In this new weekly feature, WCBS culture critic Jim Taylor shares 30 seconds with the theatre stars and upstarts of NYC. From Broadway to Off-off, Jim tracks down the talent and gets them to spill just enough for our collectively shortened attention spans.
Really Really is easily the most significant new play of the year if you want to know what the Millennials are all about. It’s written by a playwright in his 20s (Paul Downs Colaizzo, a “scribe on the rise” according to Flavorpill’s own Mindy Bond) and features someone who should know all about the generation: Zosia Mamet.
Zosia Mamet: I loved it. I’d been wanting to do a play, aching for a part like this. A meal of a role. It is everything I had dreamed of, written extremely well and simply. Really, truly gritty, interesting, entertaining drama.
Jim Taylor: There’s drunken revelry, blood on the sheets, and a whole lot of lying. I think it’s the most revealing play I’ve seen about your generation.
ZM: I am sure there are some of us doing horrible things, and some of us are doing wonderful things. I work on a TV show called Girls; it’s similar in some ways — unapologetic for being the way we are.
JT: It seems as if nearly everyone in this story is conflicted in some way, playing a selfish angle. It’s not very pretty.
ZM: It’s a challenge as an actress to play a character or story that makes one look unattractive. That is what is most interesting to watch. That’s real life. Humans are very often unattractive and we do unattractive, wrong things.
JT: You’re having a good time?
ZM: It’s exhausting and the most fun I’ve ever had in my life.
The angst of the Millennials — extended at the Lucille Lortel Theatre. For more theatre talk and reviews, check out Jim’s page at cbsnewyork.com.