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Theatre Review
The Young Left
Cherry Lane Theatre Mentor Project
Written by: Greg Keller
Mentored by: Gretchen Cryer
Starring: Mark Aldaheff (Jonah), Michael Crane (Ben), Diane Davis (Mandy), Joe Tippett (Troy), Keira Keeley (Jill), Elisabeth Waterston (Melody).

If you consider yourself young and drifting from the left, you will find Greg Keller’s new one-act play deeply unsettling. This probing production at the Cherry Lane Theatre examines the relationship of two old friends in Park Slope, Brooklyn as they wrestle with the choices they’ve made and the terror that accompanies personal and political transformation.

Ben is a school teacher for disabled children and his best friend Jonah is an aspiring documentary film maker. Both in their late 20s, Ben is in the throes of a four-year relationship and Jonah has been courting a young activist while preparing to move to the West Coast. Ben’s cynicism about Jonah’s swing to the political left is heightened by his own unsatisfying partnership with his girlfriend Mandy. As Ben attempts to convince Jonah to remain in New York, he is disturbed by his friend’s fervent commitment to a group of radical activists. His efforts to restrain Jonah become increasingly desperate until he has damaged his life with Mandy, cruelly meddled with Jonah’s personal life, and been left physically battered.

The actors sustain an almost unbearable level of dramatic tension in The Young Left with polished performances. Diane Davis’ portrayal of Mandy is reassuringly matronly. Elisabeth Waterston as the go-lucky floozy Melody is also excellent, even if her character suffers from an overdose of penetrating naïveté. Troy, played by Joe Trippeth, is perhaps the most wooden of the roles – a burly Ken Kesey figure bursting with charisma – but Trippeth comes off as snappy as possible. And Keira Keeley nails the part of a self-serving, sexualized activist so successfully that it seems she has been plucked straight from the WTO frontlines and plopped on stage.

But the actor that stands out is Michael Crane. The reason, besides Crane’s evident acting ability, is that Ben seems to be the only character that experiences any real change. Crane must move between snappy, dead-pan delivery to despair, often within a few lines. The other characters, on the other hand, remain vested in their own lives with what can be a smug readiness to embrace conflict.

The Park Slope Co-Op

The Young Left persuasively challenges the perception that participation in American society – or New York life – can be achieved through rentals of The Wire. It is not enough, the play suggests, to cultivate your own garden, not when the community gardens are being paved over. Doing nothing at all is not a rational response when something is being done to us, and getting thunked over the head at a protest is as much a personal triumph as it is for society.

There are times, though, when The Young Left oversteps its bounds. Seeking to mediate Ben and Jonah’s relationship through the lens of protest may, I think, be fairly labeled ‘preachy’. Works about social upheaval tread a fine line that lose their appeal when the opposite viewpoint is given short shrift. In The Young Left, this viewpoint is Ben’s. His cynical wisecracks contain elements of truth, especially when discussing the individual consequences of collective action. Sabotaging the mail by a post office employee may be great for the ‘movement’, Ben sneers, but will also prevent his Christmas letter from going to Grandma. There is no convincing retort in the play to this fundamental contradiction. Ben’s cynicism is borne out of dissatisfaction with his own life, but he is also a school teacher of disabled children. The choice not to run amok but contribute in the classroom is only given lip-service. Serial activists often suffer from the same self-obsession as armchair cynics, and Ben’s eventual, reluctant nod to activism comes across as undeveloped. “We have different values,” Jonah intones, spelling out the moral of the play. This line alone undercuts an otherwise considered exposition.

Activist Breeding Ground?

There are several triumphs in the production, from the excellent stage direction to the seamless sound engineering that incorporates everything from dance music to television twitters. The actors effortlessly create a sense of space by responding to telephone rings, moving between the framed rooms on the stage, and reacting to the jeers of an offstage protest. The dialogue can be bitingly witty. But a glut of cultural references becomes overbearing, and Mandy’s final monologue, otherwise cleverly used to highlight Ben and Jonah’s parting, meanders into the pretension that the play ostensibly seems to shun. There is also a problem with volume: the climactic confrontation is handled with much shouting and tussling that could more gradually move to a crescendo. Finally, the setting of Park Slope could have been anywhere. This is both a strength and a weakness. It is a strength because this indicates the play has a wider appeal, but it is a weakness in the sense that the set design suggested a more urban location, and ignored the major saving grace and pressure release of Park Slope: the park.

On the Way to the Protest

The Young Left is a Cherry Lane Mentor Project production, which means that the play developed over several reworkings and was supervised by renowned playwright / actress Gretchen Cryer. But the name on the playbill is Greg Keller, and we must credit him with the work. This is a moving production. His evolution – and that of the young left – should be closely watched.

–Deji Olukotun