The Middlebury Campus

Issue date: 2/14/07 Section: Arts

Media Credit: Christina Galvez John Rayburn '06.5 stares into space that is as empty as his character Dennis' future. [Click to enlarge]

I spent my last Thursday before Feb break peering into a vast expanse of young Manhattanites with rich parents who seem to be on a treadmill of hopelessness. "This is Our Youth," American playwright Kenneth Lonergan's first play, follows two disillusioned Upper West Side kids who are trying to deal with life and failing. Largely in part because their parents, who went from liberals to financial have-it-alls, imparted upon them some serious emotional baggage and family issues that made it nearly impossible for their kids to function.

"This is Our Youth" struck me in a particular way. Maybe it's because my high school years were spent wandering around the Upper West Side with kids similar to Warren and Dennis, the two main characters, though we were never in the market to score a large amount of cocaine. We were, however, plagued by a particular brand of malaise that hits well-off kids who don't quite know what to do with their lives and who are not exactly being driven to immediate action in the way that financial motivation alone can provide. It is a type of ennui that sneaks in here at Middlebury as well - you know that feeling you get when you're slightly bored, slightly depressed and you cannot quite put your finger on what's causing it. You feel like a spoiled brat because here you are with everything you need and more than you probably deserve and yet you are still not entirely happy.

It was for this reason that I found it particularly interesting that Lucas Kavner '06.5 chose to direct this piece as his senior work. It made perfect sense, really, standing at the cusp of supposed adulthood, that he should choose to bring something to the stage that dealt with all of these issues we will face, some of us sooner than others. Once again, despite the fact that most of us aren't escaping from manipulative, abusive fathers or figuring out how to score a large amount of cocaine, the underlying concerns are the same - relationships, to each other and to our parents, grief, happiness, fulfillment - on the whole, how to make sense of life.

Continued...

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