subUrbia

It's me (Kevin)! I'm posting! I was in New York last weekend, so I crammed in some good theater. The first of which was Eric Bogosian's subUrbia at 2nd Stage Theater. First off, I really like Eric Bogosian. And this play was phenomenal. Just totally great. This play was originally written in 1994 I think, but it's definitely been updated significantly to fit the times. In any case, let's talk about this play.

First off, you walk in, and the set is incredible. It's like they just completely put a seven-eleven into this theater. Took out the stage, and put a convenience store in. Like what. It's pretty amazing.

The play is pretty much great Bogosian. It's driven by character and dialogue - a bunch of kids hanging out in a convenience store parking lot, living life in, you guessed it, suburbia. They're looking for direction, figuring out relationships, and dealing with stereotypes and life in general. The thing I love about Bogosian's writing is that it just doesn't seem like a playwright writing about theater, but like dialogue. It doesn't seem contrived and forced, but just great. It was funny and dark and pretty powerful and a bit disturbing, and that's how I like my plays. It's just great.

The cast I was a little bit apprehensive about at first, but they definitely grew on me. Kieran Culkin was pretty much my favorite of the large, young cast. He was definitely a healthy dose of humor. I thought the males of the cast were stronger than the females. I liked Daniel Eric Gold from The Paris Letter, although Lydia thought he didn't seem natural. I also thought Peter Scanavino was quite a bit better then he was in Shining City. The direction I thought was also quite good (Jo Bonney, Eric Bogosian's wife).

So basically, the play was great. Go see it!