Stephen Karam’s drama “The Humans”, 2016 recipient of The
Tony Award for Best Play is currently showing at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los
Angeles through July 29th. One of the runner -ups for this coveted
award was Florian Zeller’s heartbreaking “The Father”. In each play a character
suffering from dementia is either at the fore or a family member needing extra
care.
Both excellent in their own right as one family keeps their
loved one at home for the family to care for and the other seeks professional
care. The toll it takes on both is but a reminder that in families there is no
right or wrong, only the dynamic differs.
We are a complicated tribe, we humans. We like to gather together
in celebration of holidays (think “August: Osage County”, among them but with
more brutally toward one another) that most will confess causes more stress
among family members that at any other time or gatherings.
On this Thanksgiving the Blake’s, Erik (Fred Birney) Aimee
(Cassie Beck), Brigid (Sarah Steele), Deirdre (Jayne Houdyshell) and Fiona or
Momo (a force with which to be reckoned, Lauren Klein) are congregating in Richard
(Nick Mills) and Brigid’s new flat located in a not so pretty, almost eerie
section of New York’s Chinatown.
The two story flat designed by David Zinn makes room for easy
flow of traffic if you don’t count climbing up a steel winding staircase that
opens to the larger of the two rooms. The one bathroom and other bedroom are located
upstairs as well with a recliner and boxed “stuff” waiting to be put away. The
kitchen and eating area is down stairs with Richard (a fine Nick Mills) as the
designated cook which is the best place for him at the time.
The Blake family hails from Scranton, Pa. They would now fit
into the middle or lower class, (used to be solid middle class) surviving from
paycheck to paycheck category.
Proud and loving remembrances laced with family humor and
real life situations push this dramedy along in a 90 minute oft time sit -com,
oft time tragic moments that will have you chuckling and teary eyed at the same
time.
Erik has been a high school maintenance man for twenty-eight
years, alludes to the fact that he and Deirdre are planning to fix up a second
summer house and reminds Brigid that, but for the fact that she chose not to go
to a state school she wouldn’t be in debt and bartending nights.
Deirdre is an office manager making less than the two new
hires, in their twenties, who are making five times her salary. She too has had
the same job for forty years. Daughter Aimee has a law degree and is on the
verge of not becoming a partner in the firm that spells ‘time to move on’.
She is also suffering from colitis and just broke up with her
long time girlfriend. Still haunting Dad Erik is the fact that she just escaped
being in the Twin Towers in the wake of the 911tragedy. His dreams of losing
his daughter trouble him still. She has what my tribe would call tsuris.
And Momo, well she’s there somewhere. She does have her lucid
moments and on one occasion even remembered the words to a favorite tune this
proud Irish family always sang at past Thanksgiving gatherings. They have their
highs and all too often their lows.
With most of the excellent award winning cast in tow (Mills
came in a bit later) and under the watchful eyes excellent and staging of
director Joe Mantello, Karam’s “The Humans” paints a pretty accurate picture of
everyday folks who would love to live the dream, but don’t either have the
means, lost their way or blew their chances to do so.
It’ so human, it hurts. It pulses with off the wall humor, so
much so that if you are not used to the rhythms of these family subtleties, you
will miss them. I especially understood Deirdre’s frustrations to her Points on
Weight Watchers if she had chips and dip appetizers. I couldn’t help myself
from almost hearing my own cries about points.
Conversations run back and fourth in layered and painful
admissions that up until now have put the family on a superficial plateau, are
blurted out over the course of the afternoon/evening visit.
Confessions, losses, new -found awakenings and truths now
become out loud facts as when a hurt and wounded Aimee confesses that she and
her long time girlfriend split and her disease is getting to the point that
surgery is needed and she has no insurance. Cassie Beck is so credible as Aimee
that yours truly felt her hurt and loss.
Erik finally had the guts to tell his family that they lost
their lake house and would have to downsize the family home as well. He has
dreams going back to the 9/11 incident that haunt him and he can’t seem to
dodge them. The most eerie of his scene as the play ends, his standing at the
doorway in a haze of mist after everyone heads for the car, and not knowing
exactly what he is thinking or will do.
Reed Birney’ Erik and Jayne Houdyshell’s Deirde are the yin
to the other’s yang. Together they make a whole; supporting, lifting up,
dreaming the same dreams, hurting the same hurts, bringing their all that feels
right and that that doesn’t, into focus knowing that you might have walked in
their shoes.
Steele, a wanna be composer and social worker Mills, who’s
Richard is at least one or two rungs above the lower middle class Blake’s
financially, make a good couple; believable from the outset. They are easy to
get along with and open to sharing and looking compatible even with Brigid’s
constant kvetching about having to work bartending in two bars to pay off her
school debt.
Justin Townsend’s lighting design reflects some illumination
from the one window in the flat. Fritz Patton’s sound effect are a little
overbearing and Sarah Laux’ costumes are just right.
“There are six basic fears, with some combination of which
every human suffers at one time or another… poverty, criticism, health, loss of
someone, old age, death”.
Napoleon Hill.
If you listen carefully, all seven make their way into
Karam’s “The Humans”; that’s what makes it so human.
See you at the theatre.
Dates: Through July 29th
Organization: Center Theatre Group
Phone: 213-972-4400
Production Type: Drama
Where: 135 N. Grand Los Angeles, CA 90012
Ticket Prices: Start at $30.00
Web: centertheatregroup.org
Venue: Ahmanson Theatre
Photo: Lawrence K. Ho
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