The Millennial Darkness of Matthew Gasda

Few contemporary American authors are as in touch with today’s zeitgeist as Matthew Gasda. His break-out play Dimes Square premiered in 2022 and was hailed as both “decadent” and “delicious.” The play provides a generational snapshot of millennials and aspiring careerists and, as contemporary theater goes, it is “as good as it gets,” reported Vulture. More recent plays such as Morning Journal, Zoomers, and Doomers (a play about AI that asks the question, “In humanity’s last act... who plays God?”) are currently in repertory, as was Dimes Square, which recently closed but sold out every performance—a testament to its continued relevance and success in capturing the spirit of the times. These plays, sometimes hailed as comedies, sometimes as family dramas, show a bourgeois culture in crisis.