THE HUMANS: really? — Page 2

I found the play itself to be just okay, certainly nothing profound. Mantello's direction and the performances really elevate it, but I felt Best Play should have gone to King Charles III.

Someone in a Tree2 said: "I found it a very satisfying 70 minutes set within a 90 minute play.The promise of the first 4/5ths of the evening was considerably weakened by the final fifth with it's utterly unconvincing and bafflingly surreal ending. We pondered the point of it all that night over a late dinner, and gave up on giving the show any deeper resonance than the well-acted kitchen sink drama the OP claimed above. Oh, but thosefirst 70 minutes were really terrific."


Nearly two years later...

I just saw it on tour last night in San Francisco and this was pretty much my exact response. It's four fifths of a great play, or at least three quarters, and it was well-performed by the touring cast led by Richard Thomas and Pamela Reed along with Daisy Eagan and Therese Plaehn as their daughters. (Lauren Klein from the Broadway production is "Momo" on tour.) But the ending was just a reach, a labored attempt at something profound when the kitchen-sink drama - even without much of a plot - was working nicely. It felt to me like Stephen Karam just didn't know how to end it.

It was frustrating, because I agree with a lot of the praise I've seen for the play. My daughter, who almost always prefers musicals, found it engaging and relatable. The tricky part is: Would I recommend The Humans to a friend? "It's really good, until the ending" is not exactly a ringing endorsement.

Updated On: 6/14/18 at 04:14 AM

bear88 said: "Someone in a Tree2 said: "I found it a very satisfying 70 minutes set within a 90 minute play.The promise of the first 4/5ths of the evening was considerably weakened by the final fifth with it's utterly unconvincing and bafflingly surreal ending. We pondered the point of it all that night over a late dinner, and gave up on giving the show any deeper resonance than the well-acted kitchen sink drama the OP claimed above. Oh, but thosefirst 70 minutes were really terrific."


Nearly two years later...

I just saw it on tour last night in San Francisco and this was pretty much my exact response. It's four fifthsof a great play, or at least three quarters, and it was well-performed by the touring castled by Richard Thomas andPamela Reed along withDaisy Eaganand Therese Plaehn as their daughters. (Lauren Klein from the Broadway production is "Momo" on tour.) But the ending was just a reach, a laboredattempt at something profound when the kitchen-sink drama - even without much of a plot - was working nicely. It felt to me like Stephen Karam just didn't know how to end it."

I loved every moment of it. I thought the ending was fantastic. The Broadway production was stellar on all levels. Great dialogue. Great writing. To use the term "kitchen sink drama" (a major cliche) is to miss the stunning beauty of the vastly poignant and entertainingly realistic writing. I never thought to label it. It never felt like a "genre," and I can't say I've seen many plays like it, as the OP claims. Such smooth balanced writing throughout. It felt like a symphony to me. Such a simple story, done exceedingly well. The climax was breathtaking to me. I love plays and movies that make a lot out of something seemingly so small. But how it could win over the utterly masterful King Charles III was a big surprise to me. Still, The Humans deserves any award. You might have seen a weak production.

bear88 said: "Someone in a Tree2 said: "I found it a very satisfying 70 minutes set within a 90 minute play.The promise of the first 4/5ths of the evening was considerably weakened by the final fifth with it's utterly unconvincing and bafflingly surreal ending. We pondered the point of it all that night over a late dinner, and gave up on giving the show any deeper resonance than the well-acted kitchen sink drama the OP claimed above. Oh, but thosefirst 70 minutes were really terrific."


Nearly two years later...

I just saw it on tour last night in San Francisco and this was pretty much my exact response. It's four fifthsof a great play, or at least three quarters, and it was well-performed by the touring castled by Richard Thomas andPamela Reed along withDaisy Eaganand Therese Plaehn as their daughters. (Lauren Klein from the Broadway production is "Momo" on tour.) But the ending was just a reach, a laboredattempt at something profound when the kitchen-sink drama - even without much of a plot - was working nicely. It felt to me like Stephen Karam just didn't know how to end it.

It was frustrating, because I agree with a lot of the praise I've seen for the play. My daughter, who almost alwaysprefers musicals, found it engaging and relatable. The tricky part is: Would I recommend The Humans to a friend?"It's really good, until the ending" is not exactly a ringing endorsement."

Sorry for being a dick x

Updated On: 6/14/18 at 09:52 AM

Impossible2 said: "If that ending didn't affect you there is something wrong with you not the play."


That's a bit harsh and immature of you to say. Everyone is entitled to their opinion.

Updated On: 6/14/18 at 10:06 AM

I absolutely loved The Humans on Broadway and thought it was a near perfect play. Then I saw a regional production (not a tour) that was really poorly directed and left my friends who'd never seen it before wondering what the fuss was about. It's a good play, I truly believe it is, but it needs a Joe Mantello to iron out all the scripts flaws.

Is Jane Houdyshell still in the tour? She was the best part of the play.

Fosse76 said: "Impossible2 said: "The whole play was about trauma and the different effects it has on different people."

Maybe. I can buy that. But I think it's more about human failings.

Now it was obviously 2 years since I saw it so I am a bit sketchy on details but from memory the daughter had aninjury from being in the tower when the plane hit. She also was left with IBS and an impaired ability to have a successful relationship.That was all the result of her trauma.

