REVIEW
The Humans
Citadel Theatre and Canadian Stage co-production
Runs until Saturday, Jan. 27
Citadel Theatre
9828 101A Ave.
Tickets: Call 780-425-1820 or visit http://www.citadeltheatre.com
A middle class family trying to maintain a sense of dignity as their lives spiral out of control in The Humans is funny, sad and achingly touching.
Now playing at the Citadel Theatre, The Humans is intellectually smart and emotionally taut due to American playwright Stephen Karam's extraordinary gift of portraying working class lives with great compassion.
The 90-minute plot is based around a Blake family get-together. Bridget Blake (Sara Farb) and her boyfriend Richard Saad (Richard Lee) are hosting Thanksgiving dinner at the couple's newly rented New York basement apartment in Chinatown several blocks from the 9/11 disaster.
Judith Bowden's two-storey set immediately suggests a lack of money. Each level is as plain as the other and connected by a spiral staircase. The stage is bare except for a sofa and a card table serves as kitchen table.
There are only two windows, overlooking an alley scattered with cigarette butts. The lights blink out one-by-one adding to the dark, cheerless environment, and the elderly Chinese lady living upstairs drops thumping weights on the floor. These are chilly hints that suggest the Blakes' world is unfolding in mysterious ways.
But this Irish clan are all people that could be us or our neighbours, and from the moment they share a few drinks, exchange gifts and sing songs together, a photo of the family emerges. Karam depicts the way they live daily with great care, and we cannot help but view them with affection.
Like many typical American families, the Blakes share strong ties and a few resentments built over the years. They also face demoralizing money troubles.
As the Blakes arrive, we learn Brigid's parents Erik (Ric Reid) and Deirdre (Laurie Paton), along with Erik's mother called Momo (Maralyn Ryan) are from Scranton, and Brigid's older sister Aimee (Alana Hawley Purvis) is from Philadelphia where she practices law.
To pay the bills Erik has worked in maintenance at a private school and Deirdre is an office manager. Lacking the money to hire private nursing, they care for Momo, who is wheelchair bound and suffers from dementia.
Brigid dreams of becoming a composer, but is swamped with tuition debt and tends bar instead. Aimee reveals that she's about to lose her job because she took time off to deal with ulcerative colitis.
Only Richard, who is about to inherit a trust fund two years down the road, appears immune from economic woes.
The cast enjoys a powerful chemistry and appears to easily inhabit their characters. Farb and Hawley Purvis share a genuine sisterly rapport laughing with each other and employing an occasional dig.
Paton as Deirdre is the classic bubbly mother who puts her hurts aside to care for the family's well being. And Reed as Erik is an honest, but every inch a troubled father and husband.
Ryan as Momo in one of her "bad days", pulls together an incredible performance without excess or sentimentality. And Lee as Rich is the outsider who keeps everyone glued together.
Jackie Maxwell superbly directs The Humans keeping Karam's big themes alive – that life is fragile and forces outside our control can affect us deeply.
The Blakes suffer divisive cracks in their relationships, but in a spooky, ambiguous ending, Maxwell takes pains to let us know there is light in the darkness and where there is light there is hope.
