"Hurlyburly"

Hurlyburly is one of David Rabe's most famous plays.  This play is following around the likes of Eddie, Phil, Artie, Mickey, Donna, Bonnie and Darlene as they try and navigate the disillusionment of Hollywood while sorting through their own relationships and all the while trying to get jobs so they can still eat.

There are a lot of things that I noticed about David Rabe's writing that gives a huge insight into who he is. For example, he uses lots of very specific stage direction. This throws a bit of insight into how his mind works. Because of his choice of very specific stage direction, it shows how he needs everything to be in a specific place. This could show a bit of an OCD tendency, or a need for his things to stay looking the same, such like one of his influences, Arthur Miller.

He also writes is about how specifically the women were the ones who messed up the relationships, and how the men interacted with the women, rather than the other way around.  The way that he writes shows a lot of action happening to women, rather than with women.  Except when it has to do with women ruining things.  This shows his general relationship with women, and how he is probably misogynistic.

He writing of the dialogue specifically has the characters never stop talking. This is a very specific choice as made by the playwright that could gives us insight when it comes to dialogue about his influences.  Chekhov was a bit like this, in the way that the characters who talked a lot, talked, but the characters who didn't, didn't.  Rabe does this with the characters too.  He doesn't seem to just make characters talk non-realistically.

Here is the trailer for Hurlyburly, which was made into a movie in 1998.