There is plenty of rage in Days of Rage. Rage—specifically—about the Chicago 8, the Vietnam War, and related 1969 protests. Mightn’t it be a bit passé, today, to get all excited about marching on Chicago, protesting about My Lai, and supporting the SDS (Students for a Democratic Society)? Well, yes.
Steven Levenson is very much in earnest in his new play, and he has written some good roles for his actors to delve into (providing a measure of welcome humor along the way, too). But as someone who was of age, more or less, to hear these arguments the first time around, let me say: They weren’t intellectually compelling back then, and aren’t dramatically compelling now.
[Read Elysa Gardner’s ★★★ review here.]
The playwright has built a mostly intriguing play but on an infirm foundation. Levenson is widely known for his excellent libretto for Dear Evan Hansen, which originated at Second Stage, where Days of Rage is now playing. Every bit as impressive—if more or less overlooked during its run at the Roundabout’s Esther Pels—was his If I Forget, a smart and compelling family drama; comparatively speaking, a most intriguing play built upon a firm foundation. And one that seemed convincingly heartfelt, as opposed to researched. Thus, you might understandably walk into Days of Rage with high expectations. In my case, these expectations were quickly dashed.
Spence (Mike Faist, who created the role of Connor Murphy in Evan Hansen, opposite Ben Platt’s Evan ) is a college dropout from Cornell or someplace. (The action takes place in a ramshackle house in Ithaca, N.Y.—which is not only realistically decrepit but bears structural resemblance to the bi-level sets of both If I Forget and The Humans.) Spence is communally joined by his high school girlfriend/fellow dropout Jenny (Lauren Patten, one of The Wolves) and Quinn (Odessa Young), a “townie” who worked the cash register at the college bookstore. As the play begins, their unseen co-revolutionaries have just absconded in Jenny’s car on what turns out to be a dangerous mission.
In comes a third girl, the young, naïve and awfully vehement Peggy (Tavi Gevinson, from This Is Our Youth and The Crucible). And lest you think that Spence has his hands and other parts full with three nubile 20-year-olds: Yes, that figures in the action, too. The fifth character is local boy Hal (J. Alphonse Nicholson, the trumpet-player “Blue” in Dominique Morrisseau’s Paradise Blue), who works at Sears while his brother is off fighting in Vietnam. Hal is—yes—African-American, likely in an attempt to add yet another element to the class-struggle argument.
Patten makes the most compelling case for her character, perhaps because Jenny has the most fully-realized scenes. Faist, too, does fine as the man in the middle; those of us who know him only from Evan Hansen and Newsies (where he played a Delancey Street tough) might be glad to see him in a non-musical role. The others are convincing enough, and the collective players make Days of Rage move along in a swift 90minutes. Trip Cullman (Significant Others) directs.
So go along with Mr. Levenson back to the late-’60s, if you will. I didn’t buy it, alas. In fact, I walked out thinking it was time to look at Michael Weller’s Moonchildren, a play captured the times and the attitudes with brio and fervor lacking from the present attempt.
Days of Rage opened October 30, 2018, at Second Stage and runs through November 25. Tickets and information: 2st.com
