When We Were Young and Unafraid

When We Were Young and Unafraid is playing at the Manhattan Theatre Club located at 131 West 55th Street. It runs two hours twenty minutes with one intermission. The play closes on August 10, 2014.

Cherry Jones has won two Tony Awards for “Doubt” (2005) and “The Heiress” (1995). She was nominated for a Tony Award for “The Glass Menagerie” (2014), “A Moon for the Misbegotten” (2004) and “Our Country’s Good” (1991). This year she received an Outer Critics Circle Award for “The Glass Menagerie”. She has won a Primetime Emmy Award in 2009 for “24”.

Pam MacKinnon is the director. She won a Tony Award in 2013 for “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”. Pam won an Obie for directing and received a Tony nomination for Clybourne Park (2012).

Zoe Kazan paternal grandparents were film and theatre director Elia Kazan and playwright Molly (Thatcher) Kazan.

Morgan Saylor is known for her role as Dana Brodgin in Homeland.

Sarah Treem is the playwright. She was nominated for a Primetime Emmy for House of Cards (2010) and won a Writer Guild Award for this show. In 2009 she won a Wag Award for “In Treatment”.

Jessica Pabst is the costume Designer. She was nominated for a Drama Desk Award in 2012 for “She Kills Monsters”.

The time is 1972 at a bed & breakfast on an island off the coast of Seattle.

Agnes (Chery Jones) is up early baking. Her daughter Penny (Morgan Saylor) is studying. There is a pounding on the floor. Agnes removes the rug; there is a trapped door under it. The next thing we know Mary Anne (Zoe Kazan) is sitting at the dining table. She has bruises all over her face given to her from her husband. Not only is the house a bed and breakfast but it is a haven for battered women. Agnes was originally a nurse.

The only guest at the bed and breakfast is Paul (Patch Darragh). He is coming off a broken marriage. Paul takes an interest in Mary Anne.

Hannah (Cherise Boothe) appears out of nowhere. She asks if there is anything she can fix. She is looking for work. Hannah is looking for a group of women. Lesbians that are forming a commune nearby.

We find out more about Agnes and Penny.

Things happen, even if you try to prevent them they still happen.

This is an interesting and profound in sight of the women of the 70’s.

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 recent photos for this and other shows.