Left to fend for themselves in a squalid suburban London housing project by their diabetic, drugs-and-alcohol-addicted mother, two teenage half brothers spend their days watching sadistic porno and playing violent video games on the TV. Hench (Lucas Hedges) and Bobbie (Justice Smith) have in their care a dog named Taliban (unseen) that, shall we say, gets no care and remains locked in a room. They evidently do know how to care for their mother Maggie (Ari Graynor) when she pops in sporadically to steal something in the apartment to sell. She apparently lives elsewhere with the current boyfriend. At the beginning of London-based playwright Anna Jordan’s depressing but grimly grounded play, she arrives in time to have a hissy fit over something or everything and go into a seizure-induced coma. One can suspect some affection exists and is exhibited in rare moments between the boys and their mother. But their volatile relationship is typically expressed through their vulgar vernacular and aggressively rough and tumble behavior. A mostly sullen Hench has his hands full controlling the hyperactive Bobbie. It seems that Bobbie is afflicted with a number of overlapping behavioral and emotional disorders too numerous to enumerate, except that they are likely to be the cause of the psoriasis that is visible when he removes the single T-shirt that is shared by them. An unexpected visit by an extraordinarily sweet and generous teenage girl Jennifer (Stefania LaVie Owen) who wants to help them care for the dog adds a touch of complexity to this uncompromisingly dour drama. Not unexpectedly is Jennifer, who calls herself Yen, physically attracted to Hench. What next? All the actors, under the direction of Trip Cullman, are terrific. If the talented and good-looking Hedges, who has received laudatory reviews as the troubled son in the acclaimed film “Manchester by the Sea,” appears to be all skin and bones, he, nevertheless, brings a meaty dimension to his role. He perfectly channels and embodies Hench’s despairing reality. An impressive Smith flings himself into rages and rampages that leave both him and us shattered. There is nothing like going ballistic and/or berserk for a good actor, and Graynor nails it. As Jennifer, Ms. Owen, brings a breath of freshness into a play that is purposely steeped in a rancid reality. Mark Wendland’s setting and Ben Stanton’s lighting expertly addresses a sad world without prospects or wonder.
