Philly Fringe 2025: Theatre by Development presents Daniel Burgess’s Urinal

Theatre by Development was founded last year by recent UArts grads with “a need to constantly create and consume the art we want to be experiencing.” Urinal, written by Daniel Burgess and directed by Bryant Gipull Garcia, follows an assemblage of teenagers in a high school boys’ bathroom. Javi (Roberto Delgado), Red (Blake Laisure), and Asher (Dallas Austin Jimmar) smoke weed from a gravity bong and rap over Javi’s makeshift beats. Another decidedly nerdier duo, Xavier (Garrett Grimes) and Greg (Miguel Ortega), roleplays a fantasy RPG. What links these two groups is a pair of missing Jordans, mysteriously vanished from Red’s locker only to appear on Xavier’s feet the next day.

The play’s greatest asset is its attention to detail, from its gorgeous run-down set (designed by Maya Lebron) to its music selection (some Travis Scott, a little Frank Ocean). Its keenly observed dialogue is animated by an excellent ensemble, featuring more baby faces and patchy facial hair than your average cast of twenty-somethings-as-high-schoolers. Of particular note are Delgado as Javi, who roots the play with his wide-eyed sincerity; the sharp and sensitive Symphony Yvonne Thompson as Taylor; and Jimmar as Asher, stealing scenes with oh-so-smooth physicality (though, like many of the play’s delights, it’s a well that’s returned to a few too many times).

While the show at its best conjures thrilling trials of adolescence, it ultimately amasses more incident and genre than it can reasonably support. (Though advertised with a two-hour runtime, the show clocks in at an ungainly three hours.) The janitor (Alex Werthauer), in particular, seems to enter the stage from another play, intoning prophecy in the overlabored tenor of a Hogwarts professor. Further stretching the play’s reality is the tacit understanding that this is a one-set show, so all the action must unfold in the bathroom—a limitation that, though admirable in conception, yields increasingly inelegant solutions. Like its protagonists, the play seems to be still in the process of figuring itself out, showing flickers of promise that might come to something great.

Know before you go: Urinal is intended for ages 13+. The show has violent content, adult language, and strobe/flashing lights.