Initiative @ the Public

The Play: Initiative; a somewhat self-indulgent five-hour character study of a group of millennial outsiders in a small California town at the turn of the century

Written by: Else Went        Directed by: Emma Rose Went

One good thing: The individual characters are interesting and their struggles with gender identity, absent or opioid-addicted parents and the advent of online social interactions are clearly designed to speak to theatergoers who grew up during those years—and to those still wrestling with memories of troubled adolescences in earlier times

One not-so-great thing: The long segments devoted to re-enacting sessions of Dungeons & Dragons might have been more meaningful if they’d been shorter and less opaque for those not familiar with that fantasy role playing game