About the Play:

In the Boom Boom Room has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Female Monologues, Female/Female Scenes, and Male/Male Scenes.

In the Boom Boom Room is a full-length drama by David Rabe. The play follows go-go dancer who gets some tough life-lessons as she navigates the difficult circumstances and bizarre characters of a Philadelphia disco bar named the Boom Boom Room. The author of Sticks and Bones and Hurlyburly turns his attention to the seedy underbelly of American life.

In the Boom Boom Room is a dark drama that examines how go-go girl Chrissy found herself in tragic circumstances. Chrissy, a bright and not-quite-innocent woman with visions of a career as a professional dancer, finds herself in the squalid Boom Boom Room, a disco/bar in Philadelphia meant to be her first step on the road to stardom. Instead, she finds herself fighting to keep her dreams intact amid the anesthetic sex and stimulation that surround her, the psychological residue of parental betrayals, and the bizarre pack of suitors who follow her. In a desperate search for love and hope, Chrissy careens from the seductive mistress of ceremonies at The Boom Boom Room to the earnestly friendly gay man next door to a brutally passionate lover. In its compassionate look at Chrissy’s living nightmare, In the Boom Boom Room is a piercing look at a society dangerously close to our own lives, and a drama that captures both our hearts and our heads.

In the Boom Boom Room premiered in 1972 at Villanova University. It opened on Broadway in 1974 by Joseph Papp at New York's Lincoln Center and has enjoyed numerous revivals off-Broadway. The play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops and is regularly performed in regional and college theatre productions.

Cast: 6 female, 6 male

What people say:

"Compassion for anguished people leavened by a black wit and a powerful sense of the surreal nature of modern life." — Newsweek

"A superior play, perhaps a masterpiece." — WINS

"David Rabe's In the Boom Boom Room proves to be the kind of multi-layered drama that defies aging." — Backstage

About the Playwright:

David Rabe has been hailed as one of America's greatest living playwrights. Four of his plays have been nominated for the Tony Award, including one win for Best Play. He is the recipient of an Obie Award, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, Drama Desk Award, and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award and three Hull-Warriner Awards for playwriting, among others. He is also the author of numerous screenplays, two critically acclaimed novels and a collection of short stories. Born in Dubuque, Iowa, David Rabe lives with his family in Northwest Connecticut.