Full Length, Drama
Characters: 4 male, 3 female
Interior Set
This riveting drama took New York by storm in a production directed by Mike Nichols and starring William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, Judith Ivey, Christopher Walken, Harvey Keitel, Cynthia Nixon and Jerry Stiller. Characters nose deep in the decadent, perverted, cocaine culture that is Hollywood, pursing a sex crazed, drug-addled vision of the American Dream. Later stage and screen incarnations have attracted such actors as Ethan Hawke, Meg Ryan, Sean Penn, and Kevin Spacey.
"Offers some of Mr. Rabe's most inventive and disturbing writing. At his impressive best, Mr. Rabe makes grim, ribald and surprisingly compassionate comedy out of the lies and ationalizations that allow his alienated men to keep functioning if not feeling in the fogs of Lotusland. They work in an industry so corrupt that it! s only honest executives are those who openly admit that they lie."-The New York Times
"An important work, masterfully accomplished."-Time
"A powerful permanent contribution to American drama...Riveting, disturbing, fearsomely funny...Has a savage sincerity and a crackling theatrical vitality. This deeply felt play deserves as wide an audience as possible."-Newsweek
HURLYBURLY - DVD MovieYou wouldn't want to spend much time with the folks from David Rabe's play
Hurlyburly. A sensation when it played on stage (with marquee names Harvey Keitel and William Hurt), Rabe's tale of the cocaine-influenced days of Hollywood in the 1980s is a bitter rambling of what humans do with too much drive, power, and money. Robin Williams's joke about cocaine being God's way of telling you have too much money certainly comes into play here. A few days in the life of casting agent Eddie (Sean Penn) and his friends (separated by a year) take plac! e in Eddie's posh L.A. bungalow. Here he and his roomie Mickey! (Kevin Spacey) talk nonstop about sex and power, syntax and meaning. Into this wash comes a charitable bigwig (Gary Shandling), a street kid (Anna Paquin), and Eddie's rudderless friend, the violent Phil (Chazz Palminteri). If there is a central story to be found, it's Eddie's drive to fall in love with Darlene (Robin Wright Penn), who finds this world exciting--or at least intoxicating.
This is not the bunch to invite over to your house, and many might even want to skip the two-hour film with its talky, pathetic prose. These characters would probably be despicable even if they weren't addicted to some narcotic. And the talk is endless; conversations that finish with a door slam are taken up moments later on the cell phone (a nice updating touch by Rabe). What draws big-name actors to Rabe's work is the chance to work on one's raw acting talent. Penn and Palminteri fit their roles like gloves, and Spacey again proves he is one of the most watchable actors around. Every nuance,! bad pun, and irrelevant slip of Spacey's wicked tongue has a brutal kind of poetry here in a film that can be admired but not loved. --Doug ThomasYou wouldn't want to spend much time with the folks from David Rabe's play Hurlyburly. A sensation when it played on stage (with marquee names Harvey Keitel and William Hurt), Rabe's tale of the cocaine-influenced days of Hollywood in the 1980s is a bitter rambling of what humans do with too much drive, power, and money. Robin Williams's joke about cocaine being God's way of telling you have too much money certainly comes into play here. A few days in the life of casting agent Eddie (Sean Penn) and his friends (separated by a year) take place in Eddie's posh L.A. bungalow. Here he and his roomie Mickey (Kevin Spacey) talk nonstop about sex and power, syntax and meaning. Into this wash comes a charitable bigwig (Gary Shandling), a street kid (Anna Paquin), and Eddie's rudderless friend, the violent Phil (Chazz Pal! minteri). If there is a central story to be found, it's Eddie'! s drive to fall in love with Darlene (Robin Wright Penn), who finds this world exciting--or at least intoxicating.
This is not the bunch to invite over to your house, and many might even want to skip the two-hour film with its talky, pathetic prose. These characters would probably be despicable even if they weren't addicted to some narcotic. And the talk is endless; conversations that finish with a door slam are taken up moments later on the cell phone (a nice updating touch by Rabe). What draws big-name actors to Rabe's work is the chance to work on one's raw acting talent. Penn and Palminteri fit their roles like gloves, and Spacey again proves he is one of the most watchable actors around. Every nuance, bad pun, and irrelevant slip of Spacey's wicked tongue has a brutal kind of poetry here in a film that can be admired but not loved. --Doug Thomas
Nominated for the Tony Award when it was first produced in 1984, Hurlyburly was immediately hailed as a classic Americ! an drama. This edition is the definitive version of the prize-winning author's most celebrated work, reflecting his continued exploration of the play through several productions-in particular the one he directed in 1988 at the Westwood Playhouse in Los Angeles-and his latest thoughts regarding the text.
