And he starts in on how he’s just this total fuck up and maybe he should just throw himself off the roof. His ability to capture the essence of a teenager surpasses that of almost any other artist I can think of. I look at them, but I can’t see children, I can just see the colour of their jumpers, smudges where their faces should be.

This Is Our Youth | Theater Studies - Duke University This Is Our Youth | Theater Studies - Duke University

I descended the steps of the fire escape for a last time and followed, from then on, in my father’s footsteps, attempting to find in motion what was lost in space. And while the Great White Way production towers over its triumvirate of performers with Todd Rosenthal’s impressive onstage recreation of Upper West Side tenement buildings from an era where everything was just a little bit dirtier, it still never once threatens to dwarf its intimate material.There's no escaping the fact that Cera is giving a performance that closely mirrors his nervous nice guy persona from "Arrested Development" and "Superbad. Reviewing the 1998 production two years later, Marks wrote, "'This Is Our Youth' is back, and not a moment too soon. What she and Cera do with a twisting scene, built around Warren's gift to her of a sentimental item, is itself a little treasure. It’s totally weird, like, taking all your clothes off and having sex with someone you barely know, and then being like “What’s up now?

This is Our Youth | Concord Theatricals

Michael Cera, making his New York stage debut, once again perfectly captures being an awkward man-boy, while veteran fashionista and acting newbie Tavi Gevinson matches his goofy nervous energy. Over the course of playing with the football, several items get broken in the apartment, including a sculpture made by Dennis's girlfriend, Valerie. Culkin displays greater range as Dennis, who embodies cocky 1980s materialism, seeing himself as an entrepreneur. Lonergan's portrait of young adults fumbling for purpose has lost some of its edge -- or maybe it was never that edgy to begin with. Jessica feels violated by Dennis’s words—for her, language is a wound that opens up other wounds—and she tells Warren so.And you stop speaking up in class—realize maybe you weren’t saying anything anyway—not something someone else couldn’t say better–usually a boy. She keeps this revival fresh and electric, crackling with energy even as the stoned get more stoned. Synopsis: Romeo has fallen completely in love with Juliet, despite their families being at war with each other. But the awkwardness she displays onstage, whether intentional or not, works beautifully for the role of a young woman struggling with a transition into adulthood, and her off-kilter line readings are consistently engaging.

This Is Our Youth | Theatre | The Guardian This Is Our Youth | Theatre | The Guardian

Nonme of them have anything going for them except they are privileged rich white kids, and yet the dialogue is terrific, often funny, occasionally touching. Playing another teen who has not yet lived, but is already is world weary, Cera brings an arch sincerity and apprehension to a character who is so angry that he has forgotten how to rage. It concerns Denny ( Kieran Culkin), a bike messenger, pot dealer, and mild sociopath; Warren ( Michael Cera), his kicked-dog college dropout best friend; and Jessica ( Tavi Gevinson), the jumpy fashion student Warren crushes on. You could argue that Cera always plays more or less the same sad, awkward, excitable guy, but you could also argue that he plays him really, really well. Cera has managed to appear both fetally unguarded and crushed by the weight of the world (a millennial Charlie Brown).

The lesser-known Gevinson, who's famous in fashion circles, is the show's wild card -- and she's an ace. There's a vague plot surrounding some stolen money, without which, I suppose, there's not much action. This Is Our Youth” is a boy-centric piece; it’s narrower than Lonergan’s other work, but that serves to focus its passions and its poetry. Not all of his work lands as easily on the bigger stage -- to expand Cera is not necessarily to improve him -- but this still is a very smart, funny and painful take on Warren, a tricky character whom Cera turns into an inept but empathetic soul. It’s hot and the classroom stinks, and the clock’s broken and the work stuck up on the walls is old and the corners are coming away and the kids are screaming.