The Second Best School Shooting at Pleasance Courtyard Review
The Second Best School Shooting at Pleasance Courtyard’s Baby Grand centres on two teenage girls in the aftermath of a fellow student bringing a gun to school. Coincidentally, this happens the same day as a school shooting in another nearby high school.
From the get go, there is a good balance of dealing with serious topics and the light-hearted fun of being a teenager. Taking place in a singular location means the audience has one less element to contend with and can focus on what matters. I don’t know if it was planned or not, but having one character in green and the other pink gave a nice contrast to the minimal bedroom set. It also establishes the girls’ mindsets, going into dark and muted colours as the show progresses and feels atmospherically heavier.
There never felt like there was an educational aspect to the show, although information was placed well throughout the piece. However, it did start to give off the vibe of reading off a long list of bullet points listing everything you want to cover in a meeting. Sadly, quite a few jokes did not land since they were inherently American, and may not make sense to a European audience (I had to search up what a Dilly Bar was afterwards). Granted, though, a lot of younger audiences are exposed to these things through social media so this feels like an intermediate problem. Speaking of social media, the incorporation of how it can be used to create or manipulate a narrative was an interesting plot device, especially with an issue as divisive as gun violence.
The two girls had great chemistry and were able to bounce off each other with simple ease. It honestly felt like they had known each other for years and had gone through the experience together but viewed it and its consequences in different ways.
The Second Best School Shooting takes a strong stance on how corporate America is not just destroying the planet but also consciously damaging the physical and mental health of generations to come.
The Second Best School Shooting plays at the Baby Grand at Pleasance Courtyard until 30 August.
★★★
Reviewed by Kerry, August 2026.
