By Sheila Barth
BOX INFO: Joe Montello directs the Roundabout Theatre Company, in association with the Seattle Repertory Theatre, national touring company production of Stephen Karam’s dramatic one-act, 100-minute play, appearing through March 25: Tuesday,Thursday, 7:30 p.m.; Wednesday, 2,7:30 p.m; Friday, 8 p.m. Saturday, 2,8 p.m.; Sunday, 1 p.m., at the Boch Center Shubert Theatre Boston, 265 Tremont St., Boston. Tickets start at $25.
Renowned playwright-screenwriter Stephen Karam’s dramatic, multi-Tony Award-winning play, “The Humans,“ appearing at the Boch Center Shubert Theatre in Boston this week, is labeled “a new American classic”. However, nothing earth-shattering occurs in it. But there’s a simmering, dark undercurrent that keeps audiences alert. Besides winning six Tony Awards, the off-Broadway production won an Obie Award in 2016, among others. Directed by award-winning Joe Mantello, this US National Touring cast that started at the Seattle Repertory Theatre is terrific.
In a sense, Karam draws upon his own background for setting his plays. He grew up in Scranton, Pa., son of Lebanese American parents. “The Humans” is about a lower middle-class family from Scranton, and his award-winning play “Sons of the Prophet,” is about an American-Lebanese family. In “The Humans,” there’s pathos and drama that contemporary middle-class, three-generational American families can relate to. There’s aspiring, struggling musician daughter Brigid Blake ( Daisy Eagan) and her live-in boyfriend, Richard (Luis Vega), with his ample trust fund; Brigid’s older, successful lawyer sister, Aimee (Theresa Plaehn); and the girls’ parents, Erik (Richard Thomas) and Deirdre Blake (Pamela Reed), religious Christian parents who are disappointed their daughters are irreligious. Lauren Klein is superlative portraying Erik’s adored 80-year-old wheelchair-bound mother, Fiona, who has dementia.
Erik has brought the family from their Scranton, Pa. home to Brigid’s two-floor, pre-WW II duplex, rundown apartment, in Manhattan’s Chinatown, to celebrate Thanksgiving dinner. The family adores Fiona, whom they lovingly call “Momo”. Although Momo is in a wheelchair most of the time, sleeps and spouts gibberish frequently, the family refuses to place her in a nursing home. They dote on her. When Momo exultantly comes up with a quip or quote, everyone’s delighted.
Justin Townsend’s lighting, Fitz Patton’s startling sound effects and David Zinn’s handsome set provide an inside view of Brigid’s rundown apartment, as though its facade has been peeled away. Brigid and Richard just moved into the place, haven’t unpacked everything, and some of their furniture hasn’t been delivered yet. Nevertheless, Brigid and Deirdre view the space differently. What Brigid says is an “interior courtyard,” Deirdre says it’s a litter-strewn alley.
Erik appears happy, but it’s increasingly apparent he’s troubled by something- something big. And Momo is having a tough day for the most part – “one of her bad days,” Erik says apologetically.
Their fun and reverie is sharply interrupted by loud thuds overhead, which Brigid explains aren’t ghosts or poltergeists. They’re the Chinese lady living upstairs, doing her exercises. She and Richard provide other rational reasons for the barrage of more jarring, eerie thuds and clunks, electrical outages, and unattended, falling kitchen items. Momo feels it, too. She suddenly becomes agitated, screaming, and flailing her arms.
Nevertheless, they’ve all put on their happy faces, but inwardly lament their personal situations. Brigid is working two bartending jobs to support herself and pay off her student loans. Aimee’s beloved longtime lesbian girlfriend left her, and Aimee’s desolated. Between debilitating pain from a serious stomach ailment, and poor cellphone reception, Aimee tries desperately to call her girlfriend.
The family is thrown into more chaos, running about, screaming, when an uninvited furry crasher scampers around in the darkness, scaring the hell out of them. Erik has become quieter, more withdrawn, for good reason. He reveals after 28 years, he was fired from his job at a private school. I won’t reveal why. And Deirdre? At work, she contends with much younger bosses, who earn more money than she.
Regardless, the family loves each other and revels in being together, sharing family jokes, reciting grace while holding hands, and singing traditional Irish ditties.The dark envelops them, but there’s a glimmer of light at the end. Perhaps it’s a beacon of hope for us all.
