High school is tough. You’ve got raging hormones. You’re riddled with insecurities as you try to find your niche. And you’re not a kid anymore, but you’re not an adult either.

Those of you who survived this time during the 80s will relate to a play done by About Face Theatre that’s now on stage at Center on Halsted.

Stupid Kids uses that decade as a backdrop, but also a springboard for a play that, at one glance, is looking back and, at a second glance, is firmly rooted in the “now.”

Eight Forty-Eight‘s dueling critics Jonathan Abarbanel and Kelly Kleiman joined us to talk more about the play.

About Face Theatre’s staging of John C. Russell’s Stupid Kids is running at Center on Halsted thru March 8.

Music Button: My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult, “Paradise Motel”, from the CD Gay Black and Married, (Ryko records)