[yasr_overall_rating]
Breaking with tradition, Erik Blake has brought his Pennsylvania family to celebrate and give thanks at his daughter’s apartment in Lower Manhattan. As darkness falls outside the ramshackle pre-war duplex and eerie things start to go bump in the night, the Blake clan’s deepest fears and greatest follies are laid bare.
Thanksgiving will never be the same for me. The fact that I have this uncanny desire to use the term “moral turpitude” in this review and throw all caution to the wind, leaves me feeling bankrupt of all emotion and logic. I just want to throw it in somewhere because I feel like I have witnessed a crime from a very comfortable seat in a dark auditorium. To be totally honest, I feel like a jilted bride at the altar, because I had so many expectations and whatever I wanted to happen, never happened….or maybe it did, and I didn’t realize it, so either way, I’m at a loss.
At the heart of this travesty, is a real family from Scott Township, Pennsylvania with real issues. There are parents, grown children, and a mentally and physically challenged grandparent. There are differences and indifference, and it appears that the cycle of establishing coping mechanisms has repeated itself with every family member and each is just waiting for the perfect opportunity to justify and defend their actions at one another’s expense. Erik Blake (Richard Thomas), is the patriarch of the family, who with his wife Deirdre Blake (Pamela Reed), mother Fiona “MoMo” Blake (Lauren Klein), and older daughter Aimee (Therese Plaehn), break their normal Thanksgiving tradition to join the youngest daughter, Brigid (Daisy Eagan), and her boyfriend Richard Saad (Luis Vega) in their new apartment in Manhattan to share Thanksgiving Dinner. Dying to impress her parents with her apartment, her boyfriend, and her lifestyle, Brigid is continuously seeking reinforcement and acceptance for the life choices she has made. Aimee, who is a psychoanalytic Lawyer, has a selfish way of reminding the family that she is one step above their meager existence. While the finishing touches are being made on the dinner, the family begins to fall apart, amidst group and individual discussions that expose each family member’s weaknesses and shortcomings that have impacted the family. The biggest straw that seemingly breaks the family’s back, is the father’s infidelity and loss of employment at a Catholic High School. Adding fuel to that fire is his wife who is over it and ready to keep it moving. While the chaotic scenes are being played out, a disturbing banging is going on next door that is being caused by a neighbor whom Aimee has chosen to ignore. The neighbor never really makes himself known outside of being an irritating nuisance that adds to the complexity of the production. This diversion, to an already chaotic play, only makes the reality of the non-stop screaming, arguing and jockeying for a position at the table, less tolerable.
Richard Thomas, who is infamous for playing the role of John-Boy in the CBS series, “The Waltons,” appears to be a well-rounded actor who has diversified his skills in the many years since playing the dramatic role that the entire world tuned into. The actors who support him deserve kudos for being the most complex and annoying family imaginable and director John Mantello should be proud for his role in a play that has won four Tony awards and is a Pulitzer Prize finalist. I can’t though, for the life of me, figure out how this dysfunctional and energy-sapping screamfest can have any literary value outside of its exposing human nature at the speed of lightning and giving us familial insight at a highly-risky altitude that builds and drops to an unbelievable low before we ever have a chance to recover our own dignity.
“The Humans” is now performing at the Winspear Opera House in Dallas thru May 20th
