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by Kenneth Lonergan, directed by Woody Harrelson

macIDeas, Berkeley Street Theatre Downstairs, Toronto

September 7-October 2, 2004

Last year macIDeas burst on the scene with the Toronto premiere of Kenneth Lonergan’s play “This Is Our Youth” directed by well-known actor Woody Harrelson.  For this year’s remount Harrelson is back as is Marcello Cabezas.  The two newcomers to the show are Jason Lewis (best known from Sex and the City) and Katharine Isabelle (Ginger in Ginger Snaps).  Lewis and Isabelle may know how to act to a camera, but they don’t have a clue how to act on stage, thus turning what was a goodish production of a fine play into a near disaster.

Lonergan’s autobiographical play is a character study of the lives of three wealthy Jewish kids in New in 1982.  Though all three can’t stand their parents, it’s clear that they have already have adopted their parents’ materialistic values--Dennis (Lewis) through his “business” of drug dealing, Jessica (Isabelle) through her obsession with fashion and Warren (Cabezas) with his collection of valuable toys.  The crux of the play is Warren’s realization that he is at least as good as his “hero” Dennis, whom he imitates but who returns only scorn and insults for adulation.

Lewis and Isabelle have no voice control and don’t know how to project.  Either they mumble or they shout.  Either way they can’t be understood and thus cannot create characters, much less finely nuanced ones.  This leaves Cabezas to play his funny, sensitive Warren in a void.  Harrelson gives the play a lot of physical action, but his ending suggests a return to normalcy, the opposite of where Lonergan is heading.     

©Christopher Hoile

Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2004-09-16.

Photo: Marcelo Cabezas, Jason Lewis and Katharine Isabelle. ©2004 macIDeas.