"This is Our Youth" - Fireworks at the Firehouse

Posted by Bruce Miller

I had the great good fortune to see This is Our Youth last Friday evening at the Firehouse. It was a terrific production. Youth was the first NYC hit of Kenneth Lonergan, one of my favorite currently-working playwrights. Lonergan hit the big time with This is Our Youth in 1996, and then followed in '99 with The Waverly Gallery (also produced by the Firehouse a few years back). In 2002, Lonergan wrote the Off-Broadway hit Lobby Hero, produced in Richmond shortly thereafter by Theatre Gym.

I admire all three Lonergan plays, but it was the 2000 film You Can Count on Me, written and directed by Lonergan, that really knocked me off my feet. It stars Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo, and if you've never seen it, by all means rent it--as a follow up, of course, to going to see This is Our Youth during the next two weeks. Youth closes at the Firehouse on March 31.

This is Our Youth concerns three privileged, dysfunctional young adults who are struggling to find themselves in NYC during the Reagan years. Their dialogue and actions are profane and misguided, but their desperate search for purpose and connection in an alienating world earns our empathy and respect. At least it earned mine.

Morrie Piersol's direction is invisible, which is the highest compliment I can give it. The drama has shape and drive, to be sure, but you never see the director at work. What takes place on stage seems completely organic and in-the-moment, making the play all the more riveting--kind of like an accident that won't allow you to turn away.

Two young men from VCU's theatre program--Joe Carlson and Jacob Pennington--deliver wonderful, quirky, fleshed out performances. Amy Sproul, a high school student from the Appomattox Governor's School, keeps up with the men every step of the way. Less distanced from her upper-crust upbringing, Amy's character moves and talks with a social sophistication that the male characters have abandoned. At the same time, Amy the actress continues to let us see the little-girl-lost desperately reaching out for acceptance.

All of this makes the show sound despairing, and to an extent, I guess the characters are desperately seeking an elusive meaning for their lives. But the show is so much more than that. Please let me add quickly that it is also very funny, very smart, deeply poignant and thought provoking. It's the kind of play that gives you a lot to talk about for days to come.

There was an Acts of Faith talk-back following the Friday evening performance I attended, and one small section of the post-show discussion centered on whether or not there was hope for the characters' future. One audience member stated that she found little basis for hope. I felt exactly the opposite. My faith is of the progressive, inclusive variety, and I clearly felt the characters finding their hope in that most likely of all places--the friendships they shared with each other. Dysfunctional as those friendships may be, I felt in the performances of these three actors an extraordinary give and take of affection and need. The Bible says that God is Love. The love that these three floundering souls try so awkwardly and desperately to share with each other--in that love, the God I believe in is there. And that gives me every reason to hope.

Set, costumes and lighting were all well suited to the play. But it was the acting and direction that made this a wonderful evening for me. I went with my wife, our 16-year-old daughter, and two good friends from church. We all had a rewarding and entertaining night in the theatre.

If you like edgy contemporary theatre--and I certainly do--don't miss This is Our Youth. And keep your eye out for more from the three talented, adventurous and compelling young actors who bring This is Our Youth to such bracing life.

--Bruce Miller