You are pacing through the streets after a seemingly endless day at school. The park is filled with younger kids simulating a game of war, mimicking their fathers and older brothers who have just been recruited. As you turn onto your street, the aroma of soft pretzels baking in the shop windows hits you. The faint tune of Bing Crosby's "Be Careful, It's My Heart" plays from a nearby radio. You enter into your family's candy shop only to be scolded by your stern grandmother, compelling you to begin work as she heads upstairs to the apartment.
You have just entered the world of Arty and Jay, the teenage boys who are the central characters of Neil Simon's Lost in Yonkers, set in 1942 Yonkers, New York. This play, first published in 1991, delves into the chaotic lives of a Jewish German-American family in the early stages of World War II. We are taken through this crazy world through the eyes of the boys who are forced to grow up rapidly. After losing their mother to cancer, the boys now have to say goodbye to their father until he pays off a loan shark. Their lives are turned upside down when they enter the house of their tremendously strict grandmother and their peculiar aunts and uncle. Simon's highlighted themes include survival, acceptance, and the importance of one's family all in a hybrid of comedy and drama. Many critics considered this work to be Neil Simon's career highpoint, earning him the Pulitzer Prize for drama.
Neil Simon grew up in New York in the midst of the Great Depression. His family struggles, yet Simon found comfort in movie theaters where performers like Charlie Chaplin inspired him to become a writer. After high school and a few years in the Army Air Force Reserve, Simon began writing plays, starting with Come Blow Your Horn in 1961. He was called "the hottest new playwright" in 1965 after his Tony Award winning play, The Odd Couple. His plays shadow much of his own life, combining reality and comedy, to which the audience can relate.
Simon was a genius when it came to telling the most tragic of events in an average person's life. He could take the hard-hitting family matters and put them on stage in a way everyone could find connections. Interestingly, the play's setting is during World War II, but its publication in 1991 overlapped with the United States entering the First Gulf War in the Middle East. Therefore the play's themes were relevant and timely to contemporary life and continue to be today. Simon's works, especially Lost in Yonkers, are timeless, captivating, and are sure to leave you wanting more. Take a walk with the brothers, Jay and Arty, and discover one of Neil Simon's best.
Katie Nelson
Dramaturge Lost in Yonkers
Katie Nelson is a Junior Theatre and Communication double major at Saint Mary's College from metro Detroit. Katie was part of the development workshops for SBCT's original production of Frankenstein, providing dramaturgical background and references. Katie has appeared onstage at Saint Mary's, including Radium Girls, Henry V, and The Misanthrope.
