THE HUMANS

Book by Stephen Karam

Directed by Jackie Maxwell

A Co-Production with Canadian Stage

Play Guides sponsored by

ENRICHMENT GUIDE

2

THE HUMANS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

THEATRE ETIQUETTE 3

WHO’S INVOLVED 4

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 5

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION 6

AN INTERVIEW WITH THE DIRECTOR 7-11

SCRIPT REFERENCES 12-14

SYNOPSIS 15

THEMES 16

PRODUCTION ELEMENTS 17

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 18

FURTHER READING/REFERENCES 19

CURRICULUM ALIGNMENT 20-21

3

THE HUMANS

THEATRE ETIQUETTE

Going to the theatre is an engaging and interactive experience. We want you to be an active participant when you

see our shows; laugh when it’s funny, cry when it’s sad, gasp when it’s shocking, and enjoy the experience as much

as possible. But we want you to do this in the most respectful way possible, for both the performers and your fel-

low audience members.

To ensure the most positive experience, please review the following information prior to arriving at the theatre.

The following items are not allowed in the theatre:

•Food and drink (except that which is sold during intermission and/or permitted by the Citadel Theatre, such as

bottled water and ice cream).

•Cameras and other recording devices (please note that taking photographs or other recordings in the theatre is

strictly prohibited by law).

Basic courtesy:

•Turn OFF and put away all electronic devices such as cell phones, iPods, video game systems, etc. prior to enter-

ing the theatre.

•Do not place your feet on the seat in front of you.

•The actors onstage can see and hear the audience during the performance – it is important that audience members

not talk, move around, or fidget during the performance, as this can be distracting for the actors, as well as fellow

audience members.

•There is no dress code at the Citadel Theatre, but we respectfully request that patrons refrain from wearing hats

in the theatre.

•For the safety of those with allergies, please refrain from using perfumes or scented products before coming to

the theatre.

•Please do not place backpacks or other bags in the aisle in front of your feet, as this may impair the ability of per-

sons to exit the row in an emergency.

Inappropriate behaviour:

Citadel Theatre representatives watch carefully during performances for inappropriate behaviour, especially behav-

iour that could endanger an actor or audience member. Inappropriate behaviour includes, but is not limited to:

•Talking in the audience

•The use of laser pointers or other light or sound-emitting devices

•Interfering with an actor or the performance (tripping, throwing items on or near the stage, etc.)

Audience members identified as engaging in this type of behaviour will be removed from the theatre during the

performance or at intermission.

4

THE HUMANS

Season Sponsor

CAST, CREATIVE TEAM AND CHARACTERS

CAST

Brigid Blake SARA FARB

Aimee Blake ALANA HAWLEY

Richard Saad RICHARD LEE

Deirdre Blake LAURIE PATON

Erik Blake RIC REID

Fiona “Momo” Blake MARALYN RYAN

CREATIVE TEAM

Director JACKIE MAXWELL

Set/Costume Designer JUDITH BOWDEN

Lighting Designer MICHAEL WALTON

Sound Designer MATT SKOPYK

Assistant Director BRENLEY CHARKOW

Stage Manager ANDREA SCHURMAN

Assistant Stage Manager AL GADOWSKY

SPONSORS

A-Level Seats Sponsor

Media Sponsors

5

THE HUMANS

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT

Stephen Karam’s plays include The Humans (Tony Award, Obie Award for Playwriting and Pulitzer Prize finalist), Sons of the Prophet (Pulitzer Prize finalist), and Speech & Debate. His adaptation of Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard premiered on Broadway as part of Roundabout’s 2016 season; his film adaptation of The Seagull, starring Annette Bening, premiered in 2017.

Recent honours include two Drama Critics Circle, Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk Awards; a Lucille Lortel

Award, Drama League Award and Hull-Warriner Award.

Karam is a graduate of Brown University, and he grew up in Scranton, PA, in a Lebanese American family of Maronite faith. He graduated in 2002, then apprenticed at the Utah Shakespeare Festival, where he met Arian Moayed (who appeared in the Off-Broadway and Broadway productions of The Humans).

Karam was a three-time winner in The Blank Theatre’s Nationwide Young Playwrights Festival in 1997, 1998 and 1999. His musical, Emma, won the Kennedy Centre American College Theatre Musical Theatre Award in 2001.

The Roundabout Theatre company produced his play, Speech & Debate, in October 2007, at the Black Box, after a workshop at Brown/Trinity Playwrights Repertory Theatre in Providence in 2006. Karam’s play, columbinus, was produced Off-Broadway in 2006 at the New York Theatre Workshop, following co-premieres in 2006 at the Round House Theatre in Maryland and at Perseverance theatre in Alaska.

His work, Sons of the Prophet, was produced in 2011 at the Roundabout Theatre Company’s Laura Pels Theatre. The play was a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and winner of the New York Drama Critics Circle, Outer Critics Circle and Lucille Lortel Awards for Best Play.

