Yen

Yen is playing at the Lucille Lortel Theatre located at 121 Christopher Street, New York City. The play runs two hours fifteen minutes with one intermission. It closes on February 19, 2017.

Mark Wendland is the scenic designer. He was nominated for two Tony Awards for The Merchant of Venice (2010) and The Normal Heart (2010).

Lucas Hedges is in the movie Manchester by the Sea. He has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for this movie.

Hench (Lucas Hedges) is sixteen and his brother Bobbie (Justice Smith) is fourteen. They are alone in a dreary apartment. There is little furniture, a fold out couch, television and some lights. The walls are peeling and the wall paper is coming off the wall.

The boys are watching a porn movie from the computer to the television.

Bobbie is so hyper; he’s all over the place. He keeps staring out the window. Neither are wearing tops.

There is no food.

Bobbies see his mother on the lawn below. They bring her up, she’s drunk.

Maggie (Ari Gaynor) lives in another place with her boyfriend. Her mother who was in the apartment took off with her boyfriend who in half her age. The grandmother took all the clothes. Maggie tries to get money from her kids but they have nothing. When they need something they steal it.

In the meantime Bobbies keeps seeing this girl looking at their apartment. Jennifer (Stefania LaVie Owen) shows up at the apartment after their mother leaves. She tells them she can see they are abusing their dog. They keep it locked up in the bathroom, with no walks or anything. Jennifer said she will report the abuse unless they give her the dog. Bobbie won’t let her take Taliban.

Hench and Jennifer become friends. She has her own issues. Her father died, they lost their home and have no money. They were from Wales and are staying with relatives.

Both boys have issues of their own. Among them are, their dads are dead, no one is taking care of them and they are not in school.

Things happen which I won’t spoil for you. There is potential in the play but not the way it is. There were no closures to the issues brought up. I’m not sure what happened in the second act, am I to came to my own conclusions.

The acting was outstanding.

Before the show starts the wall on stage has a video with music. The scenes are streets in England. The set is quirky but in a positive way. From time to time things are flashed on them.

Review by Rozanna Radakovich.

Photos by Annazor.

To read a candid interview with the cast, scroll down to the left for recent photos. Click on a photo, then, back to album, the back to gallery for this and other shows.