Stephen Karam has called his play THE HUMANS a “family thriller.” A ghost story where things literally go bump in the night, this last-gasp elegy mourns the death of bohemianism in Manhattan and the middle class everywhere. It is also extremely funny—if a precise explication of the American Dream walking off a cliff can be called comedic.
Unlike most theater families, the Blakes—mother, father, grandmother, two daughters and a son-in-law—aren’t issuing indictments and putting one another on trial. Nor does an inspector call demanding answers. Dealing with differences of class, politics, income, religious fidelity, and expectations for the future, the Blakes are—mostly—civil and respectful. But all the love, understanding, empathy, and forgiveness this family demonstrates for one another somehow renders them powerless. And there are greater forces at work than mere self-sabotage.
THE HUMANS’ widely acclaimed, award-winning ensemble—Jayne Houdyshell, Reed Birney, Lauren Klein, Cassie Beck, Sarah Steele, and Nick Mills—is directed by Joe Mantello, and will be in town through the end of July.
Through July 29.
Ahmanson Theatre
135 North Grand Avenue, downtown Los Angeles.
Top: Sarah Steele and Cassie Beck in The Humans.
Above: Steele and Reed Birney.
Below: Birney, Steele, Jayne Houdyshell, and Nick Mills.
Photographs by Brigitte Lacombe.
