Suburbia is too close to the country to have anything real to do and too close to the city to admit you have nothing real to do.
— American essayist Sloane Crosley
First, I want to acknowledge the passing of Ron Sossi, Founding Artistic Director of the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, who made theatre in LA much more risk-taking and edgy with his deeply thoughtful, brave and maverick original productions and staging of plays that otherwise might have passed us by. He will be missed. He was 85.
Now, how do I write about a play—one that is brilliantly performed, mounted as a message about mental health in memory of a loved one, and produced as the signature comeback of a company recognized for outstanding work in the 1990s—when I really do not like what the play is about and stands for?
Amye Partain
That is my dilemma with Mojo Ensemble Theatre’s return to the stage at the Odyssey Theatre, with Eric Bogosian’s SubUrbia, playing through April 13. To me, it is a play about the decline of the middle class, squandered potential and generational ennui. But to Mojo’s Artistic Director (and this play’s director), Michele Gossett, it’s much more personal.
Her son, Luke, took his life at age 24, and as she explained to me in an email, “SubUrbia is about young people searching for meaning, making mistakes, and trying to find their way. It isn’t just about the 90s—it’s about today. So many young people are in pain, exacerbated in our time by social media, and too often, no one sees it. I hope SubUrbia sparks conversations that help us recognize and support one another before it’s too late.”
With that in mind, here’s my personal take.
The play is set in 1994, the year that SubUrbia made its first appearance onstage at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theatre in New York; it was adapted on film in 1997.
For those who weren’t born yet, Bill Clinton was President, The GOP owned the House, Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain committed suicide, Nelson Mandela became the first black President of South Africa, RBG joined the Supreme Court, Jackie Kennedy died, Netscape and Amazon were founded, OJ Simpson was arrested for murder, Michael Jackson married Lisa Marie Presley, and Jeff Buckley first performed what became his iconic version of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah.
Amye Partain and Mikayla Perez
But somewhere in suburban USA (Burnfield, New Jersey), in a 7-11 parking lot, a group of alienated Gen-X, twenty-something friends are drinking, drugging, dancing, and hanging out with nothing to do but bitch, moan, curse and smoke oh-so-many cigarettes while downing massive quantities of beer and hard liquor and declaiming to the universe what is wrong with it… and each other.
The friends are waiting for the arrival of the one that got away, their classmate Pony (Mason Kennerly), who’s made it as a rock star, and is passing through on a concert tour, aching for home.
Mason Kennerly and Amye Partain
Over the course of two-and-a-half hours, we will hear from Jeff (Lachlan McPheat), whose intelligence outweighs his ambition, perhaps the most empathetic of the lot, trying to defend “third world country” 7-11 owner Nazeer (Prahaan Padhiar) against the racist jibes of cynically alcoholic Air Force dropout and proto-MAGA man Tim (Duke Pierce) “What do you know about the third world..? Fuckers live like sardines in a can over there… Everything stinks… there’s no law, no order… the assholes come over here, they think it’s gonna be the same.” Jeff says, “He’s a human being, you can give him that much.”
Duke Pierce, Lachlan McPheat, and Hayden James Black
And in rolls Buff (Hayden James Black) in his tie-dyed T-shirt, popping wheelies on his rollerblades and complaining, “Yo, you’re getting me all upset here,” and Jeff responds: “When Hitler was greasing the Jews, people were saying, ‘Don’t get me upset. You’re bumming me out.’ My duty as a human being is to be pissed off.”
Amye Partain and Lachlan McPheat
Early conflicts like these recur in the ongoing interactions between the three friends, store owner Nazeer and his co-owner sister, Pazeeka (Pearly Mitnasala), Jeff’s painter and wanna-be performance artist girlfriend, Sooze (Amye Partain) and her shy friend Bee-Bee (Mikayla Perez), eventually coming to a head with pointed guns and unexpected tragedy.
Pearly Mitnasala and Prahaan Padhiar
When Pony arrives, the tensions change, he’s always had a crush on Sooze, and the crew are either envious or disdainful of the stretch limo he arrives in, his high living lifestyle, the gorgeous, sexy, superhot “Jewish Princess” PR rep Erica (Lilli Simerman) who incites lust in both Tim (not a happy ending) and Buff (who’s off to LA with her to start a career as a videographer).
Lilli Simerman, Mikayla Perez, Lachlan McPheat, Mason Kennerly, Amye Partain, and Hayden James Black
There’s a lot of angst and rage, but not a lot of substance to what this crew is suffering. We could’ve gotten the point in half the time of this play’s length (and with less singing from Pony), and I am still wondering, what exactly is the point?
Thomas Brown‘s spectacular set perfectly recreates a 7-11 store as it has looked throughout time (only the prices have changed). Signs in the windows, Slushie machines and a coffee pot visible inside, swinging glass doors. Two benches and milk crates provide seating areas, and despite the obvious trash can in front of the store, the parking lot is littered with detritus thoughtlessly tossed by these characters. The parking lot is surrounded by concrete block walls, creating additional areas for action in front, on top of and behind, and there’s an enormous trash bin with signs above saying “No Loitering” and “7-11 Parking Only.”
Duke Pierce and Lilli Simerman
Jamie Nichols’ choreography and Fight & Intimacy Director Orion Barnes make the action intensely believable. Gisely “Gigi” Ayub‘s costuming is pitch perfect for the era: Tim’s sleeveless shirt revealing muscular arms and tattoos along with his lace-up heavy boots with partially untied strings; Jeff’s semi-slobby loose dark shirt over jeans and sneakers; and Sooze’s tripped out socks and clunky Doc Martens beneath her shredded jeans, hole-y shirt and the multi-colored clips that keep her hair close to her face.
It is such a good production of what I consider a nearly pointless play. Be aware that the herbal cigarette smoke is intense and non-stop. But please, don’t let my opinion sway you. Give this production a chance, and maybe you’ll be inspired to have the conversation that Michele Gossett is hoping for.
photos by Stevie-Jean Placek
photo of set by Ted Bonnitt
SubUrbia
Mojo Ensemble Theatre
visiting production at Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd
ends on April 13, 2025
for tickets, call 310.477.2055 ext. 2 or visit Odyssey Theatre
for more shows, visit Theatre in LA
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
I’m not a fan of Bogosian’s script. The play does, however, have a message buried within its messiness: If you don’t define yourself, the place you came from will do it for you. And it will not be pretty.