When 12-year-old Tamir Rice was shot and killed by Cleveland police in 2014, it touched off a national conversation about race, violence and accountability. It also led to the 2016 play “Objectively/Reasonable: A Community Response to the Shooting of Tamir Rice.” A reimagined production aims to continue the conversation with a performance Saturday at Near West Theatre.
“I am hoping that the conversation makes folks want to take some type of action,” said Tamir’s mother, Samaria. “Having the hard conversations with the Republican Party or who’s ever running the country. When you bring it to the arts, it’s a whole different conversation. And it needs to be happening.”
The play premiered two years after Rice was shot and killed by Cleveland police while playing with a toy gun at Cudell Recreation Center on the West Side. Officers saw a gun, which was missing the orange tip indicating it was a toy, and thought it was real. Their response was ruled by the Justice Department “objectively reasonable,” which is where the play got its name…