Theater review by Raven Snook
Else Went's expansive five-hour saga Initiative follows seven teenagers in a sleepy coastal California town as they navigate worldview-shaping dramas of adolescence at the turn of the 21st century. Terrorism, war, societal instability and the advent of instant messaging mark the specific backdrop of their coming of age. But their explorations of love, sexuality and identity—and struggles with bullying, drugs and disappointing adults—will resonate with any generation.
Loosely inspired by the lives of the playwright and her wife, director Emma Rosa Went, the play opens under a shooting-star sky as two pals on the cusp of high school—the sporty Lo (Carson Higgins) and the sensitive Riley (Greg Cuellar, captivating)—ruminate on questions big (like the nature of existence) and small (like the size of their dicks). In one impulsive instant, though, their relationship is wrecked, and they go on separate but intertwined paths in search of their purpose and their people.
Initiative | Photograph: Courtesy Joan Marcus
Epic Dungeons & Dragons campaigns make up a significant portion of the production. Riley, a sparkling storyteller, plays dungeon master to a group that also includes the anxious overachiever Clara (a moving Olivia Rose Barresi), the caustic but needy Kendall (Andrea Lopez Alvarez), the gender-questioning NYC transplant Ty (Harrison Densmore) and Lo's sweet younger brother Em (Christopher Dylan White). During these fantastical sequences, the teenagers get to escape into the roles of the resolute heroes they wish they were as an uncertain future flickers on the horizon.
In hyperrealistic moments mundane and monumental, the Wents present a mesmerizing portrait of adolescents trying to survive that stage in life when possibilities seem infinite and nonexistent. That they're all played by thirtysomething millennials who actually grew up in the time depicted makes the play feel like the conjuring of a collective past.
Initiative | Photograph: Courtesy Joan Marcus
On a visual level, the production is dominated by celestial bodies. A sunlike orb hangs over Mikiko Suzuki MacAdams' minimalist set and the ceiling often twinkles with stars supplied by S. Katy Tucker's projections, making the characters seem both small and connected to the larger universe. Oblique echoes of another grand play, Angels in America, can sometimes be heard, as when Em tells the oafish Tony (Jamie Sanders) that "the world turns, that's its whole thing. Turn with it," or Clara's graduation speech as she informs her peers that, "This is a beginning. There is so much to do."
Initiative isn’t flawless. The roles of Tony and Ty are underwritten, and a climactic tragedy seems contrived. And yes, the marathon running time—a rarity amid the current vogue for short, intermissionless works—can feel indulgent and overwhelming. But in a way, that's appropriate: Growing up can feel that way, too. It's a pleasure to get to know Initiative’s appealing characters so fully, and to wonder what might happen to them after the end of the play. Two of them, at least, seem to have made good: They went on to create this ambitious, empathetic, singular theatrical experience.
Initiative. Public Theater (Off Broadway). By Else Went. Directed by Emma Rosa Went. With Olivia Rose Barresi, Greg Cuellar, Harrison Densmore, Carson Higgins, Andrea Lopez Alvarez, Jamie Sanders, Christopher Dylan White. Running time: 5hrs 20mins. Two intermissions.
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Initiative | Photograph: Courtesy Joan Marcus
