This is Our Youth
Encyclopedia
This Is Our Youth is a 1996 play by American
dramatist and screenwriter Kenneth Lonergan
.
, the play opened at the INTAR Theatre in New York City
in October 1996. It later opened at the Douglas Fairbanks Theatre in November 1998. It was directed by Mark Brokaw
, with Mark Rosenthal as Dennis, Mark Ruffalo
as Warren, and Missy Yager as Jessica. It later played popularly for some time in London
's West End
produced by Phil Cameron
for Background, Clare Lawrence
and Anna Waterhouse for Out of the Blue (for and on behalf of Back to Blue Limited).
it featured Hayden Christensen
, Matt Damon
, Colin Hanks
, and Chris Klein
as Dennis, Jake Gyllenhaal
, Casey Affleck
, Kieran Culkin, and Freddie Prinze Jr. as Warren, and Anna Paquin
, Summer Phoenix
, Alison Lohman
, Heather Burns
as Jessica.
A possibly revival may be staged in New York featuring Michael Cera
and Kieran Culkin. (http://www.aintitcool.com/node/46105)
of Manhattan
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 lingerie-tycoon father. Dennis, the more wily and domineering of the two, spends some of the money on cocaine
, hoping to sell it to a friend of his for much more. Jessica Goldman, an "anxiously insightful" fashion student, comes over 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 the Reagan Era
in which it is set: the characters feel adrift in a country of the 1960s-style liberalism.
, critic Peter Marks called the play "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." 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 like 'Stupid Kids' and 'Footloose
' 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."
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
dramatist and screenwriter Kenneth Lonergan
Kenneth Lonergan
Kenneth Lonergan is an American playwright, screenwriter, and director.-Background and education:Born in the Bronx, New York City, New York, Lonergan began writing in high school at the Walden School .His first play, The Rennings Children, was chosen for the Young Playwright's Festival in...
.
Production history
Originally produced by The New GroupThe New Group
The New Group, an Off-Broadway theater company located at Theatre Row, 410 West 42nd Street, is an artist-driven company with a commitment to developing and producing powerful, contemporary theater. Founded by Artistic Director Scott Elliott, The New Group produced its first play, Mike Leigh's...
, the play opened at the INTAR Theatre in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in October 1996. It later opened at the Douglas Fairbanks Theatre in November 1998. It was directed by Mark Brokaw
Mark Brokaw
Mark Brokaw is a stage director. He won the Drama Desk Award, Obie Award and Lucille Lortel Award as Outstanding Director of a Play for How I Learned to Drive.Brokaw was raised in Aledo, Illinois and graduated from the Yale Drama School...
, with Mark Rosenthal as Dennis, Mark Ruffalo
Mark Ruffalo
Mark Alan Ruffalo is an American actor, director, producer and screenwriter. He starred in films such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Zodiac, Shutter Island, Just Like Heaven, You Can Count on Me and The Kids Are All Right for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best...
as Warren, and Missy Yager as Jessica. It later played popularly for some time in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
's West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
produced by Phil Cameron
Phil Cameron
Phil Cameron is a British entrepreneur, the founder of No.1 Traveller, and a former Tony and Olivier Award-winning theatre producer.-Personal life:...
for Background, Clare Lawrence
Clare Lawrence
Clare Lawrence Moody is an English television and stage actor and producer. She is the daughter of English television director Laurence Moody...
and Anna Waterhouse for Out of the Blue (for and on behalf of Back to Blue Limited).
Cast history
The play has become very popular among the younger theater generation for its edgy issues and modern themes. It has seen its fair share of popular film actors in its roles, many of them in their first stage role. At the Garrick Theatre in the West EndWest End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
it featured Hayden Christensen
Hayden Christensen
Hayden Christensen is a Canadian actor. He appeared in Canadian television programs when he was young, then diversified into American television in the late 1990s. He moved on to minor acting roles before being praised for his role of Sam in Life as a House, for which he was nominated for a Golden...
