“Yen”

[rating=2]There are plays that are well written and poorly executed and there are plays that are well executed, but are badly written. In either case, the audience often will feel confused by what they witnessed. I like Raven Theatre! I think they are one of our companies that will bring us new works that are important, but, to be honest, their latest production, “Yen” written by Anna Jordan, was confusing and appeared to be a play with an unfit ending to what we witnessed on the stage.

The play takes place in London, at the present. The setting appears to be a flea-bag hotel room, or perhaps what appears to be a motel room along Lincoln Avenue in Budlong Woods, and two young men are watching porn. They are teen-agers who live alone along with a dog, who is locked in the adjacent room. The dog is named Taliban and although we never see him, we do know that he is a German Shepard ( by the end of the play). The boys are Hench (Reed Lancaster) and his younger brother Bobbie ( deftly handled by Jesse Aaronson). They talk of sex and live a life of video games and porn.

We do find out that this is an apartment , or as they call them, in London, a flat, when their estranged mother comes to visit them. She lives in a house with her new beau, Alan, who evidently wants no part of these two lads.If we pay attention, we see that Mother has more love for Bobbie than Hench. It is when their new neighbor comes to visit that their lives change. Her name is Jennifer (Netta Walker is a delight) but her family always called her “Yen” ( thus the title). She helps them clean up and feeds them a home cooked meal. It turns out they have a kitchen! Both of the boys change a bit with “Yen”, in particular, Hench who falls in love ( or perhaps lust) with her. She , on the other hand, falls in love with him and offers him sex.

Meanwhile, Mother, Maggie (solidly played by Tiffany Bedwell) has taken Bobbie home to live with her and Alan. Oh, I forgot to mention, Hench has bad dreams and during these is a bed-wetter, which of course is hard for a teen to acknowledge. When an incident takes place with Yen he goes into a rage sending her home and then takes his rage out on Taliban. Bobbie comes home and finds Hench is in difficulty and goes after “Yen” blaming her for all that has taken place.

We do not see what takes place between the boy and Yen, but we do see that Bobbie is incarcerated in a mental institution and his mother spends time with them both. Alan is no longer in her picture, so she now can concentrate on them. I will not tell you the ending scene, but it is one that I found one scene more than needed. The acting was solid, the set (Joe Schermoly) worked on the small stage, but for a while was very confusing. I loved the way it converted in the second act-amazing bit of work. While I realize that the play takes place in London so they all must have accents, why not bring the story to a local one and get rid of the accents. They were very “cockney” making it difficult to understand all the words. I felt director Elly Green had a handle on the subject and kept the action on course. The violence and intimacy direction by Sam Hubbard was outstanding and the props (Leah Hummel) right on.

“Yen” in two acts with a running time of 2 hours and fifteen minutes including one intermission ( I think it could have been chopped a bit) .

“yen” will continue at The Raven Theatre, located at 6157 N. Clark Street ( at Granville) thru May 5th with performances as follows:

Thursdays  8 p.m.

Fridays  8 p.m.

Saturdays  8 p.m.

Sundays  3:30 p.m.

Tickets are $46 with discounts for Seniors and online buyers.

Call 773-338-2177 or visit www.raventheatre.com

Touch Tour/open captioned performance April 21st begins at 2:15

Free parking in the adjacent lot and plenty of street parking in the area. The bust stops at the door as well ( #22)

To see what others are saying, visit www.theatreinchicago.com, go to Review Round-Up and click at “yen”.