Denials: a play to remind us 21st century teenagers still need support

Being a teenager is tough. Being a teenage boy has particular challenges. Now, place that teenage boy in a broken home with an unsympathetic, violent father and that’s where Denials, a play in the 2014 Midwinter Madness Festival at Roy Arias Studios: Stage II festival, begins.

Author Rudy Gray does not leave out any of the myriad of serious points that we need to consider in order to keep the issue of male teenage self-destruction/destruction in the spotlight. The fact that the play has nines scenes reinforces the complexity of the issue, and the actors, stage crew and lighting crew should get kudos for swift, spot-on scene changes. The actors pull no punches throughout, of particular note is Robert Bryson who plays the angry father.

Unfortunately, with so much detail, and so much to be explained, the play does not allow us enough time to feel for the characters, and I was left wanting more intimate moments with the characters, and less exposition.

Christopher Sirota writes for OuterStage and DramaQueens on a regular basis. He is also a cinematographer with one film receiving international distribution, another in post-production, and a third readying for pre-production.
Photo by A.G. Liebowitz/WrightGroupNY