I and You

I wanna know if you think this play accurately depicts how teens act today.

By Andrew Andrews

Johnathan Dougan and Mairead O’Neill star in Penguin Rep Theatre’s production of Lauren Gunderson’s I and You. Original photos by Dorice Arden Madronero.

Caroline is alone in her room, listening to music, when a young man bursts in with a plate of cookies, a bag of waffle fries, and a homework assignment that needs her help.

Caroline is a 17-year-old shut-in who desperately needs a liver transplant. The young man is Anthony, whom she’s never met but is her classmate in Miss Branson’s American Lit class.

The assignment—a poster and presentation about Walt Whitman’s use of pronouns in Leaves of Grass—is due tomorrow, but it’s in pretty bad shape.

At first, Caroline is simply alarmed by Anthony’s presence. But as he calms her down and convinces her to focus on their work, the two strangers quickly become friends and confidants, leading in the direction of “something more” despite undertones of implicit prejudice.

The cast and crew (L-R): Shane Riordan (Production Manager/Technical Director), O’Neill, Jamil Chokachi (Company Manager), Martin Vreeland (Lighting Designer), Thomas Caruso (director), Michael Palmer (Production Stage Manager), Dougan and Max Silverman (Sound Designer).

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Andrew Andrews attended I and You at Penguin Rep Theatre in Stony Point on Saturday, April 30, 2022 @ 4:00pm to write this review.

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