Well-cast and smartly staged, Our Youth is funny,
moving
They are slackers with money, vocabulary and an attitude. Think that
voluntarily unemployed kids with a fondness for pot and with libidos in
overdrive have nothing interesting to say? Take in the sublime, hilarious
production of Kenneth Lonergan's This Is Our Youth now at GableStage, and
you'll think again.
The intimate theater in the historic Biltmore Hotel is on a streak this
season, with enviable productions of Closer, Killer Joe and now This Is Our
Youth drawing full houses of thoughtful theatergoers looking for something
fresh and provocative. And Artistic Director Joseph Adler is obliging with a
series of perfectly cast, smartly staged productions that are setting the
qualitative standard for South Florida theater this season.
Lonergan's portrait of three smart, restless young New Yorkers who pass the
time with escapist pleasures as they wait for a life's purpose to grip them
is set in 1982. America's shift to the right under Ronald Reagan in the
greed-is-good '80s has made these kids -- products of a moneyed Jewish
liberal-intellectual culture -- feel even more alienated than people in
their late teens and early 20s usually do.
(Nick Bixby) and Warren Straub (Oscar Isaac).
Denny, whose parents would rather pay for his spartan studio apartment on
the Upper West Side than put up with his rages in their chic Central Park
West digs, seems to operate on the principle that aggression and volume will
make him victorious in any dispute. He mistakes abusive insults for wit,
delights in scheming and scamming and engages in grandiose flights of
fantasy without really doing much of anything.
Warren is more subdued and thoughtful, a follower who plays into Denny's
need for domination -- for awhile.
Through the play's long night and following morning -- during which Warren
finally ends his strike-out streak with girls by making love to would-be
fashion designer Jessica Goldman (Samara Siskind) on a balcony at the Plaza
Hotel -- Warren noticeably changes.
It's clear Denny will soon be history as Warren finally rejects the role of
pot-smoking foil and acolyte.
The actors, who make Lonergan's obscenity-laced speeches soar as though they
were arias, are equally adept at communicating character through posture,
reaction and wounded silence.
Bixby's Denny slouches and stomps through his filthy, barely furnished
apartment with its Harvest Gold refrigerator and albums by the likes of Styx
and Lenny Bruce (the character-revealing design is by Rich Simone).
Warren's shifting thoughts play over Isaac's expressive face, turning a kid
who some would dismiss as a loser into a charismatic, empathetic
personality.
And Siskind transforms Jessica's morning-after embarrassment,
hypersensitivity and miscommunication into a bittersweet little drama.
Thanks to Adler's smart direction, three gifted actors and Lonergan's
incisive script, This Is Our Youth takes us on a hilarious, moving journey
beyond a dissolute surface into a world of hurt, longing and discovery that
we know -- or knew -- only too well.
Christine Dolen is The Herald's theater critic.
Two guys, a girl and a slick play about young adulthood
By Jack Zink, Sun-Sentinel Theater Writer
Two guys and a girl, well-off and spoiled, play dangerous games on New
York's Upper West Side in This Is Our Youth. Kenneth Lonergan's 1996
off-Broadway drama is the latest example of theater verite at GableStage.
The wiry production features a trio of relative newcomers who seem so
natural in their roles, it's as if director Joe Adler found them smoking
dope and talking metaphysical trash in a room at the Biltmore Hotel, where
the theater is located in Coral Gables. Lonergan's story takes place in 1982
but feels like today.
Nick Bixby is Dennis, dressed in counterculture chic, whose studio digs are
paid for by his dad. Warren (Oscar Isaac) shows up needing a place to crash
because his dad just kicked him out; he lifted $15,000 from papa's briefcase
on the way out.
Warren, who's a little nerdy and in a sexual slump, will need a chunk of it
to score with Jessica (Samara Siskind), a wary, wounded sparrow. Where else
would a pair of slackers in heat go but to the Plaza Hotel?
They're not inclined to stay at Dennis' pad, a fraying, once-stylish
apartment by scenic designer Rich Simone that houses memories of everybody's
first home-away-from-home. Moody lighting is by Jeff Quinn, tell-all
costumes by Daniela Schwimmer, and sound design by M. Tony Reimer.
Warren, concerned that his father will track him down soon, needs to make
the stolen wad whole again before that happens. Dennis helpfully devises
plans to deal some cocaine and pawn some collectibles to make up the
difference, and then some.
The trio is already paying a price for their aimless, wanton existence but
don't know it yet. Lonergan hints that the players will snap out of their
moral lethargy before they get any permanent scars, but it's up to us to
fill in that ending, after This Is Our Youth runs out of scenes.
In the meantime, the slickly acted and well-designed production crackles
like a carefully stoked fire. As Dennis, Bixby is the flame, portraying an
intelligent smart aleck for whom too much comes too easy. He communicates
his supposed friendship with put-downs, but is insulted when Warren
questions their relationship.
Bixby elicits our pity, while we're giving heaps of sympathy to Isaac and
Siskind. They've convinced us Warren and Jessica are lost, wandering ones,
whereas fast-talking Dennis knows the road -- however little he understands
the risks. This Is Our Youth is a tight, well-acted, flavorful slice of
life.
Jack Zink can be reached at jzink@sun-sentinel.com or
954-356-4706.
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