Tim Kenneth Kicks the Bucket ★★★★

Is Tim Kenneth’s story of sufficient length to end with him six feet under? No spoilers will be revealed here, but suffice it to say that this play has twists and turns aplenty. The two Rutgers University students and their depressed professor each have secrets and surprises within them, all interconnected and started by a classroom prank gone seriously wrong.

Lest all this sound like a straightforward academic mystery, it is clear that playwright and director Kiziloz has deeper questions on his mind about the costs of solitude, as well as individual responsibility in the face of depression. Asks Pencil: “Are we the creators of our own butterfly effects?” No easy answers are given, nor can they be. Certainly not by Scooter, who has created and uses his “Theory of Interesting Fun” when he struggles to pay attention in class.

Though some transitions and character choices were occasionally challenging to follow, interesting fun is an apt way to describe this new, ambitious work, abetted much by the fine acting ensemble. Mackay Mumford gives Scooter a sweet humanity, Brian Olsen effectively captures a man deep in mid-life crisis, and standout Connor Bullock is utterly gripping as a young man who is discovering that life is far more complicated outside the classroom than in.