In the aftermath of school shootings, the stories that emerge tend to be about the perpetrator and victims. That’s what made local author Brett Neveu’s play Eric LaRue feel so novel when it premiered here at A Red Orchid Theatre in 2002: The protagonist is the mother of a teen who murdered three classmates. She finds herself at odds with her husband and two pastors over how to heal. Now a movie version opens April 4 for a weeklong run at the Gene Siskel Film Center. Directed by Oscar- and Tony-nominated actor Michael Shannon, who cofounded Red Orchid, it boasts a stacked cast — namely Judy Greer, Alexander Skarsgard, Alison Pill, and Tracy Letts, plus plenty of lesser-known local talent, as Shannon explained when he sat down with Chicago.

Alison Pill and Tracy Letts in ‘Eric LaRue’
Pill (left) and Letts

You’ve directed two plays at Red Orchid, but this is your first film. What made you want to get behind the camera?

I saw Eric LaRue at A Red Orchid several times. I thought it was one of the boldest, most interesting pieces of theater I’d ever seen. Years and years later, Brett said, “You remember Eric LaRue? Well, I wrote a screenplay of it, and I was wondering if you’d read it.” I was always fairly certain I had no interest in directing a movie, which looked very stressful to me, but for whatever reason, this just felt right.

Brett wrote the play shortly after the Columbine massacre. Considering that school shootings in the U.S. have tragically become more common, has the story taken on greater weight?

As much as it’s a movie about the parents of a young man who commits a school shooting, it’s really about how confusing and lonely it is to be in this country, which is ostensibly a benevolent place — but underneath it all, there’s a brutality and a nonsensicality. That’s what I was really looking to excavate.

Judy Greer with Shannon
Greer (left) with Shannon

In casting the film, you relied on talent from your circle here in Chicago.

Mierka Girten, Lawrence Grimm, and Jennifer Engstrom — they’re all members of Red Orchid. I wanted to show them off, because I think they’re all so special. Jennifer was actually in the production of Eric LaRue I saw back in 2002; I wanted some continuity there.

The film premiered at a few festivals in 2023, including in Chicago. What was that experience like?

To get to see a movie that I directed on the big screen at the Music Box? It’s a memory I’ll cherish to my grave — really one of the highlights in my artistic life.