When municipal authorities recently locked horns with family members of 9/11 victims over whether anniversary services could be held at Ground Zero, a familiar pall was cast over the city once again. Not to take anything away from the tens of thousands of people who lost loved ones that horrid day, but in truth it was a New York tragedy—everyone suffered, everyone mourned, everyone has a story to tell.
Such as, for example, Bubs and Press, the unlikely twosome at the center of Michael Swift’s September 12th, running at the Nuyorican Poets Café, produced by the Family Tree Collective. These two guys are hardly what you’d consider white-collar workers, but low-level drug dealers filling orders in the aftermath of the attack—and you can imagine just how their business went through the roof after the events of 9/11. Unfortunately, though, one particular deal goes down in a very bad way, and before anyone has a chance to say, “That blows,” Bubs and Press are abruptly slammed into the Tombs, Manhattan’s notorious Downtown jail, amid a near-total shutdown of governmental and judicial services. Underground and, for all they know, abandoned, it’s in the Tombs where they wait. And wait. And wait.
But they’re far from alone: Bubs and Press are surrounded in the Tombs by criminals and accused criminals who, like them, must wait and wait. But for reasons the play makes clear, it’s imperative that Bubs and Press be able to keep what they’re being accused of a secret, since tensions and anger, naturally, are running so high.
Runs through Sept. 15. Nuyorican Poets Café, 236 E. 3rd St. (betw. Aves. B & C), 917-216-4655; $15.
Such as, for example, Bubs and Press, the unlikely twosome at the center of Michael Swift’s September 12th, running at the Nuyorican Poets Café, produced by the Family Tree Collective. These two guys are hardly what you’d consider white-collar workers, but low-level drug dealers filling orders in the aftermath of the attack—and you can imagine just how their business went through the roof after the events of 9/11. Unfortunately, though, one particular deal goes down in a very bad way, and before anyone has a chance to say, “That blows,” Bubs and Press are abruptly slammed into the Tombs, Manhattan’s notorious Downtown jail, amid a near-total shutdown of governmental and judicial services. Underground and, for all they know, abandoned, it’s in the Tombs where they wait. And wait. And wait.
But they’re far from alone: Bubs and Press are surrounded in the Tombs by criminals and accused criminals who, like them, must wait and wait. But for reasons the play makes clear, it’s imperative that Bubs and Press be able to keep what they’re being accused of a secret, since tensions and anger, naturally, are running so high.
Runs through Sept. 15. Nuyorican Poets Café, 236 E. 3rd St. (betw. Aves. B & C), 917-216-4655; $15.
