SIMON PARSONS is discomfited by an unflichingly negative portrait of motherhood and its trials
Tear the house down
SIMON PARSONS relishes the revival of a highly original play that explores the reinvention of a family that rejects traditional gender roles
PAUL FOLEY recommends an extraordinary double bill that packs a punch and leaves you reeling
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a play about AI that results in a deadening disconnect for its audience
SIMON PARSONS applauds an insightful state-of-the-nation play that explores the growing class divide in South Africa
MATTHEW HAWKINS pays tribute to the performance artist and costumier, Leigh Bowery
SIMON DUFF reviews a new composition by German composer and pianist Florian Weber that blurs the line between where improvisation ends and composition begins
New releases from The Jim Mullen Quartet, Caroline Kraabel/John Edwards, and Matthew Muneses/Riza Printup
Hir
Park Theatre
TAYLOR MAC’s highly original play establishes a surreal, darkly comic tone from the outset. We find the man of the house in a pink nightdress and clown’s make-up sitting docilely beneath a hippy-like banner with an 11-letter acronym for diverse sexual identities in what looks like a trashed kitchen.
But the play does much more than simply question traditional sexual identities.
Returning from Afghanistan suffering with a form of PTSD, ex-marine Isaac (Steffan Cennydd) is faced with a home in chaos. His mother Paige has seized on her husband’s mentally incapacitating stroke as the chance for personal freedom and reinvention. Rejecting traditional, stereotypical female values and revelling in her daughter’s hormone-induced gender realinement, she is on a tumultuous quest to find a fresh, non-materialistic identity while keeping her husband drugged up and in fancy dress.
More from this author
The phrase “cruel to be kind” comes from Hamlet, but Shakespeare’s Prince didn’t go in for kidnap, explosive punches, and cigarette deprivation. Tam is different.
ANGUS REID deconstructs a popular contemporary novel aimed at a ‘queer’ young adult readership
A landmark work of gay ethnography, an avant-garde fusion of folk and modernity, and a chance comment in a great interview
ANGUS REID applauds the inventive stagecraft with which the Lyceum serve up Stevenson’s classic, but misses the deeper themes
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MARY CONWAY admires a vivid, compassionate portrait of a father and daughter pinioned in the criminal underclass
SIMON PARSONS salutes drama that registers how the impact of the sexual assault ripples out through every element of a family’s existence
MARY CONWAY evaluates a polemical play whose actors, rather than the writer, introduce the humanity and the light and shade
SIMON PARSONS recommends a musical retelling of the Old Testament story of the sexual awakening of a young childless bride