Maria Baranova
In some ways, you don’t have to do anything (Here Arts Center, to Feb. 23) shouldn’t feel so radical. Ryan Drake’s play ostensibly follows the many growing pains of a gay teenager called Teddy (Yaron Lotan) that seem to flow from his strange friendship with the slightly older teen Clark (Will Dagger). Clark seems more than strange; we are not sure what he is the telling the truth about, and what he is lying about, and later his intentions towards Teddy become darker—the consequences of which flow into the adult Teddy’s life. Both actors are adults, not teens, which adds another edge to what we see played out.
The setting of this beautifully written, staged, and acted drama is the early 2000’s; a time when personal computers are still oddities in bedrooms, and where queer teens (and anyone else with the tech) are beginning to communicate via AIM. What Teddy finds is a riotous world of sexual come-ons and flirtation—but what seems like a world of connection soon comes to feel like a world of disconnection, too. Andrea Abello plays Teddy’s friend Enid, who helps and does not help make him make sense of things, while Miles Elliot plays different men Teddy meets online and in real life.
Directed on a compact stage by Ryan Dobrin and produced by Pulitzer finalist, the playwright Will Arbery, you don’t have to do anything uses lit picture frames to convey the internet; our main focal point is Teddy’s bed—not just as a setting, but what it stands for—desire, violation, privacy, and identity. Cat Raynor’s design and Bentley Heydt and Molly Tiede’s lighting are outstanding, vital stage presences.