THEATRE

Acutely powerful yet hauntingly funny, This Is Our Youth portrays two days in the lives of three college-aged Manhattanites in the 1980s. Dennis - with a famous painter for a father and social activist mother - has rejected his upstanding roots and lives in a self-imposed state of drugged-up squalor. His awkward, hero-worshipping friend Warren has been kicked out of his house and has come to Dennis for a place to stay - with $15,000 that he impulsively stole from his father. When Jessica, a mixed-up prep-school girl, shows up for a date with Warren that quickly turns into an uncomfortable and seductive night on the town, Warren must decide whether he will follow Dennis deeper into this wretched lifestyle or discover a way out. This is Our Youth is what it claims to be: a lacerating look at the apathy and purposelessness of youth, and the story of three people as they attempt to locate that missing purpose, or at least to acknowledge that it might actually exist.