Under the direction of Adam Spellicy, the Exhibit A: Theatre production of Eric Bogosian’s SubUrbia is brought to stunning, wrenching life in an Abbotsford Convent courtyard.
The play follows a group of small-town American teenagers who hang around out the front of a convenience store, whiling away the hours of their lives. Some have dreams of getting out (with various probabilities of success), but only one has actually succeeded – a high school friend who has become a famous rock star, and who is heading home to visit his old crew. In the meantime, there’s beer to be drunk, joints to be smoked, and ill-advised sex to be had, with unsettling consequences.
As with most ‘90s performance literature examining the darker sides of youth culture, SubUrbia has attracted its fair share of comparisons and referential touch points. Discussion about the play frequently mentions Waiting for Godot (a flawed comparison, as Pony (Benjamin Rigby), the rock-star Godot of SubUrbia, actually shows up – and pretty early, too), and there are shades of everything from Reality Bites to Kids.
It’s actually a shame that Bogosian’s script ties SubUrbia so firmly to the ‘90s, because there’s actually an unnerving timelessness about it – most of the scenes would play just as well 30 years ago, or today. Inescapable mentions of Howard Stern and video tapes date the text pretty decisively, but the best moments lie in what hasn’t changed – the conflicts, especially those charged by sexual or racial tensions.
The cast is uniformly excellent – there’s nary a bad accent or bung line delivery to be found. Matt Furlani (Jeff) and Belinda Misevski (Sooze) do a good job of holding the fort of the play’s most accessible conflict, exploring the wasteland of a relationship that only works for the two people in it as long as nobody better comes along. Tim Solly is hilarious and astoundingly natural as the crude, oblivious Buff, while Madeleine Dyer absolutely nails it as the pampered anti-princess, Erica. Tegan Crowley is a rare find as Bee Bee – an actress who can break hearts with a single softly-spoken sentence, and who can melt into the background without ever quite disappearing from the audience’s mind. The true highlight, however, is Daniel Mulvihill in the role of Tim. It’s an inspired performance – Tim is presented alternately as the only character who knows what’s going on in the world and the least trustworthy person on the stage. Mulvihill inhabits his skin perfectly, pulsating with testosterone, deceptive charm and unjustified rage.
It’d be easy to write SubUrbia off as ‘slice-of-life’ theatre with little more to offer, but Spellicy and his excellent cast have done a marvellous job of unpacking the power struggles that propel Bogosian’s script into the realm of the exceptional. This production of SubUrbia isn’t about youth, apathy or America nearly as much as it is about power. The gulf between the power that each character thinks they have, and what they really hold, is beautifully explored. Power ends up concentrated in the hands of those who seemed to have little claim to it in the beginning, while others who seemed to have a monopoly on control and respect have it slowly stripped away from them.
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
SubUrbia
By Eric Bogosian
Directed by Adam Spellicy
Music: Chris Willard
Lighting: James Dodd
Costume: Mia Veur
Cast: Tegan Crowley, Madeleine Dyer, Matt Furlani, Shash Lall, Belinda Misevski, Daniel Mulvihill, Benjamin Rigby, Tim Solly and Jacinta Yelland
The Shadow Electric at Abbotsford Convent
28 November – 7 December
