1994.
President Clinton delivers his first State of the Union address. Nirvana dominates the air waves. NAFTA goes into effect. At least 500,000 Tutsis are killed in the Rwandan Genocide. Kurt Cobain is found dead. Millions watch OJ Simpson flee from the police in his white Bronco live on TV. The CDC estimates that 41,930 American citizens died from HIV infection. U.S. troops are deployed to Kuwait.
Fast forward 13 years. It’s 2007 and the landscape hasn’t changed much.
And why should it? This may be Eric Bogosian’s ultimate question satirically posed in the form of three slackers, Jeff (Brandan Halpin), Buff (Dan Sykes) and Tim (Daren Kagasoff) struggling to find purpose in the inevitable ennui of suburban life. Challenging their aimless pursuits are two young women, Sooze (Caroline White), an aspiring artist desperate for change, and her supportive friend Bee-Bee (Ashley Holliday). Waiting for something to change, seeking something to believe in, they idle in neutral until the arrival of Pony (Preston Vanderslice), a local boy turned rock star and his sexy, slick publicist Erica (Lacy Phillips) unwittingly rip the fabric of their mundane lives with violent consequences.
Returning in a second run after sold out performances earlier this year; Pullman Lane Productions sets this everywhere – nowhere America right in the heart of NoHo’s Arts District at the Whitmore-Lindley Theatre. Only two blocks away from a 7-11, a Starbucks and a Ralph’s the irony of "subUrbia" is hard to miss as the play is set in the anywhere — nowhere town of Burnfield, (can you smell the rubber tires burning?), on the corner of a trash littered sidewalk in front of a trademark red, green and white Pakistani run convenience store designed by FIT grad Kristin Piccolo. The burnouts of the 90’s rollerblade into the millennium with this fresh faced cast that gives much needed depth to these ne’er-do-wells who care about their futures about as much as Britney Spears cares about motherhood.
The slack jawed antics of these alienated youths can wear a bit thin, but under April Shih’s direction the cast is set loose in an intimate black box theatre, giving the audience a voyeuristic impression as if watching this ordinary day from inside a parked car. Illustrating the throwaway attitude of these "burbanites" Shih lets the trash mount up, becoming an impossible obstacle for the cast to avoid as they shuffle through the remnants of their wasted lives.
Too often these easily two dimensional characters fall into the trap of stereotype and caricature, but Brandan Halpin stands out under his glazed expression, imbibing Jeff with moments of stunted sensitivity lurking underneath the armor of pessimistic idealism. Dan Sykes finds a way to almost be lovable and Caroline White simmers with pent-up frustration while maintaining a genuine empathy for her loser boyfriend.
Preston Vanderslice is a natural as a pretty boy rocker, but seems to shrug off the demands of his role as catalyst with too much uncertainty. In a general state of stupefaction, Daren Kagasoff offers little else, too caught up in maintaining the role of alcoholic. Lacy Phillips is curt and pretty, but somehow never manages to push the envelope. The seduction between these two characters is stiff and wooden, but not in the sense that it needs.
Ashley Holliday, Lak Rana and Andrea Punsalan in her debut performance round off the cast but at times fade into the background.
It’s been over a decade since "subUrbia" first appeared on the map. The slight pop cultural alterations have not diminished the significance of the torch being passed between generations and although its bleak perspective on the future seems no brighter now than when Bogosian first wrote it, the need to do something, to bring about change seems more poignant now than ever.
Take an excursion into "subUrbia" at:
Whitmore-Lindley Theatre Center
11006 Magnolia Blvd.,(818) 728-1693.
Online ticketing: www.Plays411.com/suburbia
Show times: Fri & Sat at 8, Sun at 3.
Closes Nov. 4.
