Hir

I found the show extremely uncomfortable and too Theatre of the Absurd for me. But if you like seeing disgusting bodily functions onstage and way too over-the-top characters in a dysfunctional family yelling and attacking each other, perhaps HIR will be more your cup of tea. Certainly the lack of applause after both acts let me know I was not alone in my bafflement at what I was seeing and why the Odyssey chose to have it there.

Though Hir's intermission may provide an exit excuse for some, those who can see beneath the physical and emotional mess on stage will find much to savor in this unapologetically radical look at family dysfunction gone berserk.

Well respected Bart DeLorenzo directs an immensely talented cast whose performances alone deserve your attendance.

Directed by Bart DeLorenzo, it may seem like this is a story about experiences of people who identify as gender queer and the effect this has on their families, but the theme that ultimately overshadows everything else is that of abuse. Ironically for a play that is wall-to-wall speeches, banter, and loudness, Hir is most effective in its rare quieter moments, of which there are not nearly enough. Much like the set on which it unfolds, the writing is cluttered, and the amount of noise ultimately confuses the potentially interesting statements the playwright is trying to make.

Tiresome, moody, without heart or vulnerability. Misses the mark so much that if you read a review of the NY production you'll hear a different play described.

There is an adage in the creative pursuit of playwriting: “It's easier to set them up than knock them down.”
How this translates, in actuality, is that there exists an awful lot of plays with very strong first acts which then proceed to unravel in the second.
Taylor Mac's HIR currently at the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble manages to be the exception that tests the rule.

If this play is often very funny, it's also quite terrifying to me, after just seeing the 1945 drama An Inspector Calls, for just how similar the family breakdown in this contemporary drama is to that of the figures who led us to both World Wars. There is no right “hir,” only a terribly loneliness that will lead them all into a corner from which they may never escape.

Skillfully directed by Bart DeLorenzo, HIR explodes beyond its confines with dark humor and irreverence. The talented ensemble cast keep the story popping in unexpected and very funny ways. ...The entire production team has done a terrific job of making the ridiculous painfully real.

Mac's 2014 play in its Los Angeles premiere at the Odyssey - is a wonderfully disturbing satire that imagines a long-abused family reaching its greatest potential by taking revenge on the abusive patriarch (Ron Bottitta),...

Humor tips into horror and back again, a seesaw experience fearlessly propelled by director Bart DeLorenzo and his actors.

The cast is simply and thoroughly marvelous. Cynthia Kania delivers a nuanced performance of terrific range and power. As Isaac, the appealing Zack Gearing, in all of his character's youthful confusion, meets the script's demands with ease and aplomb. Puppett lends an impish, puckish quality to her performance, leavened with an appealing vulnerability. And Ron Bottitta as the drooling, lurching creator of the family woes is a dominating presence onstage that cannot be ignored.

Taylor Mac, a MacArthur genius, is a titanic talent, and this staging of Hir is nothing short of brilliant.

Director Bart DeLorenzo allows the actors to interpret the world instead of creating a stylistic foundation that the actors would then have to be a part of, and the result minimizes effect. Sometimes on-the-nose doesn't come close enough to the intention of the writer, and here we have a play where the playwright has faltered the director and actors.

The intriguing angle of Hir is bringing a transgender point of view into this setup, but ultimately this gets obscured by the more traditional, familiar themes, which is disappointing.

I searched for other reviews because while the stated tone and subject matter of the show are what would normally be right up my alley, my own feelings about the show are decidedly mixed. So, I am puzzled. Is my lukewarm reaction a response to the play itself or to this production?

It's a hot mess, mess, totally disastrous and un-redemptively calamitous. So sad is their collective condition that, yes, it's hilarious. Except it's not.

Is it worth seeing?

If you're offended by the very premise? Yes.  If you're sick of seeing the same stories over and over again? Yes, with caveats. Just know that the first steps on any new journey can be a bit bumpy.

GRIPPING, CLEVER, SAVAGE, FUNNY. SHOCKING. ROUSING TRANSGRESSIVE… sure-handed direction and an immensely talented quartet of actors… one of those unequivocally superb evenings of theater that only come along once or twice per season.

Even though, we are just coming to the end of January, I can already nominate a prominent candidate for Most Horrid Theatrical Character of 2019 - Paige Connor, the matriarch in Taylor Mac's HIR. Graphic subject matters touched on, certainly not for the meek of heart - marital abuse, rape, masturbation, de-masculating humiliation, descriptive drug use, spiteful revenge, lots of puking, peeing and must plain meanness.

Hir is an outrageous, brilliant, hilarious, and enlightening evening of theatre.

Through humor and shock value that blasts through at full gallop, what energizes Taylor Mac's signature vision more than anything else is its blistering indictment of the ways our society has marginalized the folks struggling to navigate and understand our existence in these troubling time, an era when many of us are edging closer and closer to the kitchen sink to cough up all the bile Tweeted by our inglorious “leader” on a daily basis as those around him ignore all the Isaacs trying their damnedest to come home.