With Michael Cherrie and Roxann Nadine Remekie in the directors’ chairs, UTT’s Academy for the Performing Arts chose US playwright Kenneth Lonergan’s 30-year-old tragicomedy This is Our Youth to challenge the skills of three young and promising student thespians on May 9.
Initially written to reflect socio-psychological dissonance associated with young Americans in the epochal 1980s, the Cherrie/Remekie interpretation resonated familiarly against the backdrop of current middle-class T&T and Caribbean realities.
Original references to US president Ronald Reagan, who served between 1981 and 1989, are adapted to reflect the presidency of Donald Trump, and Dennis’ apartment appears to be in a rapidly-degrading Port-of-Spain and not in Upper West Side, Manhattan, as conceived by Lonergan.
Haven Mc Lean as Warren (19), Jaheil Clark playing Dennis (21) with Laken Lutchmansingh as Jessica (19) appeared fully up to the task of bringing to life three characters created by Lonergan to reflect the coming of age of three young people of similar backgrounds in a changing environment.
Warren’s privilege derives from his father’s shady dealings which eventually leave $15,000 for the impulsive, discreet taking after being expelled from the family house. He takes up residence with a hesitant Dennis.
Dennis, meanwhile, had left what appears to have been a well-to-do home following conflict over his drug-taking, and lives in a one-room city apartment paid for by his father who is a “famous painter” and his mother who is a social worker.
It is an untidy space, for some time prior to the action on stage, shared with a now estranged girlfriend, Valerie, who, along with drug dealers Stuart and Christian, are referenced as pivotal characters at different points in the play but never appear on stage.
The stage is set, in more ways than one, for the unfolding of emotions spanning a spectrum of grief, gaiety, passion, and conflict mainly through astute directorial instructions that navigate a script at times threatened by a loss of natural Caribbean rhythm and pace.
Almost like more seasoned hands, Mc Lean and Clark kept the action at breathless pace, most times, with superb timing and delivery aided by skilfully choreographed action and dance sequences.
Lutchmansingh, as Jessica—a confused young fashion-designer under the umbrella of a protective mother—fell comfortably into her role both as potential prey to Warren’s awkward advances and resolute spurner of later affections.
Decorated T&T dramatist, Marvin Ishmael, served as company voice work and stage combat consultant and the coaching showed alongside Terry David’s dance choreography.
Some of the more breathtaking action on stage emerged from their direction. Mc Lean’s pinpoint aim which crashes into the sculpture left by Dennis’ girlfriend and the later misdirected basketball that crashes into Warren’s back drew both chuckles and gasps from the audience.
The three youngsters on stage were masterful in their delivery of at times fast-paced exchanges and double-dialogue while also bringing life and vigour to dialogic troughs.
Dennis’s challenged self-esteem is contrasted against Warren’s confident drug-inspired shenanigans, but in the end, Dennis provides comfort and support to a friend in the face of grief. Jessica appears as a character somewhere between the contrasting personalities of Dennis—passive and reflective—and a more aggressive, opportunistic Warren.
In a sense, Lutchmansingh’s main challenge in the role of Jessica is with confronting ambiguities built into her character. She is at once seductive, shy, vivacious, withdrawn and reflective, and in the end emotionally torn over her brief romantic encounter with Dennis.
All these tensions call for directorial creativity matched by artful, spontaneous expression on stage. Expert, experienced hands joined with youthful exuberance and proficiency on this one.
Acclaimed dramatist, Cherrie and US-based resident drama professor Remekie proved to be guiding lights as part of a team that included executive producer, Dr Roger Henry, and producers Cherrie, Remekie, Paulette Alfred, and Lamar Pollard.
Alfred was also responsible for scenic and costume design. Lighting was managed by Knolly Whiskey, sound design by Antonio Emamali alongside sound engineer Shaquille Noriega. The stage crew comprised BFA performing arts students.
