Hollywood comes to Arena in 'Hurlyburly'

Hollywood's scandalous side brings the issues of addiction, power and sex close to home in "Hurlyburly," this weekend's Basement Arts production.

The directors chose the script partly because of the Hollywood setting. "It's a look at the underbelly of the Hollywood life, more so than the glamorous side we're accustomed to," said co-director Jonathon Gentry, LSA and Music senior.

A movie version of the play released last year inspired directors Gentry and Aral Gribble, Music senior, to produce the show on campus. Although the film starred talented actors Sean Penn and Kevin Spacey, Gentry and Gribble said they felt the movie's negative reviews showed that the production was meant to be on the stage.

In the process of bringing "Hurlyburly" to the theater, the directors dealt with David Rabe's original script containing three and a half hours of material. The directors eventually cut this down to around two hours.

Rabe's language patterns that he used in the script lend tension and pace to the action. This quality contributed to Gentry and Gribble choosing "Hurlyburly" for Basement Arts. "There's a certain musicality the language had, a rapid-fire quality," Gentry said.

The script uses this language to examine the lives of two casting directors, Eddie and Mickey, who head up a substance-abusing household that also includes a streetwalker, an older struggling actor and a stripper. These challenging roles provide a great opportunity for the actors to show their abilities. "It started out that I wanted to pick something that had sizable roles for actors," Gentry said.

Gentry himself fills two roles within the production, since he plays Eddie in addition to serving as one of the directors. He and Gribble planned out their combined vision of the show in advance so that Gentry could concentrate more on his acting during rehearsals. "I couldn't really step outside myself and watch the rehearsal process," Gentry said

During rehearsals, the directors concentrated on showing addiction and its impact on the human psyche. "The underlying theme is addiction," Gribble said, "and how it affects people. You can be addicted to many things - drugs, power, sex, a lifestyle even - and all have the ability to ruin your life."

Eddie and Mickey in "Hurlyburly" allow their addictions to interfere with their high-power careers. "'Hurlyburly' shows that even admirable people who live in the upper-most economic classes can really dwell in the pits of society because of the choices they make to satisfy their addictions and appease their lifestyle," Gribble said.

In addition to these lessons, the directors hope the comic aspects of the story as well as the tragic twist will impact the audience's emotions.

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