|
||||
|
||||
|
Monday, Jan 05, 2009
|
||||
|
|||||||||
|
|
|||||
|
|||||
Is this your suburb? |
||
.JPG) |
||
| Is this your suburb? | ||
| by Miryam Gordon -
SGN A&E Writer SUBURBIA BY ERIC BOGOSIAN DIRECTED BY BEAU PRICHARD ECLECTIC THEATER COMPANY ODD DUCK STUDIO THROUGH MARCH 8 There is a barely-suppressed sense of imminent danger in this play. You have a bunch of young adults hanging out outside a convenience store, doing nothing besides drinking. While they seem full of fun and silliness, it feels like a flash fight could break out at any moment. Eric Bogosian's sense of youthful dialogue rings more than true, with a feeling that the actors on stage are almost improvising their chatter and changing tone and mood in an instant. Even though he wrote the play in the late '90s, there was an updated version in 2005 that keeps the references up-to-date. This production is an exuberant experience with lots of energy. Many different social issues are raised, most to be left hanging once they're in the air. The convenience store owner is Pakistani, had to escape his own country, and is now constantly being told to "go back where you came from." The young people in this suburban town have few dreams and little to hope for, unless the dreams are virtually unattainable. Should they leave this small town for the big leagues? One of this crew, Pony (Jonathan Shock), has found some small fame in a rock band and left town. He comes back in a limo, an object of fascination and ridicule to those he left behind. Jeff (Brian Sutherland) is in a relationship with Pony's good friend, Sooze (Mai Li Pittard), who wants to be a performance artist in New York. Jeff doesn't seem to have any aspirations at all, but doesn't want to follow her to New York. He never reveals what, beyond total inertia, keeps him where he is. There are additional marginal characters, including one, Tim (J. Michael Salas), who has been in the military and is now drunk virtually every moment of the day, and all he spouts is bitterness and an illusion of sophisticated understanding that leads him nowhere. Even the Pakistani, Norman (Shobhit Agarwal), though his life is one of successfully surviving, has an air of hopelessness that seems to suggest, "what's the use?" Bogosian seems to suggest that it's more important to raise questions, artistically, than answer anything. Maybe his main problem is that he never figured out what his use was, at the time he wrote the play. Beau Pritchard comments in the "director's notes" about finding the play when he was the age of the characters and relating to it one way, then returning to it now and feeling different about what the message is to him. Often, people find themselves drawn to material that says what they would like to say, and sounds like them. There is value in having examples of African-Americans saying real things and living real lives on television, having families of alcoholics played realistically on stage or screen, portrayals of disaffected youth giving disaffected youth the feeling that someone understands them. So, there is a place for a play like this, even if it is to simply state what is. What it is for you is up to your interpretation. At minimum, whether you like what they have to say or not, these young voices say what many young voices wish they could say. For more information, go to www.eclectictheatercompany.org or www.brownpapertickets.com or call 1-800-838-3006. Comments on reviews go to sgncritic@gmail.com. |
||
 |
||
|
|
||
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 post your own information onthe Seattle Gay Blog |
 |
copyright Seattle Gay News - DigitalTeamWorks 2007
USA Gay News American News American Gay News USA American Gay News United States American Lesbian News USA American Lesbian News United States USA News
USA Gay News American News American Gay News USA American Gay News United States American Lesbian News USA American Lesbian News United States USA News