HIR
Oct 16, 2015 – Jan 3, 2016 (Playwrights Horizons, New York)
By Taylor Mac
Directed by Niegel Smith
Somewhere in the suburbs, Isaac has returned from the wars to help take care of his ailing father, only to discover a household in revolt. The insurgent: his mom. Liberated from an oppressive marriage, with Isaac’s newly out transgender sibling as her ally, she’s on a crusade to dismantle the patriarchy. But in Taylor Mac’s sly, subversive comedy, annihilating the past doesn’t always free you from it.
“Directed by Niegel Smith with a daring combination of realism and madcap absurdity, “Hir” sometimes recalls the better works of David Rabe, Sam Shepard and Christopher Durang.
But Mr. Mac has his own gloriously skewed vision of the toxins fouling the American family from within, and in its avowedly loopy way “Hir” reflects current concerns about the decline of the middle class, as well as the trauma war veterans endure.”
– Charles Isherwood, The New York Times
“A beautiful trinity of Nielsen’s pained and profound performance, Mac’s script, and Smith’s direction.”
– Hilton Als, The New Yorker