Suburbia. To 28 June.

London.

SUBURBIA
by Eric Bogosian. adapted by Peter Norgate.

Southwark Playhouse Shipwright Yard, Tooley Street/Bermondsey Street SE1 2TF To 28 June 2008.
Mon-Sat 7.30pm.
Runs 2hr 10min One interval.

TICKETS: 0844 847 1656 (24hr No booking fee).
www.southwarkplayhouse.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 12 June.

Hell on earth, and in the theatre.
We’re in the suburbs of Hell here (“This is Hell” is the final line). But which particular hell? The rubbish-strewn street where a group of youths apparently scare customers away from a Pakistani-run corner shop seems a dispossessed part of England. Yet it’s next stop Los Angeles when media ambitions arise.

Pony’s the only one to have escaped, revisiting childhood streets as a touring rock-star with Dulwich-born publicist Erica, who fancies the rough testosterone on the go-nowhere road that fits so well on the concrete-floored Southwark Playhouse space.

Dulwich born, living in Los Angeles? Far from impossible, but this production’s English setting helps kill credibility. Of course, dead-end teenagers, with their racism, frustration and fringe-of-violence lives, can be found on estates or schemes either side of the Atlantic. But American voices, echoing US films, might have provided cover for characters and dialogue which would have been platitudes in British theatre even in 1994, year of American writer Eric Bogosian’s play.

There’s a Chekhov moment early on, when someone muses on a person 50 years hence standing on the same spot eating another Jaffa Cake. And a tragic irony as angry people part to reveal the silent death of a friend.

Otherwise, the simplest characters come over clearest. Asian shopkeeper Norman, studying to become an architect, and his sister Pakeesha, want to work peacefully but are ready to meet violence. Victim of local racism, which the play handles only at a basic level, Norman emerges as the one who’ll work his way up, a model, in Bogosian’s original, of the American Dream, who finally reveals his contempt for the local kids.

That apart, there’s a lot of talk leading to final stand-off tension. Neither production nor acting make the various sections cohere, nor delve into character to reveal the synapses linking, say, Tim’s aggression with his loyalty to a friend. Yet he’s one of the clearer characters, thanks to an external history, of fighting in Iraq, and Steve Lennon achieving a close-up menace boiling over from inner demons.

Mainly, though, the hopes, dreams and disappointments of Bogosian’s characters remain sadly ill-focused.

Jeff: Giles Roberts.
Sooze: Saskia Fischer.
Bee-Bee: Claire Chate.
Buff: Alister Barton.
Tim: Steve Lennon.
Pony: Nicholas Dawkes.
Erica: Kate Bishop.
Norman: Rahim Galia.
Pakeesa: Mandeesh Gill.

Director: Matthew Hahn.
Designer: Mark Magill.
Lighting: Ben O’Neill.
Sound: Jamie-Glyn Bale.
Assistant director: Rachel Illingworth.

2008-06-13 13:04:28