This is Our Youth
by Kenneth Lonergan
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Book Summary Information
Author: Kenneth LonerganEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2000-02-02
ISBN: 1585670189
Number of pages: 96
Publisher: Overlook TP
Book Reviews of This is Our Youth
Book Review: An excellent debut
Summary: 4 Stars
Lonergan's debut play, "This Is Our Youth" is an excellent exploration of the battles of (of course) youth, and, more specifically, the warzone that is male friendship.
The play is set in the early 1980's, but the relationships between the three young characters here exist now just as they did then.
This is, foremost, a relationship play. The plot itself is minimal and unimportant. What is important is how Dennis, Warren, and Jessica interact with each other. Lonergan demonstrates himself to be a wonderful observer as the interactions of each relationship in the play (Dennis/Warren, Warren/Jessica, Dennis/Jessica, Dennis/Various People on the Phone) are finely tuned and extremely truthful.
Lonergan's dialogue is masterful. He knows his characters, he knows people like them, and he knows the world that they live in. These are kids, smart kids full of youthful energy and mistakes, who communicate with each other with such. Many young men when reading this piece will find that they've had many conversations exactly like the kind that Dennis and Warren engage in.
I've heard the play being described as 'edgy' and I don't agree with that description. While the play does feature slight drug use and many drug references, this is about the only way that 'edgy' comes into play. The play is at its core a small, finely observed, well-written character piece that is interested in breaking down what makes male interaction tick.
A fine play.
Summary of This is Our Youth
An unblinking portrait of young urban life in the 1980s, Kenneth Lonergan's look at "the real Real World"(The New York Times)This is Our Youth, Kenneth Lonnergan's lacerating look at affluent young Manhattanites of the 1980s, was first produced by the New Group in New York in 1996 to great critical acclaim and a Drama Desk Award nomination for best new play. Set in 1982, the play depicts two days in the lives of three college-age Upper West Siders who are from wealthy families but are living in doped-up squalor. Dennis--with a famous painter for a father and social activist mother--is a small-time drug dealer and total mess. His hero-worshipping, indifferently adjusted friend Warren has just impulsively stolen $15,000 from his father, an abusive lingerie tycoon who is "not a criminal, just in business with criminals." When Jessica, a mixed-up prep-school girl, shows up for a date, Warren pulls out a wad of bills and takes her off, awkwardly, for a night of New York seduction. How will Warren turn out--will he follow Dennis into dissipation or discover a way out? A wildly funny, bittersweet, and ultimately quite moving story, This Is Our Youth is remarkable in its understanding of contemporary urban youth.
"Very funny. . . . Comedies of such brio and darkly satiric edge are rare these days. . . . A supercool entertainment."-- Vincent Canby, The New York Times
"What Mr. Lonergan gets gloriously is the whole cosmos and tempo of guys-together stuff. . . . It's an exhilarating ride full of sympathy and truth, eliciting many a smile and laugh of recognition."-- The Wall Street Journal
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