James Ijames' "Wilderness Generation"

[inception]

James Ijames' "Wilderness Generation"#1

Posted: 5/22/26 at 9:35am

Curious if anyone went to Philadelphia to see the recent premiere of Jsmes Ijames' newest play "Wilderness Generation?"

It will have a second run in November at Washington DC's Studio Theatre while I am on the East Coast. I'm thinking of changing my plans to spend a few days of my trip in DC again this year because the Wash. National Opera announced last week that during the same week they will put on "Nixon in China" with Renée Fleming & Thomas Hampson.  There will be three  performances of this John Adam's opera at the DAR Constitution Hall.

80's indie bandThey Might be Giants also have 4 concerts over the same dates, so it seems a bit kismet.

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Updated On: 5/22/26 at 09:35 AM

[Play Esq.]

James Ijames' "Wilderness Generation"#2

Posted: 5/22/26 at 1:19pm

Found this extremely generic and didn’t laugh once…left at intermission.  I was pretty shocked that this was a play from the same writer of Fat Ham.  

That said, Renee and Thomas in Nixon in China would be worth the trip to DC alone. 

[spicemonkey]

James Ijames' "Wilderness Generation"#3

Posted: 5/22/26 at 1:35pm

Play Esq. said: "Found this extremely generic and didn’t laugh once…left at intermission. I was pretty shocked that this was a play from the same writer of Fat Ham.

That said, Renee and Thomas in Nixon in China would be worth the trip to DC alone."

i'm sure to be in the minority, but i was really not impressed by Fat Ham at all. I found it very "generic" in the sense that it's just another "find your true self" story - with some sugar coated cover - it's just like a paper published with not much innovation but adding few variables to previous research 

 

 

[AC126748]

James Ijames' "Wilderness Generation"#4

Posted: 5/22/26 at 2:12pm

I’m in Philly, and the local response was pretty tepid. The TheaterMania review linked below is spot on. 
 

https://www.theatermania.com/news/review-good-bones-but-a-shaky-foundation-in-james-ijamess-wilderness-generation_1833156/

"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe." -John Guare, Landscape of the Body