SUBURBAN TRUTHS
PERSEPHONE PRODUCTIONS SEARCHES FOR MEANING IN BOGOSIAN'S SUBURBIA
by JODI ESSERY
It's sometimes difficult to find the right balance in theatre between process, performance and criticism. Unlike pop culture, which permeates even the most complacent viewer with its sheer omnipresence, theatre isn't a given.
It's a long road to maturity for a young company, one that requires the sustained support of an audience coaxing the company to excellence. On the other hand, if that audience blindly applauds the mere existence of theatre and doesn't continually challenge it to be better, the company can't move forward.
Theatre is an investment, on the part of the practitioner and the viewer. To pledge allegiance to a city's fledgling companies can be by turns exhilarating and infuriating, but it's a responsibility that has its rewards in the future.
Persephone Productions has its heart set on just such a future, and artistic director Gabrielle Soskin is already "very, very happy." Her present company of nine young actors is tackling Eric Bogosian's SubUrbia, first performed in 1995, but, says Soskin, still resonant and relevant. The characters in Bogosian's play are all young, disillusioned and full of unfulfilled potential. It's a piece that speaks to the mandate of Soskin's company both to present innovative works of literary and social significance, and to give opportunities to young theatre professionals.
Soskin, who directs the show, wasn't sure in the beginning if the malaise in the play, so evocative of the suburban social climate in America a decade ago, still rang true today. But the parallels revealed themselves to be striking, from specific similarities between Vietnam and Iraq to the more universal frustration of characters who struggle "because something is dead inside them." For Soskin, it has to do with a lack of leadership. "I think it will touch and move a lot of people because of what's happening now in the world picture. We don't have leaders now." The characters in SubUrbia are "not poor, with nothing - it's not quite that. They're all intelligent... they're very aware that the world is not a place for them. Who's there to inspire them?"
It's a question that may be simultaneously asked and answered by the work itself. In forming Persephone, Soskin wanted young artists "to have somewhere they feel they can try things. We may not have the sophistication of some of the bigger companies," she says, "but [Persephone] shows young artists growing. That's the way it should be seen. We have to remember the context."
In tackling Bogosian's coarse and graphic work, Soskin admits that she may alienate some of her friends. She's not making work to please the same audience every time. "I like to have quite an eclectic repertoire," she says, "so the audience doesn't think, 'Oh, well, Persephone only does this kind of show.'"
Personal taste aside, one has to ask oneself what the intention of the performance is, and whether it is achieved. The biggest challenge, says Soskin, has been "doing justice to a play that really deserves it. I think the whole thing is a huge undertaking."
Where will Persephone end up when SubUrbia unites with an audience next week? Soskin says simply, "I want to be able to say we went from one place to another."
Reprinted from The Hour September 16 TO 22, 2004
It's sometimes difficult to find the right balance in theatre between process, performance and criticism. Unlike pop culture, which permeates even the most complacent viewer with its sheer omnipresence, theatre isn't a given.
It's a long road to maturity for a young company, one that requires the sustained support of an audience coaxing the company to excellence. On the other hand, if that audience blindly applauds the mere existence of theatre and doesn't continually challenge it to be better, the company can't move forward.
Theatre is an investment, on the part of the practitioner and the viewer. To pledge allegiance to a city's fledgling companies can be by turns exhilarating and infuriating, but it's a responsibility that has its rewards in the future.
Persephone Productions has its heart set on just such a future, and artistic director Gabrielle Soskin is already "very, very happy." Her present company of nine young actors is tackling Eric Bogosian's SubUrbia, first performed in 1995, but, says Soskin, still resonant and relevant. The characters in Bogosian's play are all young, disillusioned and full of unfulfilled potential. It's a piece that speaks to the mandate of Soskin's company both to present innovative works of literary and social significance, and to give opportunities to young theatre professionals.
Soskin, who directs the show, wasn't sure in the beginning if the malaise in the play, so evocative of the suburban social climate in America a decade ago, still rang true today. But the parallels revealed themselves to be striking, from specific similarities between Vietnam and Iraq to the more universal frustration of characters who struggle "because something is dead inside them." For Soskin, it has to do with a lack of leadership. "I think it will touch and move a lot of people because of what's happening now in the world picture. We don't have leaders now." The characters in SubUrbia are "not poor, with nothing - it's not quite that. They're all intelligent... they're very aware that the world is not a place for them. Who's there to inspire them?"
It's a question that may be simultaneously asked and answered by the work itself. In forming Persephone, Soskin wanted young artists "to have somewhere they feel they can try things. We may not have the sophistication of some of the bigger companies," she says, "but [Persephone] shows young artists growing. That's the way it should be seen. We have to remember the context."
In tackling Bogosian's coarse and graphic work, Soskin admits that she may alienate some of her friends. She's not making work to please the same audience every time. "I like to have quite an eclectic repertoire," she says, "so the audience doesn't think, 'Oh, well, Persephone only does this kind of show.'"
Personal taste aside, one has to ask oneself what the intention of the performance is, and whether it is achieved. The biggest challenge, says Soskin, has been "doing justice to a play that really deserves it. I think the whole thing is a huge undertaking."
Where will Persephone end up when SubUrbia unites with an audience next week? Soskin says simply, "I want to be able to say we went from one place to another."
Reprinted from The Hour September 16 TO 22, 2004