Student: Prophet of Suburbia
Providence College grad and playwright Brett Epstein draws on his upbringing in the neighborhoods of Hamden, Connecticut as inspiration for his most recent play, aptly titled Suburbia, which will be performed at North Haven’s High Lane Club November 20-21.
The one-act play explores the relationships and hidden secrets of a snooty, uptight Connecticut family of five, and what happens when a typically trite, and benign dinner conversation is thrown into chaos by a mother’s announcement that the family’s eldest son, and black sheep, will be moving back home. Grace and civility are carelessly tossed aside, as father, mother and three sons are forced to confront issues they had been ignoring for years.
What ensues is hilariously bitter back and forth chiding, where even a harmless game of “apples to apples” quickly degenerates into a pecking party.
“They are all pulling in different directions. They accuse each other. Yell at each other. Explode at each other, and more often than not, they are totally wrong,” says Brett of the family.
Suburbia is a witty, darkly funny play flavored with dashes of skepticism and cynicism. It comes together to paint a very accessible portrait paralleling that of real middle class family life, showing in the end that family members are faced with the choice to either change, or continue to drift hopelessly apart from each other.
“In life, things that start out funny slowly undergo this switch into serious. People are changed in this play. Each of the five characters will be different by the end of the hour. This is what happens in real life”, Epstein says of this transition.
Half way through the work-shopping of Suburbia earlier this year at Providence College, Brett and his production assistants found themselves scrambling to find additional chairs for the over-crowded auditorium.
Even as a freshman at Providence College, Brett consistently sold out the campus’s theater space with the short plays he had written. He hasn’t put the pen down since.
Earlier this summer, Brett also directed a production of his earlier play, I Loved Sam Stone, in Cranston, RI. The play, reviewed positively by Rhode Island’s Motif Magazine, takes a look at how quickly relationships can change when the feelings of a young college student toward his closest female friend take a turn away from the platonic, and toward the romantic. Similar to Suburbia, Sam Stone deals thematically with the shift and decay of relationships, and breakdowns in communication.
“With a good title, a story with substance, and a provocative one sentence summary, people will come to see theater,” Brett says. “Theater is more accessible than anything else in my opinion, for writers, actors, and audience alike.”
For more information about the play, and rehearsal and show times, visit www.highlaneclub.com
One Response to “Student: Prophet of Suburbia”
Brett,
You never cease to amaze me with your talent. Whatever you do…don’t put down the pen.