‘The Humans’
Continues through April 20 at The Connor Palace at Playhouse Square in Cleveland. For tickets, $10 to $80, call: 216-241-6000 or 866-546-1353 or visit PlayhouseSquare.org.
“The Humans” feels so meaningful because it’s your family on stage.
OK, so the Blakes aren’t exactly like your family. Maybe you don’t have a sister who’s a lesbian. But perhaps your mother does forward you emails that really blew her mind for one reason or another and who is on and off her Weight Watchers Plan. And maybe your dad suffers from a back problems and still wants to fix every little thing around your place.
Based on seeing the touring production of the show that is early in its stint at Playhouse Square’s Connor Palace Theater, it’s not hard to understand why Stephen Karam’s work won the 2016 Tony Award for Best Play and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for drama that year.
In one act that takes less than two hours to perform, “The Humans” is funny — uproariously so at times — sad and moving. It touches on relatable issues including finances, health, religion and sexuality — pretty much everything except, perhaps refreshingly, politics.
It may not be unforgettable, but it likely will stay with your for a while.
The action takes place on Thanksgiving night in the new New York City apartment of Brigid Blake (Daisy Eagan) and her boyfriend, Richard Saad (Luis Vega). The space represented by the simple and unchanging but functional two-story set by David Zinn; it boasts little more than a table with mismatching chair, a couple of other pieces of furniture, a small kitchen and a spiral staircase leading to the upper level, where the bathroom resides.
As the play begins, the Blakes — parents Erik (Richard Thomas) and Dierdre (Pamela Reed( in from Scranton, Pennsylvania, and aforementioned lesbian sibling Aimee (Therese Plaehn) in from Philadelphia — are crowded together and interacting on the second story of the duplex, while Richard works on preparing the feast in the kitchen below.
>> Richard Thomas talks about performing in “The Humans”
We get an early sense of the family dynamics, which also involve Erik’s aged, wheelchair-confined and usually not-lucid mother Fiona “Momo” Blake (Lauren Klein), whom Dierdre also lovingly calls “Mom.”
Initially, the emphasis is on the relationships between Brigid and each parent. Mom sent a care package Brigid hasn’t opened, and Dad worries intensely about the neighborhood. And both older Blakes wonder, understandably, why there’s so much thunderous noise coming from the apartment above, not accepting their daughter’s reason for not doing anything about it being the neighbor is a 70-year-old Chinese woman.
“I’m 61,” Dierdre says, obviously annoyed. “Old people can still process information!”
There is also parent-daughter tensions when it comes to Aimee, her mother recounting a sad story she heard involving a gay woman.
“You don’t have to tell her every time a lesbian kills herself,” Brigid scolds Dierdre.
Dierdre is understandably upset Aimee hasn’t told her that her chronic digestive-system issues have flared up of late, noting she, of course, would have sent a care package. Aimee responds she knew such a care package would be accompanied by endless text messages asking about her bathroom trips, so she said nothing.
As the intelligent, older-than-Brigid Richard is folded into the mix, he seeks to be a largely smoothing force, politely telling his girlfriend she should go easier on her mother — a suggestion for which she obviously does not care. Don’t worry too much about these two, though, as they have a habit of indulging in makeout sessions in the kitchen.
As Karam’s story progresses, under the steady direction of Joe Mantello, we find that Erik is being secretive about a recurring dream — we’ll learn why — and is putting off telling his children some difficult information — we’ll learn what.
After simmering to a chaotic boil, “The Humans” leaves us with one character on stage to fulfill a thematic idea set up earlier in the play. It is an ending with the power to make you think a bit but one that may not satisfy every audience member.
Regardless, the overall ideas presented throughout the play should hit home for a great many folks.
This touring cast is up to delivering on the dramatic promise of “The Humans.” While at first Thomas — who years ago portrayed John-Boy Walton on “The Waltons” but more recently played a recurring character on the excelling FX drama series “The Americans” — gives what feels like an uneven effort, you appreciate his work more as “The Humans” unfolds.
He is nearly matched by admirable work by Reed, whose noteworthy credits include the 1990 Arnold Schwarzenegger flick “Kindergarten Cop” and portraying the mother of central character Leslie Knope on NBC’s “Parks and Recreation.”
While each other cast member is successful in his or her role, special credit also should be paid to Klein, who largely is required is to sit or lie on the couch quietly until Momo comes to expressive life, as you know she will during the show climactic stretch. For most of the show, Klein manages to be almost invisible while in plain sight.
“The Humans” is the latest show in Playhouse Square’s 2017-18 Broadway Series. It is a rare occasion that a straight play invades the musical-heavy series, and you typically want take notice when one does.
That certainly is the case with “The Humans.”
‘The Humans’
Continues through April 20 at The Connor Palace at Playhouse Square in Cleveland. For tickets, $10 to $80, call: 216-241-6000 or 866-546-1353 or visit PlayhouseSquare.org.
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