THE HANGOVER REPORT – Steven Levenson’s pedestrian new play DAYS OF RAGE portrays revolution as teenage soap opera

Odessa Young and Tavi Gevinson in Second Stage Theater's production of Steven Levenson's "Days of Rage" at the Tony Kiser Theater. Photo by Joan Marcus.

Odessa Young and Tavi Gevinson in Second Stage Theater’s production of Steven Levenson’s “Days of Rage” at the Tony Kiser Theater. Photo by Joan Marcus.

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to take in Days of Rage, a new play by Steven Levenson (of Dear Evan Hansen fame), which is currently playing Off-Broadway at the Tony Kiser Theater courtesy of Second Stage Theater. Set in Upstate New York during the angst-filled late 1960s (the Vietnam War was in full swing then), the play depicts three young members of a small far left-leaning, anti-establishment collective as they struggle to stay afloat. When two interlopers enter the picture, their ideals and ideas about revolution are challenged as the impurity of their political motivation is revealed.

Given this synopsis, I was hoping to be served a dramatically combustible concoction about the knotty inner workings of the revolutionary mindset. Instead, what we get is essentially a teenage soap opera, and a pedestrian one at that. The play is most effective in depicting the collective’s mounting paranoia. But even this aspect of the play is resolved in a disappointingly unsatisfying manner. At the end of the day, Mr. Levenson’s work ultimately fumbles with its themes, failing to deliver on its promising premise, which I believe is partially due to the fact the characters are, for the most part, two-dimensional and unlikeable.

Nevertheless, the play is lavished with a polished production from director Trip Cullman (the detailed, double-decker set is by Louisa Thompson, whose work here calls to mind David Zinn’s design for the Tony-winning The Humans) and boasts some decent performances from its cast of five young, well-credentialed actors, which includes Lauren Patten, Mike Faist, Odessa Young, J. Alphonse Nicholson, and Tavi Gevinson. I particularly liked Ms. Patten and Mr. Nicholson’s performances; at least these actors brought some genuine feeling and tension to their portrayals.

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DAYS OF RAGE
Off-Broadway, Play
Second Stage Theater at the Tony Kiser Theater
1 hour, 30 minutes (without an intermission)
Through November 25

Categories: Off-Broadway, Theater

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