Yen NYC Reviews and Tickets

“Director Trip Cullman presents this story with clarity and sensitivity, aided by some truly remarkable acting...Smith gives one of the most electric performances of the season…It all seems calibrated to disturb and we can see the calculation coming, making ‘Yen’ something of a disappointment...Jordan proves herself to have a firm grip on both contemporary language and timeless human behavior…Unfortunately, she cannot resist the siren call of sensationalism."
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"As soon as you enter the Lortel for Cullman's tight and tense production of Jordan's unsettling, hard-edged drama, the intention to catch audience members a little off-balance is evident...Both actors are excellent as Hedges gradually reveals the layers of fear and innocence under Hench's tough exterior and Smith hits the right degree of realism in Bobbie's hyperactivity...The major strength of Jordan's drama is that it offers audiences a glimpse of how Hench's world can change for the better."
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"Even when the script, fairly early on, begins to take less plausible turns, it's the work of the actors that keeps one's eyes riveted...Hedges and Smith are new to the stage; based on their work here, they have astonishing stage careers ahead...'Yen' remains an often staggeringly powerful piece...And it provides a golden opportunity to make the acquaintance of some superb young actors. Even when the script goes a little soft, they remain diamond hard."
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“Hedges is arrestingly real. He's the only thing that is...Jordan does not succeed at eliciting much humanity from her other characters...Each part of the scenario is unbelievable on its face…Worse, Jordan telegraphs everything, and leaves nothing to the imagination. None of the huge plot twists, and there are several, come as a surprise…Cullman's staging is all broad strokes and shouting, creating a quartet of colorless caged zoo animals and doing the parched script no favors.”
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"There are many questions that the author leaves unanswered. Although the boys have not attended school in years and Bobbie has been diagnosed as ADHD and should be in the British equivalent of special education, no social worker seems to have visited to check up. Who is paying the rent or the electricity? Is the mother on welfare and are these items paid automatically? There is no explanation of how the boys are eating and how Taliban stays alive if they have not been feeding it for days."
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"The cast here, and Cullman's direction, is exceptional. Hedges leads the ensemble with a performance that delicately balances intense emotionality and equally strong denial of those emotions. He clearly illustrates the inner turmoil of his character in a way that never seems overwrought…Jenny's character skirts dangerously around the territory occupied by the stereotypical Manic Pixie Dream Girl…But the actress plays the role with an unrelenting honesty that rings sincere."
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"Enhanced by the emotionally riveting work of Smith and his three fellow actors, this production of 'Yen,' despite the play's flaws, is one of the most gripping of the Off-Broadway season...Jordan's drama ekes out its themes in bits and pieces, focusing on mood, atmosphere, and character, so that when something traumatic happens it stands out that much more sharply. The events in Act Two, though, dramatic as they may be, take the play in a slightly different, more plot-oriented direction."
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"It is an endless bombardment of sound and fury–showing us, telling us, who these boys are...but it’s too much...It is the arrival of Jenny that turns the play into something more than the yelling and gnashing of teeth. Here is where poetry begins and here is where we start to care, to listen–leaning forward, drinking in the words and emotions played so beautifully by this flawless cast...It is the quiet, painful moments of longing where the writer, actors and director all shine."
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