, Matt Damon
Matt Damon
Matthew Paige "Matt" Damon is an American actor, screenwriter, and philanthropist whose career was launched following the success of the film Good Will Hunting , from a screenplay he co-wrote with friend Ben Affleck...
, Colin Hanks
Colin Hanks
Colin Lewes Hanks is an American actor who is best known for his work as Shaun Brumder in the film Orange County and as Alex Whitman in Roswell. He also portrayed the role of Henry Jones in Band of Brothers and is currently on the sixth season of the Showtime crime drama Dexter...
, and Chris Klein
Chris Klein (actor)
Frederick Christopher "Chris" Klein is an American movie actor. He is perhaps best known for playing Chris "Oz" Ostreicher in the 1999 film American Pie and its sequel American Pie 2.-Early life:...
as Dennis, Jake Gyllenhaal
Jake Gyllenhaal
Jacob Benjamin "Jake" Gyllenhaal is an American actor. The son of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner, Gyllenhaal began acting at age ten...
, Casey Affleck
Casey Affleck
Caleb Casey McGuire Affleck-Boldt , better known as Casey Affleck, is an American actor and film director. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, he played supporting roles in mainstream hits like Good Will Hunting and Ocean's Eleven as well as in critically acclaimed independent films such as...
, Kieran Culkin, and Freddie Prinze Jr. as Warren, and Anna Paquin
Anna Paquin
Anna Helene Paquin is a Canadian-born New Zealand actress. Paquin's first critically successful film was The Piano, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1994 at the age of 11 – the second youngest winner in history...
, Summer Phoenix
Summer Phoenix
Summer Joy Phoenix is an American actress and model. She is the youngest sibling of the late River Phoenix, Rain Phoenix, Joaquin Phoenix, and Liberty Phoenix, and is married to actor Casey Affleck.-Early life:...
, Alison Lohman
Alison Lohman
Alison Marion Lohman is an American actress. She has had lead roles in the films White Oleander, Where the Truth Lies, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Flicka and Drag Me to Hell as well as smaller parts in Matchstick Men, Big Fish, Gamer, and Beowulf...
, Heather Burns
Heather Burns
- Life and career :Burns was born in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Chicago Bull and U.S. Attorney Jim Burns. She is engaged to fellow actor Ajay Naidu, her high school boyfriend. Heather attended and graduated from Evanston Township High School. She is a graduate of New York University's...
as Jessica.
A possibly revival may be staged in New York featuring Michael Cera
Michael Cera
Michael Austin Cera is a Canadian actor best known for his roles in Arrested Development, Youth in Revolt, Superbad, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and Juno. Cera received the 2008 Canadian Comedy Award for best male performance for his work in Superbad.-Early...
and Kieran Culkin. (http://www.aintitcool.com/node/46105)
Original title
This is Our Youth was originally titled Betrayal by Everyone when it premiered as a one-act in 1993 at the Met in a festival of short plays.Plot
The play takes place in Dennis Ziegler's apartment on the Upper West SideUpper West Side
The Upper West Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, New York City, that lies between Central Park and the Hudson River and between West 59th Street and West 125th Street...
of Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
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 lingerie-tycoon father. Dennis, the more wily and domineering of the two, spends some of the money on cocaine
Cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...
, hoping to sell it to a friend of his for much more. Jessica Goldman, an "anxiously insightful" fashion student, comes over 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 the Reagan Era
Reagan Era
The Reagan Era or Age of Reagan is a periodization of recent American history used by historians and political observers to emphasize that the conservative "Reagan Revolution" led by President Ronald Reagan in domestic and foreign policy had a permanent impact...
in which it is set: the characters feel adrift in a country of the 1960s-style liberalism.
Reception
Writing in The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, critic Peter Marks called the play "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." 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 like 'Stupid Kids' and 'Footloose
Footloose
Footloose is a 1984 American musical-drama film directed by Herbert Ross. It tells the story of Ren McCormack , an upbeat Chicago teen who moves to a small town in which, as a result of the efforts of a local minister , dancing and rock music have been banned.The film is loosely based on events...
' 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."