It’s still a strange experience for me to watch plays or
pieces of art and to recognize the characters as people I know or for the
situations presented to be instantly relatable to. I guess that’s a side effect of getting older
in that now any movie, show, or book featuring characters up to their mid-twenties
will hold some sort of familiarity for me.
Last night I saw “This Is Our Youth” on Broadway with an excellent three
person cast of Michael Cera, Keiran Culkin, and Tavi Gevinson and I would
highly recommend it. The play itself is
quite funny in the way it deals with aimless rich kids, but the acting takes it
to a whole other level. I wanted to see
the play for Michael Cera (for who I am a fan of), and he does not
disappoint. Who knew that Michael Cera
could play a nervous, awkward character?
Shocking, I know, but Cera adds so much to the awkwardness and
restlessness of Warren than just uncomfortable silences and strange
phrasing. He’s constantly fidgeting, pulling
down his shirt, or frantically looking ahead to whatever lies next which
prevents the character from falling into the unfair grouping of the Michael
Cera character. Kerian Culkin does a
great job playing Dennis whose alpha male/dominant act begins to finally crack
by the end of the play. We’ve all been
in friendships with charmers like Dennis and Culkin does a great job is playing
a charismatic asshole. I had no idea who
Tavi Gevinson was to start the play and I’m glad because I just took her for a
young actress who portrays her character of Jessica as insecurity wrapped in a thin
cloak of mild hostility mixed with great speeches (her discussions with Warren
towards the end of the first act amounted to my favorite part in the play). After seeing the show and reading about how some
people wanted her to fall flat on her face (why I still have no idea), I’m glad
I went in empty without any preconceived notions and was just able to enjoy her
as Jessica Goldman.
Even though the play was written in 1982, and is set in that
year, the show truly feels relevant and relatable. I easily relate to the aimlessness and uncertainty
of the characters, but I blame that on having the soul of a slacker. My generation, when not getting stereotyped
as being a bunch of technology driven narcissists, is usually stereotyped as
kids that are always trying to change the world and do something (mainly in app
form) with the maximum amount of sincerity possible. It seems to be that every time a new product
comes out, the tagline is about how it’s going to connect people together in
another way we had never dreamed about! I,
for one, can’t stand all this new sincerity stuff and the whole earnest
movement that’s been engulfing our culture (ex: any Buzzfeed/Upworthy article
title) and crave irony layered in even more irony. The kids in “This Is Our Youth” are always posturing
with each other until sincerity is forced to slip out. Watching the show made me realize how much I appreciate
that kind of exchange a lot more than watching incredibly linear people veer
off into their linear lives. The
characters of the play are not great people (I mainly mean Dennis), but
something in their aimlessness and posturing rings true to me. This was something where I could interchange people
I know into the play’s world and very little in the proceedings would
change.
In short, I know these people and hang out with people similar
to aspects of them. The stories being shown
today are being shifted towards me and it’s just another friendly reminder that
I’m getting older and should be finding a job and be doing adult stuff. But to me that manic uncertain energy portrayed
in “This Is Our Youth” is something I always want to have (I’m not so keen on
the stealing and excessive drug use. If
it was a little bit of stealing with some mild drug use, well then sign me up)
and something I feel people around me are beginning to lose and not care about. There’s something special about drifting in
and out and aimlessness that people miss due to wanting to create the next way
people can share their lives with others.
Oh well I guess, more manic energy for me than.
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