| This Is Our Youth | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Michael Cera in a March 2012 production staged at theSydney Opera House | |
| Written by | Kenneth Lonergan |
| Characters | Dennis, Warren, Jessica |
| Date premiered | October 26, 1996 (1996-10-26) |
| Place premiered | Intar Theatre,New York City |
This Is Our Youth is a play by American dramatist and screenwriterKenneth Lonergan. It premieredOff-Broadway in 1996 and since been produced all over the world, including theWest End,Broadway,Sydney, andToronto.
The play takes place in Dennis Ziegler's family's apartment on theUpper West Side ofManhattan in March 1982.
Dennis's friend Warren Straub, a dejected 19-year-old, has just been kicked out of his house and stolen $15,000 from his abusive lingerietycoon father. Dennis, the more wily and domineering of the two, spends some of the money oncocaine, hoping to sell it to a friend for much more. Jessica Goldman, an "anxiously insightful" fashion student, arrives, and Warren hopes that he can use the money to entice her into bed.
The play explores timeless issues of adolescence and maturity, as well as theReagan Era in which it is set: the characters feel adrift in 1980s-stylematerialism.
This Is Our Youth premiered as a one-act titledBetrayal by Everyone in 1993 at the Met in a festival of short plays.[1]
Originally produced byThe New Group, the play openedOff-Broadway at the Intar Theatre on October 26, 1996 and closed on November 24, 1996 after 22 performances. Directed byMark Brokaw, the cast featuredJosh Hamilton as Dennis,Mark Ruffalo as Warren, andMissy Yager as Jessica.[2] It again played Off-Broadway in aSecond Stage revival at the McGinn/Cazale Theatre, from November 3, 1998 to May 2, 1999, with the original cast, except for Mark Rosenthal as Dennis.[3] It transferred to theDouglas Fairbanks Theatre.
The US West Coast premiere took place in October 2000 at theB Street Theater in Sacramento, California, produced by co-founding brothers Buck andTimothy Busfield. The play starred Peter Humer, Andrew Benator and Jessica Goldman and was directed by Amy Resnick.[4]
In theWest End, it played at theGarrick Theatre from 2 March 2002 to 15 March 2003. The opening cast wasJake Gyllenhaal,Hayden Christensen, andAnna Paquin.[5] Notable replacements includedMatt Damon,Colin Hanks,Chris Klein,Freddie Prinze Jr.,Alison Lohman,Heather Burns,Casey Affleck andKieran Culkin. The production was produced byPhil Cameron for Background,Clare Lawrence andAnna Waterhouse for Out of the Blue (for and on behalf of Back to Blue Limited).
A non-equity production directed bySerge Seiden was presented byStudio Theatre 2ndStage in Washington, DC from May 16 to June 30, 2002. The cast included Karl Miller,Jon Bernthal, and Amy Montminy.[6]
The Australian premiere was produced byBlack Swan Theatre Company and Echelon Productions at The Store Room, Melbourne in 2002. It starredDitch Davey, Tim Wright and Amanda Levy.
In 2003,Woody Harrelson directed a production ofThis Is Our Youth for theBerkeley Street Theatre inToronto,Ontario,Canada, withFabrizio Filippo,Marya Delver and Marcello Cabezas in the cast.[7]
Michael Cera andKieran Culkin, who co-starred in2010'sScott Pilgrim vs. the World, had been in talks to stage a revival in New York during 2010;[8] they later headlined a run at theSydney Opera House in March 2012 helmed by original director Brokaw with Australian actressEmily Barclay in the role of Jessica Goldman.[9][10] A production ran at theSteppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, featuring Cera, Culkin, andTavi Gevinson and directed byAnna D. Shapiro, from June 10 to July 27, 2014.[11] The production premiered onBroadway at theCort Theatre with the same cast and director, in previews beginning August 18, 2014 and opening September 11, 2014 for a 20-week run (through January 4, 2015).[12][13]
Note: Below are the principal casts of major productions.[14]
| Role | Off-Broadway (1996) | West End (2002) | Sydney (2012) | Broadway (2014) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Warren Straub | Mark Ruffalo | Jake Gyllenhaal | Michael Cera | |
| Dennis Ziegler | Josh Hamilton | Hayden Christensen | Kieran Culkin | |
| Jessica Goldman | Missy Yager | Anna Paquin | Emily Barclay | Tavi Gevinson |
Writing inThe New York Times, critic Peter Marks called the play (in 1996) "a revealing and offbeat dissection of its world," adding, "It is not easy to find love and humor in the middle of nowhere. But with the skill of a first-rate creative team, even nowhere can be someplace special."[2] Reviewing the 1998 production two years later, Marks wrote, "'This Is Our Youth' is back, and not a moment too soon. In a season in which some of the wise men of the theater have been trying to force-feed insipid fare likeStupid Kids andFootloose to young audiences, it's sheer relief to celebrate the return of a rambunctious and witty play about wayward teen-agers and post-adolescents that doesn't turn youthful travails into plastic rap." Marks cited the play's "indelible impression," the playwright's "unfailing antennae," writing, "This Is Our Youth-- by turns caustic, cruel and compassionate -- is the real real world."[15]This Is Our Youth ranked 21st in Andy Propst's list of the greatest plays ever written[16] and 12th in the 2018New York Times critics' list of the best American plays of the past 25 years.[17]
