About the Play:

SubUrbia has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Male Monologues and Male/Male Scenes.

SubUrbia is a full-length drama by Eric Bogosian. High-school friends, still living in their suburban New Jersey hometown long after graduation, spend most of their time in the 7-Eleven parking lot. Most of the characters seem trapped there, all except for Pony, who has become a rock star. Pony's return strips away illusions and excuses to reveal the meaningless dead-end existences of everyone.

SubUrbia focuses on the hard-hitting issues common to today's and yesterday's teens: After a suburban, middle-class, mall culture upbringing, what do you do with your life. 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 and revel in their high-school glory days. They drink beer, get high, eat Oreos, and harass the beleaguered 7-Eleven owners, Nazeer "Norman" Chaudry and his sister Pakeesa, South Asian immigrants who are targets of the kids' racist sentiments. 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, who is now a rock star, and his sexy publicist, Erica. 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.

SubUrbia premiered in 1994 as part of Lincoln Center Theatre Company's festival of New American Plays. The play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops and is regularly performed in regional repertory, college, and community theatre productions. It is very rarely done at the high school level simply because of its content. The play contains intense action and suggestive dialogue and is not intended for younger audiences.

Cast: 4 female, 5 male

What people say:

"Bogosian's script retains the playwright-performer's trademark vitriol and hammer wit." — Time Out

"Suburbia … is among the best plays of the season … one of those rare must-sees … Bogosian's themes cover escape and re-invention, the American dream … and the American nightmare. This is ambitious stuff and the brave ending has an unexpected twist leaving the air suffused with tragedy. Yes, a must-see!" — New York Post

"Like the charismatic performer/writer himself … his Suburbia characters seethe with large caustic doses of humor, anger and angst … there's no denying Bogosian's crackling intelligence, his rejection of easy sentimentality, and the way he often does capture the cadences of alienation." — New York Daily News

About the Playwright:

Eric Bogosian is an American actor, playwright, monologist and novelist renowned for employing his dark wit in the fearless examination the darker side of human nature. He is the author of three novels, several films and numerous award-winning plays and solos for the theatre. As an actor he has starred onstage as well as on film and television.