YEN at the Lucille Lortel Theater: Children Raising Themselves

It’s a given: boys left to their own devices can come to no good. In the fine MCC Theater  production of YEN, a British import, at the Lucille Lortel Theater, the unformed men in question are brothers by the same mother, one static, almost comatose in front of a tv when we meet him, the younger bouncing off walls in paint peeling squalor. Then a wasted mess of a woman comes to visit, as an unseen character barks from a distance, disturbing, and a testament to the power of the drama we create in our imaginations—if we are trusted by good writing, as we are in Anna Jordan’s script. Praise to Lucas Hedges as the taciturn Hench in his theater debut just as he was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his work in Manchester By the Sea, and to his foil Bobbie (Justice Smith). And to the women in this story: Ari Graynor as Maggie, their neglectful mom, dead drunk on first appearance, and Stefania LaVie Owen as Jennifer, a neighboring girl from Wales whose nickname is the play’s title, and wistful hope, as a yen might suggest.

What they are watching on tv is porn, which most certainly has an effect on what happens as the play progresses to its violent penultimate end. Hench and Bobbie are damaged, each in his own way. When Jennifer arrives and befriends them, it looks finally as if they will have a way out; trapped as they are, sharing a single tee-shirt. Hench makes a fragile connection with her. And the next thing we know, Maggie is trying to dress him for a court date. It is a tribute to the excellent work here, including Trip Cullman’s direction, that we do not condemn Maggie. A horrible mother may not be forgiven, but may be understood as damaged by her own circumstance, and Graynor navigates her trashy world with a noble air: this is all she knows how to be.

 Regina Weinreich

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