Jim Carroll’s The Basketball Diaries by Pascal Ulli
Review by Les Gutman
CurtainUp 27 August 2001
Pascal Ulli inhabits the body of diarist Jim Carroll about as thoroughly as we could hope for. With Ulli onstage alone Jim Carroll’s The Basketball Diaries takes us along on Carroll’s journey from twelve year old prep school basketball player to prostitute, from his days as his “Pepsi Cola” days — as early seemingly manageable heroin habits are known — to the struggles, internal and external, of a full-fledged junkie who does a stint at Riker’s Island. It’s a compelling if not pretty portrait, more personal than the film, and makes surprisingly good theater, thanks in large part to the boyish faced Ulli’s efforts.
At St. Marks Theater, 94 St. Marks Place (Av A/1 Av). 1 hour, 5 minutes.(Gutman)
NOTE:
Gutman’s review of Jim Carroll’s The Basketball Diaries has been excerpted
from a longer article that includes reviews by Gutman, David Lipfert, and David
Lohrey of La Ultima Puerta, Si la gente quiere comer carne… , Deep in the
Jeeps of Georgia, Desmond or Abraham and Frances, La Fábrica, Teaching Detroit,
Loader #26, Leaf in the Mailbox, Often I Find that I am Naked, One Drives While
the Other Screams, Dear Laura (art installation), Kautsch, Life’s Call, I’m Bangin’
in the Kitchen or…Hi Honey, I’m Home!, Tarnish, Chocolate in Heat: Growing Up
Arab in America, Never Live Long in Cages, The Post Office, Nikolai Gogol’s The
Nose, A Touch of the Poe, Man at Work, Feast, School for Salomés, Snow Queen,
Scarpette Rosse, SIC. , 21 Dog Years: Doing Time @ Amazon.com, The Adding Machine,
In the Loneliness of the Cotton Field, L’Hiver Sous La Table, Biography’s Top
Ten People of the Millenium Sing Their Favorite Kurt Weill Songs, Worry Days,
Row of Tents, Circus of Infinite Attractions, Gene De Tueur, Trumpet of Freedon,
and Surface, in addition to Jim Carroll’s The Basketball Diaries .
–Webmaster
The original review was found at http://www.curtainup.com/fringe2001.html#Basketball
© 2001 by Elyse Sommer, CurtainUp. All rights reserved.