'Initiative' Off-Broadway review — love, angst, and Dungeons & Dragons
Read our review of Initiative off Broadway, a world-premiere coming-of-age drama at The Public Theater, written by Else Went and directed by Emma Rosa Went.
Summary
- Initiative is a five-hour drama about seven high schoolers coming of age in coastal California between 2000-2004
- The show's length allows the characters to evolve and deepen throughout the show
- The play is recommended for fans of teen dramas; Dungeons & Dragons; and nostalgic millennials
For a millennials, the ping of new AIM messages holds an emotional weight that few other alarms or notifications do. There’s a visceral embarrassment, sure. But the sheer possibility that once accompanied the sound is unmatched, even by the ever-present phones in our pocket that allow us to reach anyone at any time. It’s these raw teenage dreams, from the burgeoning to the dashed, that playwright Else Went captures so vividly in Initiative.
She and director Emma Rosa Went (a married couple) met in a tiny town very similar to the unnamed coastal California one where their characters grow up. In the program, Else Went calls the show “not nostalgic, but an attempt to bring the soul into the past, wiser now.” The title, Initiative, sums up the stage of life that high school can feel like: fresh, full of new experiences and possibilities. But it’s also a nod to Dungeons & Dragons, the role-playing game that becomes the cathartic center of the narrative. The world the characters create is both an escape for those who want it and a safe space for those who need it.
Set between 2000 and 2004, Initiative follows a group of teens through their high school years. Their introductions are reminiscent of a sitcom: we meet new characters as companions to the characters we already know, and over the five-hour runtime, they reveal themselves as fully developed characters with their own likes, dislikes, dreams, and insecurities. Sweet and timid Em (Christopher Dylan White), brash and confident Kendall (Andrea Lopez Alvarez), and bashful Ty (Harrison Densmore) all make their way from supporting cast to centers of their own story over the show’s three acts. Even Lo (Carson Higgins), Em’s destructive older brother, and Tony (Jamie Sanders), who can’t help but take his feelings out on others, are deserving of sympathy in this well-rounded script.
Arguably at the center of it all are childhood BFFs Riley (Greg Cuellar) and Clara (Olivia Rose Barresi). The shifting relationships of the entire group are deliciously messy, in that way that only teen angst can allow for. But the evolving friendship of Riley and Clara anchors it all. Cuellar’s steady presence and comedic timing is the perfect foil for Barresi’s world-weariness. Sometimes fraught, sometimes misguided, but always with a baseline of love, scenes between the two feel like crawling into a comfortable spot on the sofa.
A five-hour play is certainly a tall order for most theatregoers. But for those willing to challenge their own attention spans, Initiative makes for a soft, pensive, introspective day at the theatre. Much like bingeing a miniseries in one afternoon, Else and Emma Rosa Went offer audiences the chance to watch four years of high school unfold on a stage, gloriously messy and precarious and rewarding.
Initiative summary
Initiative begins at a summer camp in 2000, where two boys discuss life, death, and sex. That night will end up shaping the rest of their childhoods. As summer ends and they enter high school, the tangled web of their friends and family pulses to life.
Seven teenagers navigate four years of high school in “Coastal Podunk, California” as the new millennium unfolds around them. As their fears and insecurities become more complicated with each passing year, six of them find solace in their community of misfits, centered on the ritual of playing Dungeons & Dragons each week.
What to expect at Initiative
Initiative is comprised of three 90-minute acts, split up by two intermissions. Given the length, audiences are encouraged to get up and walk around during the breaks, as well as bring snacks and drinks (but nothing too crunchy or crinkly). For those worried about stamina, the second and third acts fly by after the momentum is built up in the first act.
During these breaks, the lights go up and the show’s playlist turns back on: a no-skips queue of the best hits of 2000-2004. Think Green Day, Missy Elliott, *NSYNC, Gorillaz, Shakira. It’s easy enough to pick out the millennials in the room then, bopping almost involuntarily to the siren songs of our childhood while chatting with friends or thumbing through the program.
What audiences are saying about Initiative
With 8 audience reviews at the time of publication, Initiative has a 79% audience rating on Show-Score. Viewers praised the show as a whole, including the actors, the story, and the millennial influences, while some were put off by the considerable length.
- “An absolute journey of a show. You’re there for more than five hours, but you don’t really feel like you’re watching a play - it’s more like living alongside the characters” -Show-Score user Dan 4013
- “I loved that I am the target audience for this play…[however,] it’s a long play to sit through if you don’t find it engaging.” -Show-Score user Crup_Crup
- “This play has stayed in my heart since seeing it almost a week ago.” -Show-Score JJ 5311
Read more audience reviews of Initiative on Show-Score.
Who should see Initiative
- Fans of last year’s eight-hour Gatz (also at The Public Theater) or other full-day theater experiences will enjoy taking the full runtime of the play to really get to know these characters, watching them grow up in the span of the five hours.
- Millennials who yearn for the simpler days of AIM messaging will be transported by the use of AIM as a storytelling and plot device in Initiative.
- Dungeons & Dragons players will love the way Initiative lets us go along with the teens as they roleplay D&D, complete with costumes and props. On my way out of the theatre, I overheard someone whispering, “I’m going to tell all my D&D friends to see this!”
Learn more about Initiative off Broadway
Initiative is a tender, introspective journey through the joys and sorrows of adolescence. And much like any good teen drama, this one will leave you teary-eyed.
Photo credit: Initiative off Broadway. (Photos by Joan Marcus)
Originally published on