Lauren Gunderson's "I and You" is the year's first full production for Hoboken's Mile Square Theatre. The show's runs through Feb. 24.
If you’re familiar with Lauren Gunderson‘s play “I and You,” you already know there’s a twist near the end. A big one. Seemingly every theater critic who has reviewed the play mentions it — but is careful not to reveal it.
Chris O’Connor, who is directing Mile Square Theatre‘s season-opening production of “I and You” running through Feb. 24, is similarly cagey.
“It’s one of those plays that has a very impactful and surprising ending, which I also find to be kind of thrilling,” said O’Connor, who is also Mile Square’s founder and artistic director “All I ever talk about is the set-up of the play, everything but the ending.”
So what will people be talking about on the car ride home from the theater? “They’ll be going through the play looking for clues to the ending and what led up to it,” O’Connor said. “Oh my God. It’s got a very moving ending.”
Ok, that didn’t get us very far. So here’s the not-so-top-secret synopsis: Caroline is a teenager with an unspecified liver condition that’s left her too sick to leave her room. Anthony is a classmate – not that Caroline knows him – who arrives at her home to collaborate on project on Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass.” The two begin to talk and share and bicker and bond.
“The language is spot on,” O’Connor said. “These are two very curious young adults challenging each other with their language. It’s real smart. There’s a lot of comedy.”
Rest assured, O’Connor said: Knowledge of Whitman or familiarity with teen speak is required to enjoy this play.
“I’m in my 60s and I can keep us,” said O’Connor, who teaches college students and lives with a teen.”
“I and You” premiered in 2013 and it is one of the most popular works by Gunderson, one of the country’s most produced playwrights. But it didn’t make a splash on the east coast until New York’s 59E59 presented the show in 2016. It was so well-received that many theatergoers came to see it again and again. O’Connor thought it would appeal to Mile Square’s audience, which includes many families with teens and tweens.
“It felt like a play that would have appeal across generations,” he said.” Even though it’s about two teenagers, the themes of the play felt very universal to me. There’s a lot about how we are connected with each other, eternally connected with each other.”
I AND YOU
Mile Square Theatre
1400 Clinton St., Hoboken
Tickets: $ 15-40, available online at www.milesquaretheatre.org. Jan. 30 – Feb. 24.
Natalie Pompilio is a freelance writer based in Philadelphia. She can be reached at nataliepompilio@yahoo.com. Find her on Twitter @nataliepompilio. Find NJ.com/Entertainment on Facebook.