that happens “out there”—it can happen right here, to people we think we know.
Breathe concludes its run with performances Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m., October 31 through November 2, 2025, at The Mark Theatre, 5144 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood. Tickets: $35.
