Talk Radio: A Play (Acting Edition) - Softcover

Eric Bogosian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0573600031 ISBN 13: 9780573600036

Publisher: Samuel French, 1988

Synopsis

“Your fear, your own lives, have become your entertainment.”?Talk Radio

“More timely today than it was twenty years ago . . . Radio crackles with intensity.”?Joe Dziemianowicz, New York Daily News

“The most lacerating portrait of a human meltdown this side of a Francis Bacon painting. . . . This revival, like the original production, allows its star to grab an audience by the lapels and shake it into submission.”?Ben Brantley, The New York Times

Eric Bogosian’s Talk Radio?his breakthrough 1987 Public Theater hit that was made into a film by Oliver Stone?has been revived in a “mesmerizing” (Newsday) production on Broadway, with Liev Schreiber playing the role of the late-night shock jock that Bogosian himself originated. The drama is set in the studio of Cleveland’s WTLK Radio over the course of Barry Champlain’s two-hour broadcast, being scrutinized that night by producers with an interest in taking the show national, and fueled as always by coffee, cocaine, and Jack Daniel’s. Barry’s jousts with his unseen callers?ranging from a white supremacist to a woman obsessed with her garbage disposal?are peppered with insights into his character from his ex-deejay pal and his sometime girlfriend/producer, and punctuated with a transformative visit from an embodied voice.

Eric Bogosian is a writer and actor who over the last twenty years has authored five full-length plays and created six full-length solos for himself, including subUrbia; Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll; Pounding Nails in the Floor with My Forehead;and Drinking in America. He is the recipient of three OBIE Awards and a Drama Desk Award, and has toured throughout the United States and Europe.

About this title

About the Author

Eric Bogosian is the OBIE-award winning writer and performer of "Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll", and "Drinking in America", as well as his plays "Suburbia" and "Talk Radio", both made into major motion pictures.

Review

A gut-grabbing revival. Live Schreiber is playing Barry Champlain, an abrasive radio talk show host who, as another character puts it, has seen the face of God in the mirror.’ In the course of one eventful night, Barry will be forced to confront another, less august image of himself the most lacerating portrait of a human meltdown this side of a Francis Bacon painting. Like the original production, which starred Mr. Bogosian as Barry, it allows the star to grab an audience by the lapels and shake it into submission.” -- Ben Brantley, New York Times

More timely today than it was twenty years ago Radio crackles with intensity.” -- Joe Dziemianowicz, New York Daily News

Pure Theatrical Adrenaline.” -- Time Out New York

Imagine Lenny Bruce at the height of his notoriety becoming a popular talk show host and you may begin to have an idea of the whiplash intensity and black, hard edged cynicism of Talk Radio.” -- Mel Gussow, New York Times

Hypnotic! Both as an actor’s tour-de-force and a stinging cultural analysis.” -- David Rooney, Variety

Eric Bogosian’s Talk Radio is just about the best theatrical expression of our fucked-up culture that I know.” -- John Hellpern, New York Observer



“A gut-grabbing revival. Live Schreiber is playing Barry Champlain, an abrasive radio talk show host who, as another character puts it, has seen the face of God ‘in the mirror.’ In the course of one eventful night, Barry will be forced to confront another, less august image of himself... the most lacerating portrait of a human meltdown this side of a Francis Bacon painting. Like the original production, which starred Mr. Bogosian as Barry, it allows the star to grab an audience by the lapels and shake it into submission.” -- Ben Brantley, New York Times

“More timely today than it was twenty years ago... Radio crackles with intensity.” -- Joe Dziemianowicz, New York Daily News

“Pure Theatrical Adrenaline.” -- Time Out New York

“Imagine Lenny Bruce at the height of his notoriety becoming a popular talk show host and you may begin to have an idea of the whiplash intensity and black, hard edged cynicism of Talk Radio.” -- Mel Gussow, New York Times

“Hypnotic! Both as an actor’s tour-de-force and a stinging cultural analysis.” -- David Rooney, Variety

“Eric Bogosian’s Talk Radio is just about the best theatrical expression of our fucked-up culture that I know.” -- John Hellpern, New York Observer

Edition details

• Publisher: Samuel French
• Publication date: 1988
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0573600031
• ISBN 13: 9780573600036
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 102