Kenneth Lonergan’s This Is Our Youth is a brilliant, darkly humorous, bittersweet portrait of youth poised on the cusp of the scary, disillusioning path to adulthood. In Reagan Era New York City, three privileged Upper West Side kids — the swaggering, drug-dealing Dennis; his dispirited, free-thinking best friend and whipping boy, Warren; and confused, self-conscious fashion student Jessica — hang out, smoke pot, scheme for cash, challenge each other, and make tentative steps towards authentic, vulnerable connection, all in a period of less than twenty-four hours in Dennis’ apartment. The painful, funny, and all-too-familiar coming-of-age moments that Lonergan captures — the point at which one’s youthful ideals are lost, the recognition of the disappointments and failures of one’s parents, the choice to hide from the adult world, rather than face it — make the play strikingly resonant for audience members of all ages.
This Is Our Youth guide sections