The daughter was interviewing in a building near the WTC on 9/11, and her father attempted to visit the observation deck but it was closed. Other than the trauma of the day, she did not have an physical injury from the attacks. She did have an intestinal illness (which if I recall was ulcerative colitis). She had also not-so-recently broken up with her girlfriend. She claims her illness will prevent her from having any type of relationship. She's also being pushed out of her job (due to the illness).

The Father had had an affair and whatever else had happened I can't rememberand that was the result of his trauma. Then there were the effects of the trauma from the affair on his wife and other family members etc

This was the least imaginative part of the play. However, nothing in the script indicates that his affair was the result of any kind of post 9/11 trauma (could you imagine if that were a legitimate excuse!!). His daughters are, of course, shocked at the revelation (we are told the wife already knew). They were angry, but I doubt it traumatized them.

When the noise happens at the end he is triggered back to the sound of the plane hitting the tower and the fear his daughter is inside. He immediately collapses in fear that the building is going to collapse around him.

Maybe. It would definitely add a layer. But the way it is staged, there is no indication that at the noisetriggers him. There is a blowup after his revelation, and after everyone leaves the apartment, he is now alone, in the dark. I'm sure the isolation unnerves him, but I don't think it's because of any trauma.

The woman walking past is just a woman who lives in the building walking past the door. The atmosphere ismeant to trigger the audience into feeling the same sense of unease and anxiety that the character is feeling at that point in time as he is having his flashback.

It is supposed to be the woman from upstairs, the one making all the noise. I'm sure the character (and noises) have some kind of symbolism, but what that is appears to be anyone's guess.

The slamming door is meant to scare the audience so they experience what he had just experienced so they get a better understanding of what it was like for him when his PTSD kicked in."

It closes slowly so I'm not sure how it would scare anyone. The audience sees it coming."

Well that was what I thought happened and how I took it.

I could've sworn the door slammed and someone else mentioned it in the other thread, maybe there was just a loud noise as it closed, but I can remember it startling me so something must've happened.

I seem to remember the daughter having a limp or some kind either a leg or a hip injury and had difficulty making it upstairs to the toilet at one point?

He was definitely startled a number of times by noises throughout the earlier parts of the play and then there was the big one at the end where he flopped to the floor and crawled under the table after everyone had left.

Not to be insulting but trauma could most definitely be the cause of someone having an affair. We don't really know how the event affected their relationship or what their relationship was even like before or after the event. A trauma like that would cause some serious brain damage, the amygdala shrinks and expands under such stress and even stops forming new memories. He clearly had not sought treatment for it, so it could certainly throw his judgement way out of whack. That kind of brain damage is literally like having a concussion that never goes away, but because trauma is stored on a different wave length to our normal brain functions you do not even know there is anything wrong until you are triggered in some way as he was throughout the play. If it is feasible that it caused the daughter to have relationship problems, why is it not feasible for it to cause him relationship problems.

I thought the little old woman was just showing that it was just a little old woman who had made the noise that had caused such a horrible reaction in him.

I couldn't abide it.

Excruciating. Just like the same author's previous critics' darling, Sons of the Prophet.

They both take their place among the worst plays I have ever sat through.

We audiences must truly be made of stern stuff to endure the likes of these.

But why, oh why, must we be subjected to them?

I didn't mean to start such a ruckus.

By the time I saw the thread again after my comment, I saw that I had received an apology. Impossible2, don't worry about it. No apology needed, although I can't say I agree with your interpretation. I'm with Fosse76, who I think nailed it based on the touring production I saw. But that's what we're here for, to debate the merits of theater. And given that Karam left things open to interpretation, I can't say you're wrong.

To reiterate, I liked The Humans overall, and I agree with earlier commenters that one of the reasons for its success was that it was a play about a recognizable, middle-class American family - complete with love, passive-aggressive hostility, dark secrets, and plenty of humor. I just didn't care for the tail end of the play, from the father's revelation to the long conclusion.

It's striking, if unsurprising, how the ending of a play can strongly affect one's feelings about the whole thing. I saw Vietgone a few months ago, and its conclusion was so brilliant that it elevated the whole piece, which I had enjoyed anyway. The ending of The Humans left me disappointed, not enough to ruin it, but to wish Karam had concluded the show nearly as effectively.

Updated On: 6/16/18 at 11:27 PM

I saw it last week in SF and in NY with the original cast. Like the first time, I really liked it. I thought that Richard Thomas and Pamela Reed were excellent (I was NOT impressed by the actor playing the boyfriend,) However, this time, my take on the sounds and other "eerie" effects and, especially the ending, has changed.

Updated On: 6/23/18 at 02:04 PM

CLICHE: really?

If I had to give The Humans a genre, I wouldn't call it a kitchen sink play.
I would call it a farce of ordinary American alienation.

How many farces of ordinary American alienation do you know?

But, ok, for the sake of the argument, let's call it a kitchen sink play.

Where are these vast numbers of formulaic kitchen sink comedy dramas about the American middle class as it exists in the post-globalist U.S.? For obvious reasons I hesitate to bring up Roseanne, but how often did we or do we see people like the Connors on American television? How often do we see people like the Blakes on the American stage?

There's nothing hackneyed, trite, old-hat in this play. To the contrary, it's a surprising breath of fresh air, built on chaotic hilarity with a wise, open-hearted, razor sharp lens on the all-consuming social, health, amorous and economic struggles of each member of an ordinary American family.

If some find what The Humans offers to have been previously offered over and over again to the point of overexposure, please tell me what vast numbers of other plays like it I've been missing.

Updated On: 6/23/18 at 06:35 AM