Happy Holidays

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I'll let you know when I'm back in 2012.


Happy Holidays!

Review: "SubUrbia" Elgin Community College, Elgin Il

Full Disclosure:  I received a complimentary ticket to review the play.

Let me start with the fact that I think this show is outdated.  Yes, this production either added their own modern reverences, or used the updated script from a recent New York revival, but being updated has nothing to do with being outdated.  Changing VCR to DVD, and mentioning American Idol and TMZ does not make it germane to today.  SubUrbia, by Eric Bogosian, had relevance and excitement in 1994 when it was first produced, but in 2011, it feels like a well worn path to the land of Angst.  Or maybe I just don’t want to sit and listen to a bunch of twenty-somethings drone wearily on and on about how miserable the lives they have chosen for themselves are.  It’s a difficult script, to say the least.  If you don’t know the storyline, click here.

Were it in the hands of actors with more training and stage maturity and a director who paid better attention to detail, this could have been a good show.  Instead, I saw people working hard at acting rather than being actors with actualized characters.  Granted, some are on the verge and just need to be tipped in.  Others need to start over, rethink their approach and just let go of themselves.  And a few have learned how to give an honest performance.

(Sitting L to R)Yesenia Esparza, Katrina Syrris
(Standing L to R)  Vinny Prisco, JP Quirk, Michael Sherry 

Of particular note for me was Michael Sherry’s portrayal of Buff.  He had energy, his movement was fluid, his tone was real and he was Buff, a denizen of the parking lot who revels in his right to choose a life as a slacker by living excess to its fullest.  Watching him on stage was exciting.  Also deserving kudos is JP Quirk as Tim, the alcoholic member of the group that escaped suburbia for the Air Force, only to cut off his pinkie to get sent home so he can spend the rest of his drunken life in the parking lot. I thought Quirk was fully immersed in the character.  I was not fond of his character choices because I think the character should be explosively unpredictable and I wanted something more sinister and dangerous as a contrast to the rest of the group that was stuck in a quagmire of laziness and despair.  I did admire his skills and his commitment to a character.

Katrina Syrris and Yesenia Esparza played Sooze and Bee-Bee, the females of the pack.  Sooze has dreams of doing performance art.  Really?  That’s so 90s.  Maybe Bogosian should have changed it to “viral video/reality TV” star for the New York remount.  It doesn't matter because Syrris lacked the needed honesty, prohibiting her from realizing her character.  So she wasn't able to sell the dream to the audience.  The makings of a good performance were there; she just needed to focus more on the goal and be directed.  Esparza's Bee-Bee was pretty good with what she had to work with, infusing life into a character that is under-written.  And without giving away the details, I will just say that I felt cheated by the ending.

The convenience store that is the back drop of the parking lot is owned by Norman Chaudry (Julien Moore, whose accent slid into Yiddish by play’s end), a Pakistani who has little tolerance for this group of loiterers.  And who could blame him?  I was annoyed by them.  He has much to say about the stereotypes people believe about Middle Easterners and what he faced when coming to America.  But after 18 years from when this show was written, it's all familiar ground that we have seen done elsewhere to better effect.  Kiren Ali and Shannon Bakhsh are listed in the program as playing the store clerk Pakeeza.  I’m not sure who I saw that night.  I do know that I could not hear her, whomever she was.

Unfortunately, the rest of the characters became a blur since there was little the actors were doing to hold the audience’s attention.  Pseudo-intellectual slacker Jeff was played by Vinny Prisco.  I think this character has the most compelling and dramatic arc of all, but Prisco didn't display the chops needed to let his intellectualizing turn into a slow-burning anger as he feels the reality of his lot in life.  Instead, he jumps from one to the other without any nuance.  I also found a lack of chemistry between Sooze and Jeff, who are boyfriend and girlfriend at the beginning of the show, so as we watch the downward spiral of their relationship, it’s really difficult to care or have any empathy.  And, a big no-no in my book:  he made eye-to-eye contact with the audience.  It happened to be me, and then his eyes flicked lower and saw my notebook, then he snapped back to the scene.  So, he dropped character and lost his train of thought looking out to see who was watching.  He really only needs to be concerned with who he is communicating with on-stage.  Knowing I’m there (and he doesn’t know me) will not improve, enhance or realize his performance.  All it says is, “My mind is distracted.”


The character that is supposed to be the catalyst that drives the arc of the story is Pony (Chris Lanham), who managed to escape suburbia after high school and became a minor rock star.  He has returned to his old haunting grounds while on tour and meets the parking lot crowd.  Sadly, Lanham looked bored on stage.  He gave nothing to his performance.  When he tells everyone he’s glad to have stopped to see them all, I found it hard to believe.  In fact, I didn't believe the actor was happy to be there on stage.  The confrontation between Pony and Tim near the end of the show lacked spark and tension because Lanham wasn't giving Quirk anything with which to work. I was hoping someone would pull into the parking lot and hit them both and put me out of my misery.  And what’s with Pony carrying a guitar on his back when he first enters the scene after getting out of his limo (kudos to Angelo O’Dierno for his clever lighting design to represent the limo)?  When he agrees to play a song, I thought I had the explanation.  But when he only strummed two awkward chords and then sang the song a capella, I had to suppress an ill-timed laugh.  Kill that prop.

Travelling with him is his publicist, Erica (Alisa Goldberg), whose only purpose in life seems to be chasing money and getting her needs satisfied.  As for the performance, here are the notes I made: “Stay in the scene” “She walks with no confidence”  “Walks with no purpose” and “Why walk with no reason”  She meandered.  Slowly.  I hate meandering. I hate slow meandering even more.  And when she was still, most of what she did was one-dimensional, so the character wasn't fleshed out.

As I’ve said in other reviews, many of these types of problems could have been fixed.  I was not there watching previews.  They are now entering week 2 of a 3-week run.  I saw it the second night of opening weekend.  It should have been crisp and sharp.  The director, Professor Stephen Gray, should have seen how silly the guitar prop was.  Or how people were meandering around the gorgeous set (Bryan Cory deserves applause).  Or how you couldn’t hear the store clerk.  Or the apathetic performance of the rock star.  Or how the pre-set garbage on that beautiful set was too neat.  Honestly, it was all in a row and had no sense of randomness one associates with garbage and debris. The director should have seen these things in rehearsal and fixed them BEFORE people had to pay to see the show.  OK, maybe the rules are different in an educational setting, but still, they are presenting a product.  Why not make the effort to give audiences a quality product?  Think of what they are ultimately teaching the cast and crew by not doing so?  Well, that’s just my opinion, I guess.

Is it worth the price of admission?  As I said in my tweet, it was a valiant effort with a couple of good performances.  As I’ve thought more about it, it could have been so much better had someone taken the time to notice the problems.  So, I don’t recommend it.

For ticket info and the like, go here.