Now prize-winning playwright David Rabe has matched and deepened it with Those the River Keeps, an intense psychological exploration of Hurlyburly's most dangerous and enigmatic character. This edition contains the definitive versions of these works, a foreword in which Rabe examines the interwoven relationship of the plays, and an afterword in which he discusses the process of their construction.
Nominated for the Tony Award when it was first produced in 1984, Hurlyburly was immediately hailed as a classic American drama. This edition is the definitive version of the prize-winning author's most celebrated work, reflecting his continued exploration of the ! play through several productions-in particular the one he dire! cted in 1988 at the Westwood Playhouse in Los Angeles-and his latest thoughts regarding the text.
Now prize-winning playwright David Rabe has matched and deepened it with Those the River Keeps, an intense psychological exploration of Hurlyburly's most dangerous and enigmatic character. This edition contains the definitive versions of these works, a foreword in which Rabe examines the interwoven relationship of the plays, and an afterword in which he discusses the process of their construction.
Limbic Hurly-Burly: Poems of Humor and Paradox has but one goal: to entertain. Follow its wily trail of meter, rhyme, and clarity to find a sumptuous treasure of humor. Embark now on a series of offbeat adventures to exotic places such as the Galápagos and South Africa, and the imaginary worlds of Flatland and 1930s flicks. See how history’s Alexander and Empress Livia succeeded (sort of) in solving their problems, and Paracelsus and Rasputin were murdered. And discover twists i! n the tales of Pinocchio, Hansel and Gretel, Schrödinger’s dog, and Hero and Leander. You’ll see what goes through a rat’s mind after it runs the maze, and peek at God’s experiment on monkeys. Enjoy a different view of crop circles, and you might even be tempted to check into the infamous Hotel Infinity. Soon you’ll begin to wonder what robots dream of?Limbic Hurly-Burly: Poems of Humor and Paradox has but one goal: to entertain. Follow its wily trail of meter, rhyme, and clarity to find a sumptuous treasure of humor. Embark now on a series of offbeat adventures to exotic places such as the Galápagos and South Africa, and the imaginary worlds of Flatland and 1930s flicks. See how history’s Alexander and Empress Livia succeeded (sort of) in solving their problems, and Paracelsus and Rasputin were murdered. And discover twists in the tales of Pinocchio, Hansel and Gretel, Schrödinger’s dog, and Hero and Leander. You’ll see what goes through a rat’s mind a! fter it runs the maze, and peek at God’s experiment on monke! ys. Enjo y a different view of crop circles, and you might even be tempted to check into the infamous Hotel Infinity. Soon you’ll begin to wonder what robots dream of?David Baerwald, formerly of late-'80s one-album wonders David & David, a principal contributor to Sheryl Crow's smash debut, and author of a pair of darkly brilliant, musically adventurous solo albums (
Bedtime Stories,
Triage), approaches his first major film-scoring gig with every ounce of his iconoclastic verve intact. Baerwald and the Palindrome Floating Band (a gathering that includes Mark Isham, Charlie Sexton, and David Torn) produce an underscore for director Anthony Drazan's adaptation of David Rabe's play--a cutting portrait of a group of Hollywood players flailing in a cesspool of narcissism, misogyny, and addiction--that segues slyly from cool, modern takes on traditional jazz-quartet variations into a landscape of boozy R&B vocals and even skewed country flavors. Much to his credit, Baerwald ! doesn't let his oft-sardonic muse (sample titles: "Oedipal Blues," "Mambo Phallistico") mug his smart musical taste; it's all bookended by a Morricone-esque wordless women's choral "theme" that's as thematically ironic as it is melodically irresistible.
--Jerry McCulleyYou wouldn't want to spend much time with the folks from David Rabe's play Hurlyburly. A sensation when it played on stage (with marquee names Harvey Keitel and William Hurt), Rabe's tale of the cocaine-influenced days of Hollywood in the 1980s is a bitter rambling of what humans do with too much drive, power, and money. Robin Williams's joke about cocaine being God's way of telling you have too much money certainly comes into play here. A few days in the life of casting agent Eddie (Sean Penn) and his friends (separated by a year) take place in Eddie's posh L.A. bungalow. Here he and his roomie Mickey (Kevin Spacey) talk nonstop about sex and power, syntax and meaning. Into this wash comes a charitabl! e bigwig (Gary Shandling), a street kid (Anna Paquin), and Edd! ie's rud derless friend, the violent Phil (Chazz Palminteri). If there is a central story to be found, it's Eddie's drive to fall in love with Darlene (Robin Wright Penn), who finds this world exciting--or at least intoxicating.
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