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Reading this modernized edition was bittersweet, because while I am pleased to discover that the play itself continues to thrive with the passage of time, the small updates (usage of cell phones, cultural/musical references) left me longing for the simplicity of the analog days. To be honest, it's hard for me to believe that a group of today's teenagers would even gather in this type of setting anymore. Clearly, the story resonates with audiences because the issues presented by Bogosian are time...
3-4 stars; a good representation of working class, White suburban life in the 80s. Read it with my Sunday acting by former BFA actors COVID group, which has been delightful for this quitter.
Effectively captures the angsty early-life crisis of a group of wayward suburbanite teens hopelessly stuck in a middle-clas rut. Evokes a strong sense of the ubiquity in the narrative of American Irony--in this case, the corruption of the "infallible" suburban bubble. However, Bogosian's (clearly) autobiographical play is at once--like his comparison of "a place, yet not a place; a city, yet not a city"--vulgar, yet not vulgar; pretentious, yet not pretentious. It is this lack of focus, poise an...
Just found out the local community college was auditioning for Eric Bogosian's Suburbia so I picked up my copy to reread it to check if there's a role for me. To be fair, I probably am no longer able to play a 20-something, but when I shave I have a baby face and there's always dye for my grays... Honestly, I was only 90% sure I read it before, so I figured a quick read would help my annual reading challenge, so why not?The play felt familiar, so I'm pretty sure this was my second reading of it....
Absolute garbage. The only impressive thing about this play is that the Gen-X characters are somehow even more insufferable with the knowledge that the author is a Baby Boomer.
I had such a strange time reading this play. I felt anger toward the characters throughout, but still felt grief at the end.
This was not my cup of tea. Then again, what do you expect from a play with characters you're supposed to hate?
While there are snippets of clever (perhaps even insightful) monologues, Bogonsian's subUrbia fails in its grafting of late '70s (or even early '80s) post-adolescent desperation to the mid-'90s. Being both age (I turned 19 in 1994) and situationally appropriate to the characters, I found it to be a piece that was clearly mindful of an earlier era. Ultimately, I don't think the play really has much to say, but it flails around a lot and tacks on some platitudinal messages to show the the auth...
Closer to 1.5I'm not saying it wasn't realistic, but it tried too hard to be appealing through its edginess. How did nothing happen yet it avoided a slice of life tone? While we get different glimpses of the characters and what makes each of them their own person, like Tim's alcoholism, Pony's success, Sooze's art/brother, or Erica's upper class background, we don't really know what stops them from fixing their lives. I mean, obviously the play is set by ennui and unfortunately I can attest that...
How is everybody? Good morning, Baltimore! subUrbia is a play written by Mr. Eric Bogosian, which expresses a lot of interesting views.Even if the term isn´t referred, the text is talking over members belonging to Generation X; there was a time in which people asked questions like they were surrounded by lies and falseness. At the same time, what were they doing to change that?It´s entertaining sitting down the tree, speaking to our friends whining about everything; at the end, what is truly cha...
Honestly, it just isn't my kind of play or my style of writing. It definitely is a good depiction of the suburbs in the 90s and 2000's and reminded me of some of the people I knew in middle school and what I imagine they are like now.
I read this really quick just so I can get another book on my list. I'll give a serious reviwe some other day.
Shiftless New Jersey youth "stuck" in the suburbs drink, fight and harass immigrants. They moan about how mundane their lives are. Oh, and one of their high school mates has gone on to become, wait for it, a ROCK STAR! And he comes back looking for something real! And they all fight and there is a suicide! Terrible. Zero redeeming value. The idea is mundane, the characters uninteresting and the language overrun with inanities and the mandatory foulness and f-bombs of street characters. At least
Drawn from his own experience growing up in suburbia Bogosian has created a play about misspent, directionless youth in the 1990s. Numbing themselves against the tedium of day to day existence with drinking and sexual fumblings outside the 7-11, the twenty-somethings express inchoate desires, angst, racism and boredom but I found it difficult to care. Perhaps the play was innovative and insightful when it was first produced but now it feels cliched and trite. None of the characters can see a fut...
I saw this long time ago as a movie, was curious to check out the source material. Maybe I am too old now or just not suburban enough to relate to a bunch of kids pontificating and getting wasted (in every sense of the word) in a convinience store's parking lot, but there is a sense of hopelessness throughout that is fairly universal. The writing is good and the play itself is thought provoking and it does reaffirm my dislike for suburbia as a living environment. The expression youth is wasted o...
I think I have missed my time with this play, since I only read it this year and not at the proper age to appreciate the malaise the characters are dealing with. Also, I don't live in the suburbs anymore. So my caring about the characters can't be based on a nostalgia factor, as was Bogosian's when he sat down to write this script.The script has a pretty cut and dry story; what happens isn't necessarily surprising, but it does bring about change, which is more than I expected would happen. The B...
Eric Bogosian is complicated. I've never been sure if I like him. In reading subUrbia, there was some clarity offered to that uncertainty.I read a few of his plays long ago and was drawn to his raw, dark take on the modern world. I suppose that still carries its appeal for me. I'm a stronger reader than I was at the height of my youthful angst, and I'm more concerned about the mechanics of emotion that authors/playwrights utilize in their works.In SubUrbia (the New Version), Act I. felt way over...
Eh. Sometimes, I read stuff that makes me think that in high school, I would’ve loved telling people how great it was. But reading it as an adult, it just leaves me feeling frustrated and irritated with all the characters. What a bunch of whiny, first-world-problem-having people. Ugh. And the weird death at the end feels tacked on and unimportant.
Really enjoy his writing. Very raw and holds nothing back. Very easy to get sucked into the ride.
The play is set outside of a seven eleven on a street corner. It features lost youth of this modern age. They drink, listen to loud music, and make trouble. They have existential problems. There is rehab, there is a pop star friend, a famous friend. The relationship with fame is interesting. Most of the kids seem to regard themselves as failures. Either that or they're in denial, or they don't give a shit. The alienation which is spoken of and when spoken of seems self-indulgent and petty, grows...