AP News, November 8th, 2007
The window of the 10th-story apartment that is the setting for "Things We Want" serves as a grim symbol for all that is wrong with the three brothers who live there.
Their mother and father both jumped to their deaths from the window. When tensions run high among the brothers, they react almost instinctively by throwing various possessions from the window. It's as if their parents' ghosts haunt the sill.
The family clearly needed to move out after the first suicide. But the brothers continue to live there even after the second, wallowing in misery as they swig Jack Daniels, pop pills and lament relationships gone bad.
Some might find it tough to sit through more than two hours of such gloom. But the despair is quite riveting.
The New Group's off-Broadway production of "Things We Want," written by Jonathan Marc Sherman and directed by Ethan Hawke, is a powerful and hilarious vision of a family that constantly struggles to survive in a world that has not been kind to them. It's safe to say that Hawke's foray into directing, following several acclaimed stage roles in recent years, was a success.
The family in the play consists of oldest brother Teddy (Josh Hamilton), middle child Sty (Peter Dinklage) and kid brother Charlie (Paul Dano).
Neighbor Stella (Zoe Kazan) also figures in. But more on her later.
The play opens as Charlie returns home after being dumped by his girlfriend and dropping out of chef school. His booze- and drug-addled brother Sty is passed out on the couch. Teddy is under the spell of a self-help guru named Dr. Miracle and employs the guru's nonsensical advice as he tries to console Charlie.
Dano plays the part of a spurned lover well. You believe the guy had his heart ripped into a million pieces when his girl dumped him.
The diminutive Dinklage deftly plays the drunk, rebellious and wise middle child. He is handed some fabulous lines by Sherman and delivers them with great comedic force as he clashes with his brothers and recalls his legendary drug and booze exploits.
Their performances far outshine Hamilton's portrayal as Teddy. In Act 1, he seems too mechanical as he employs the guru's mantras in helping Charlie deal with the breakup. You sometimes get the feeling that he is simply reciting Dr. Miracle's nostrums and hasn't totally accepted them. But Hamilton is spectacular in Act 2 as he falls into drunkenness after Dr. Miracle ends up being a fraud.
Finally, there is Stella. She is a recovering alcoholic who falls for Charlie almost from the start, and later has a pivotal — and steamy — encounter with Teddy. Stella heats up the theater by 10 degrees.
That being said, her love-at-first-sight encounter with Charlie falls short. When they first meet, Charlie is a wreck after losing his girlfriend, but within a matter of minutes, he has charmed Stella. It all happens way too easily.
Still, all the characters benefit from Sherman's clever, edgy writing. The characters hilariously quote "Pinocchio" as they offer advice to each other. In looking back on his troubled childhood, Charlie recalls how Sty destroyed his toy oven by burning an entire family of dolls while "playing Holocaust."
Sherman's one-liners incite plenty of laughter, too. In one scene, Charlie is looking back on his failed relationship and recalling how he and his ex only had one fight ever. Sty responds: "I've had multiple fights within one-night stands. BEFORE we left the bar."
The set aptly indicates how the family can't let go of the past; the apartment is pretty much the same as when the parents were alive. A record player. A small TV and VCR on the coffee table. The mother's wheelchair.
And then there's the window — that constant, haunting reminder of the turmoil that envelops the room.
