Misc. Reviews
Eric Bogosian's SubUrbia

Surviving Productions Present
 Eric Bogosian's SubUrbia
 by arrangement with Warner Chappel Music Australia, exclusive
 representitives of the Dramatists Play Serivce New York
 Theatreworks StKilda October 12-22nd
 bookings via the Melbourne Fringe
 online at http://www.melbournefringe.org.au
 or by calling 96589600.
  Surviving Productions Homepage: http://surviving.cjb.net

 WARNING: This show contains nudity, offensive language, sexual refferences, sexual scenes, guns (and possibley loud explosions), drug refferences, drug use, smoking, drinking, racial issues, third world politics, performance art, femmism and conversations about porn, seasme street, and "The Duck" a guy that could blow himself. Surviving Productions stress that you view this performance at you're own risk, and accept no liability for any physical, mental, or emotional experience you may have as a result of attending this performance.
 
 Suburbia is a great play, gritty, real, packed full of issues, and coated
 with fun. It addresses Third world poltics (Globalisation), racism, sexuality, AIDS, femmism, gun control, drugs, alcholism, depression/mental illness/youth suicide, sex, pornography, mateship, leaving home, art, and delivers a strong and powerfully positive message about the potential of the individual. I can't imagine another play ever so acurately capturing the void and confusing faced by todays youth as they drift out of school and into an uncertain future.
 
 Someone once said you can only do what you know. The young cast and production crew (Director/Producer David Dreimann is 20, and Ascociate Producer Desiree Munro, [A seasoned professional actor of 12 years] 18, have approached this story as though it were their own.
 
 Its not all angst and gloom, there's a kick arse sound track and so many funny moments the show could be a comedy. If you've ever got drunk with friends in a public place, if you've ever got naked and screamed into the night, if you've ever not know what you wanted to do with your life, if you've ever been dumped for a rock star, hey even if you haven't, this is a show you really have to see.
 
 Interviews with with director, producers, cast, and production crew (including: costumes, lighting, sound, graphic design) and availible by arrangement.
 contact David Dreimann on 0409234344
 or Desiree Munro on 0419365719 for more details.

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 Jeff: Go home. Stop Drinking. Go home and sleep it off.
 
 Tim: Sleep what off? What should I sleep off, Jeff? My life? I should go home and go to sleep and when I wake up, what will I be? A pilot? An olympian? Maybe a rock star? I don't think so.
 
 A group of friends in their early 20's hang around a 7-11 drinking and waiting for Pony an old school who is now a big time rock star. The nights events will go on to change all of there lives forever.

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 Press Quotes on Eric Bogosian's SubUrbia
 
 "subUrbia makes the Angry Young Men of the '50s seem like greeting card writers. A scarifying dissection of youthful disillusion that manages to be both appaling and appealing. The play's tornado energy and language ring out like a boom box with brains"-Newsweek
 
 "Its Chekhov high on speed and twinkies. A scathing study of rootless youth. As ferocious as Mr Bogosian's own one man shows" - New York Times
 
 "SUBURBIA...is among the best plays of the season...one of those rare must-sees.... Bogosian's themes cover escape and re-invention ..This is ambitious stuff and the brave ending has an unexpected twist leaving the air suffused with tragedy. Yes, a must-see!" --NY Post.
 
 "Like the charismatic performer/writer himself...his SUBURBIA characters see the world with large caustic doses of humor, anger and angst...there's no denying Bogosian's cracking intelligence, his rejection of easy sentimentality, and the way he often does capture the cadences of alienation." --NY Daily News.
 
 "Bogosian's story and near-poetic language take this view of suburban angst to a new level. Love, fear, loss, even racism, but mostly their dreams are all subjects of scrutiny by these young people as they try to figure out the lives they are leading without guidance but not without hope...superb...should become a classic." --John Cooper

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 [The Story (Contains Spoilers!)]
 
  The parking lot of a mini-mall convenience store is the private domain of three men in their very early twenties: Jeff, Buff and Tim. Jeff is a sometime student, Buff an easy-going party animal, and Tim a virtual alcoholic Air Force vet. They talk trash, harass Nazeer, the Pakistani owner of the store, and revel in their high school glory days. They drink beer, get high, eat Oreos. Jeff ponders his problematic relationship with his artist girlfriend, Sooze, and Buff fantasizes a relationship with Sooze's best friend, Bee-Bee, a nurses' aide on the critical ward of the local hospital. The focal point of this evening is the arrival of an old high school chum Pony, and his female associate, Erica. Since Pony left Burnfield (the name of this fictional suburban town), he has gone on to become semi-famous fronting for a band that has an album on the charts and a video on MTV. In the course of the evening, all of the friends congregate in the parking lot. Once Pony arrives in his black limo, fascination with his success metamorphosizes into jealousy, then flowers into bitter anger. New liaisons evolve as Buff succeeds in wooing Bee-Bee, Tim discovers his splenetic misanthropy is a turn-on for Erica, and Pony turns Sooze's restlessness to his advantage. The building tension between the friends is accentuated with absurd physical moments and sheer violence: Sooze performs her piece for the group, Tim beats up Nazeer, and Buff gives new definition to the term "wrecked." As the next day dawns, some of the group have found their way out of Burnfield while the rest are left to deal with a tragedy that could have been any of them.
 

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