- This is Our Youth
This Is Our Youth is a play by
Kenneth Lonergan . Originally produced by The New Group, it opened at theINTAR Theatre inNew York City in October1996 . It later opened at theDouglas Fairbanks Theatre in November1998 . It was directed byMark Brokaw , with Mark Rosenthal as Dennis,Mark Ruffalo as Warren, andMissy Yager as Jessica. It later played popularly for some time inLondon 's West End and was revivedOff-Broadway in2001 .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. Featuring
Hayden Christensen ,Matt Damon ,Colin Hanks , and Chris Klein as Dennis,Jake Gyllenhaal ,Casey Affleck ,Kieran Culkin , andFreddie Prinze Jr. as Warren, andAnna Paquin ,Summer Phoenix ,Alison Lohman ,Heather Burns as Jessica.Plot
The play takes place in Dennis Ziegler's apartment on the
Upper West Side ofManhattan in March1982 . 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 oncocaine , 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 takes place: the characters feel adrift in a country that now rejects the 1960s-style liberalism that they were brought up to believe in.
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