Sarah Treem’s When We Were Young and Unafraid at the Manhattan Theatre Club is set within an era in which the status of womanhood in America was beginning to go through volcanic shifts (circa 1972). As with most plays that seek to explore a socio-political or socio-sexual or socio-ethnic subset, she has taken the one from column A, one from column B approach—offering characters who fill out particular, very contrasting tropes, but placed in an environment where being at close quarters creates the alchemy for tension and even volatility.
The bed-and-breakfast that tough old, single-woman survivor Agnes (Cherry Jones) runs has a clear line of demarcation between the guest area and the kitchen; because the latter contains the trap door in the floor, through which battered and abused young women enter, seeking refuge and eventual escape. Agnes has strict rules about where the secret guests in her way-station stay (upstairs), when they can come downstairs and etc.—and with the seemingly steady and unruffled assistance of her teenage daughter Penny (Morgan Saylor), the operation runs smoothly enough. But no developing teenager with her own raging hormones is that stalwart forever, and when Mary Anne (Zoe Kazan) becomes the new, temporary guest, Penny finds herself with a mentor who can advise her about the distinctly unfeminist craft of snaring a man. Add to this mix another drop-in guest, a young, black, lesbian radical, Hannah (Cherise Boothe), looking for work but vehemently refusing handouts. Finally, there’s a man, a paying guest, Paul (Patch Darragh); there are many things to say about him descriptively, but not in easy summary—he is both intentionally, by dint of his persona, and unintentionally, by dint of dramaturgical function, the weakest character of the lot, and the least consistently defined. It’s hard to know if he’s the proverbial fox in the henhouse, or a closeted hen in the fox den, but one way or another, he’s drawn to Mary Anne, and more complications ensue.
I’m not sure what to make of the proceedings. They’re certainly acted extremely well, under the solid direction of Pam MacKinnon, and never dull, but the basic thesis seems elusive and overshadowed by an earnest drama about several women, each of whom has a rite of passage to come through as a result of contact with each other disturbing previously still waters.
And for some the earnest drama may be enough; after all, it’s the people in whom we invest, more than the ideas; from an audience perspective, story first. But from an analyst’s perspective, for what it’s worth, an emerging theme usually only pushes story to a higher level, and adds another layer of coherency. And for me, When We Were Young and Unafraid, engaging as it is, never quite reaches as high as it might.
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