The Humans came to L.A. with a slew of theatre medals on its chest: successful regional and Broadway productions, a 2016 Tony Award for best play. It also drew big laughs during its opening-night performance at the Ahmanson. So why in the world didn’t I love the play, the way just about everyone else around me did? Don’t get me wrong: I didn’t hate or even dislike the play, just found it to be disappointing and somewhat underwhelming. A Chekhov-like family study, the 90-minute play by Stephen Karam has almost no story to speak of, just character revelations and domestic squabbles. It takes place in a spacious but barren Chinatown duplex (amazing set by David Zinn), where the Blakes, an Irish-Catholic clan from Scranton, PA, has gathered to celebrate Thanksgiving. Hosting are Brigid (Sarah Steele) and her boyfriend Richard (Nick Miller), who have just moved into the duplex and are still awaiting delivery of their furniture. Brigid is a struggling composer, Richard a budding social worker. Both are testy and unsure with each other. Additional strain on their relationship comes from the rest of the family, each of whom has been damaged by life in a myriad of ways. Erik, the patriarch (Reed Birney), is haunted by the loss of someone close in the World Trade Center holocaust. Brigid’s sister, Aimee (Cassie Beck), is a lesbian who has just broken up with her long-term partner (and been passed over for promotion at her law firm). The matriarch Dierdre (Jayne Houdyshell) has bad knees and a sharp, stinging tongue; and the grandmother, Momo (Lauren Klein) is wheelchair-bound and suffering from Alzheimer’s. What’s at stake here? The question kept crossing my mind as I watched the holiday shenanigans on the split-level floors. Owing to faulty wiring, the lights in the duplex kept going out, cockroaches made a timely appearance, and someone upstairs in the ancient building turned on some kind of weird, wheezing machine every once in a while. Funny stuff, I guess, but hardly worthy of a Tony prize. The strength of the play was the collective urge of the Blakes to cope with the bad hand life had dealt them. A worthy effort… which just about sums up my feelings about the production itself.
