Suburbia (new version)

Eric Bogosian

• Publisher: Theatre Communications Group
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781559367448
• Topic: Literatura
• Subtopic: Arte dramático americano

“Bogosian’s script retains the playwright-performer’s trademark vitriol and hammer wit.”— Time Out

This new version of Eric Bogosian’s best-selling play, set in a convenience store parking lot, premiered last season Off Broadway. His rewrites—for a world seeped in cell phones, hip-hop, and a new political context—render the piece “an American anyplace where everything, yet nothing, has changed” ( The New York Times ).

Eric Bogosian ’s plays and solo shows include Talk Radio (Pulitzer Prize finalist); Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll; Pounding Nails in the Floor with My Forehead; and Drinking in America. He has received three OBIE awards and has toured throughout the country.

Act Two

Lights up. The store is closed and dark.

Bee-Bee is standing alone, eyes closed, nodding her head and dancing to the music of the boombox.

Tim enters, sees Bee-Bee, then climbs to the roof.

Buff enters, sits on the bench and watches Bee-Bee. She pauses when she sees him. Buff closes his eyes and nods his head to the music. Bee-Bee resumes her “dance.” Both are moving to the beat, apart, yet together.

The song ends. Bee-Bee approaches Buff and sits next to him.

BUFF: Hey.

BEE-BEE: Hey. Gimme a cigarette?

(Buff gives Bee-Bee a cigarette. He lights it. They smoke in silence.)

You made a film?

BUFF: What?

BEE-BEE: Nothin’.

BUFF: What?

BEE-BEE: You said you made a video. What’s it about?

BUFF: It’s not about anything.

BEE-BEE: Oh. What’s on it?

BUFF: Stuff I got off the TV. The Jetsons. And some shit blowing up I saw on the news. Plus one day my mom was praying and shit and she didn’t see me watching and I videotaped her.

BEE-BEE: Yeah? Your mom praying?

(Beat.)

BUFF: And a cloud.

BEE-BEE: A cloud?

BUFF: There was this cloud and I videotaped it.

BEE-BEE: Oh.

BUFF: I was doing ’shrooms and I saw this cloud. It looks excellent on the tape. It’s like, the video is my head? And everything, you know, is like in there that I see. My moms and TV and the sky and plus I’m going to come down here one night and walk around inside the store with the camera. Tape shit.

BEE-BEE: That would be amazing.

BUFF: Yeah. Like imagine the inside of the store but with music. I’ll add music—Sonic Youth . . .

BEE-BEE: Yes!

BUFF: System of a Down, White Stripes . . .

BEE-BEE: Barry Manilow . . .

BUFF: Uh . . . yeah. Yeah!

BEE-BEE: Yeah?

BUFF: Plus, one night when nobody noticed I taped everybody talking, you know? So I’m putting some of that shit in, too.

BEE-BEE: Cool.

(Beat.)

What did I say?

BUFF: Uh. Nothin’. You know?

BEE-BEE: I wish I could see it. Your video.

BUFF: You can see it. Whenever you want.

BEE-BEE: Yeah?

BUFF (Direct): Sure.

(Bee-Bee gets up and paces near the bench.)

Don’t you work at a hospital or something?

BEE-BEE: Yeah. I’m a nurse’s aide at Mercy.

BUFF: You’re a nurse?

BEE-BEE: No. I, you know, clean ’em up. Empty the bedpans. Sometimes I feed ’em their lunch. That kind of thing.

BUFF: Old people? Like with Alzheimer’s? Really fucked-up?

BEE-BEE: Some of ’em. Strokes. A lot of types I don’t know what’s wrong with ’em. They’re not moving too much and they get kind of yellow. Usually they die if they’re real yellow.

(Buff paces like Bee-Bee.)

BUFF: Sounds like a total bummer.

BEE-BEE: No, it’s not. I like it. I mean they’re not all completely, you know, in a coma. They’re happy that I’m helping ’em. Fred Pierce? He’s there. He’s going blind. I guess it’s AIDS? We just had a birthday party for him last week. Doctor Patel says he’ll die pretty soon. But Fred’s great to talk to. Fucking funny guy. Says things like: “Watch it or I’ll bleed on you.”

(They sit on the ground.)

BUFF: Fred’s going to die?

BEE-BEE: Well, you know, he’s really sick.

BUFF: I thought there were drugs for that now?

BEE-BEE: Not always. Depends.

BUFF: Oh...