‘riff raff’ YSU theater gives gritty play a shot

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Youngstown State University Theater’s student-run Blackbox Productions will present “Riff Raff,” a gritty crime drama written by film actor Laurence Fishburne, Thursday through Jan. 29 in Spotlight Arena Theater.

Because of the play’s strong language, violence and subject matter, including drug dealing, children will not be admitted.

“It is always a concern to us at University Theater when we produce a show containing strong language, or disturbing images, but while we have no wish to offend anyone, we cannot entirely avoid such work,” said Frank Castronovo, chairman of the department of theater and dance.

“We are a university, first and foremost, and a requirement of our training mission is to present critically-acclaimed works that are at the forefront of contemporary American drama,” he said. “Like it or not, profanity is a part of modern American vernacular, and as theater mirrors life, we cannot be truthful in certain types of modern dramatic representation without its use.” “Riff Raff” is the first play written by Fishburne, who has starred in “The Matrix” films and in television’s “CSI.” It premiered in 1995.

The one-act play focuses on two low-rent hustlers who run afoul of a drug dealer and find themselves hiding out in an abandoned building, waiting for the right time to make their escape.