Teens offer hope for the world in plays ‘Antarctica,’ ‘I and You’
Can the young rescue the world and save the rest of us from ourselves?
Like the inspiring, youth-led protests against gun violence, two plays that opened this weekend answer that question with a resounding “yes.”
‘Antarctica, WI’
In First Stage’s world premiere production of “Antarctica, WI” (directed by Malkia Stampley), playwright Finegan Kruckemeyer returns to the same theme that preoccupied him in “Snow,” also a First Stage world premiere:
How might a community that continually repeats the same dark story somehow seize control of the narrative and write something new?
The “same old” here includes racism and police violence. Homophobia and depression. Grinding poverty and limited opportunity. Squabbling neighbors, tall fences and the loss of those few remaining public places where teens once hung out.
That’s a lot to tackle in an 85-minute play; as with “Snow,” I occasionally caught myself wishing that Kruckemeyer would slow down – while having his characters talk less and show more.
That said, those characters’ hopes and dreams for a better world – delivered as arias by the young performers, in a show that very much belongs to them rather than the adults – is moving and rings true.
Ditto their love for each other and their city, analogized to an Antarctica that’s breaking apart and must be put back together. That love gets most fully expressed through the teens’ novel solution to the splintering violence unfolding around them. “Antarctica, WI” continues through April 22 at the Marcus Center’s Todd Wehr Theater, 929 N. Water St. For tickets, call (414) 273-7206 or visit www.firststage.org. Read more about this production at TapMilwaukee .com.
‘I and You’
There’s little love and even less hope as things get under way in Lauren Gunderson’s “I and You,” a terrific play now on stage at Next Act Theatre under David Cecsarini’s direction. It features two teens who seemingly have nothing in common, trying to find a way to collaborate on a project involving – wait for it – Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass.”
Caroline (Cristina Panfilio) is white, sick, introverted, prickly and addicted to social media. She also worships Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis. Anthony (Ibraheem Farmer) is a star athlete and student who is black, outgoing and in love with both Coltrane and Whitman.
“Every atom belonging to me as good as belongs to you,” Whitman writes, in a line Anthony quotes that suggests how this odd couple might come together, focusing on the love that binds as surely as do the teens in “Antarctica.”
Because Panfilio is noticeably older than Farmer and twice the age of Caroline, I wasn’t initially convinced that these two were teens sharing common ground; in Forward Theater Company’s first-rate “I and You” last fall, First Stage junior Chantae Miller played Caroline, which seemed exactly right.
But Panfilio is an outstanding actor, and Gunderson’s script can accommodate a reading involving a sweetly naïve Anthony and an old-soul Caroline. I was sold and engaged, long before the stunning eleventh-hour reveal that remains among my favorite moments in contemporary theater. It blew me away, again. It will blow you away, too.
“I and You” continues through April 29 at Next Act Theatre, 255 S. Water St. For tickets, visit www.nextact.org. Read more about this production at TapMilwaukee.com.