The Humans was his second commission from the Roundabout Theatre. The play had its world premiere at the American Theatre Company, in Chicago, in 2014.

Karam was the Writer in Residence at the 2016 National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Centre in Waterford, Connecticut.

The Humans opened on Broadway at the Helen Hayes Theatre on February 18, 2016. It moved to the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre in August 2016, and closed January 15, 2017, before beginning a national tour. It premiered Off-Broadway in a Roundabout Theatre Company production at the Laura Pels Theatre on October 25, 2015 and closed on January 3, 2016.

The Humans was a finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and won the 2016 Tony Award for Best Play.

6

THE HUMANS

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

The Humans is a one-act play written by Stephen Karam. The play opened on Broadway in 2016 after an engagement Off-Broadway in 2015. The Humans was a finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and won the 2016 Tony Award for Best Play, in addition to winning three other Tony awards: Best Performance by An Actor in a Featured Role in a Play, Best Performance by An Actress

in a Featured Role in a Play, and Best Scenic Design of a Play.

The play had its world premiere at the American Theater Company, Chicago, Illinois in November

2014, directed by PJ Paparelli.

The Humans opened Off-Broadway at the Laura Pels Theatre on September 30, 2015 in previews, and officially on October 25, 2015 in a limited run produced by the Roundabout Theatre Company, with positive reviews, and ran until January 3, 2016. It transferred to Broadway to the Helen Hayes Theatre, opening on February 18, 2016 and closing at the Helen Hayes Theatre on July 24, 2016. The play then transferred to the Schoenfeld Theatre, opening on August 9, 2016. (The Helen Hayes Theatre underwent major renovations, starting in August 2016.) The play closed its Broadway engagement on January 15, 2017. After closing, the play started a US national tour, beginning in

November 2017 at the Seattle Repertory Theater.

Directed by Joe Mantello, the Off-Broadway cast featured Cassie Beck (Aimee), Reed Birney (Erik), Jayne Houdyshell (Deirdre), Lauren Klein (Fiona “Momo” Blake), Arian Moayed (Richard), and Sarah Steele (Brigid). The Off-Broadway cast moved to Broadway. Birney and Houdyshell won Tony

awards in 2016 for their roles.

The Canadian Premiere of The Humans, directed by Jackie Maxwell, begins at the Citadel January 6, 2018, and runs until January 28. A co-production with Canadian Stage, the show will move to

Toronto after it finishes in Edmonton.

Cassie Beck (Aimee), Jayne Houdyshell (Deirdre), Reed Birney (Erik), Arian Moayed (Richard), Sarah Steele (Brigid)

and Lauren Klein (Fiona “Momo” Blake) in the Broadway production of The Humans.

7

THE HUMANS

An Interview with the Director

Citadel Theatre: This is your first time directing a production at the Citadel. Is it your first time working

in Edmonton?

Jackie Maxwell: Yes, it is. It was all a bit of a surprise. I had originally talked to Canadian Stage about

The Humans and then I found out that they were talking about a co-production with the Citadel, so it

was a lovely coincidence that, in the end, I get to come to the Citadel and do this play there, as well.

I’ve known Penny Ritco [the Citadel’s outgoing Executive Director] for ages. I know Daryl Cloran [the

Citadel’s Artistic Director] well. I asked Daryl to come be a director when I was running the Shaw

Festival. I’m really happy to be there in Daryl’s first year [of programming]. I think that’s really exciting

and it’s a nice thing to be a part of.

Jackie Maxwell, former Artistic Director of the Shaw Festival, is coming to Edmonton this season to direct at

the Citadel for the first time. Maxwell, who has been a dramaturg and teacher at numerous institutions,

including the Banff Centre for the Arts, will direct Stephen Karam’s Pulitzer Prize-nominated play, The

Humans, in Shoctor Theatre January 6-28, 2018. The Broadway production of the show won four Tony

Awards, an Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Broadway Play, and the New York Drama Critics’

Circle Award for Best Play.

Jackie Maxwell. Photo provided.

8

THE HUMANS

An Interview with the Director Continued

CT: When did you first become aware of Stephen Karam’s play The Humans? Did you see it on

Broadway?

JM: No, I haven’t. I would have gone to see it on Broadway but I found out just before I was

thinking of going to New York that I was going to do [the play] with the Citadel and Canadian Stage.

And once you know that – I’ve heard lots about it, I’ve read it. I read a lot of plays – I used to have

to for my job at the Shaw and I just naturally do anyways. I’m one of those slightly nerdy people

that just enjoys reading plays. So I loved the play and I really found it very moving, even just

reading it. Once I found out I was doing it, I just didn’t want to go see it. I didn’t want to have

someone else’s production imprinted in my head. Our designer, Judith Bowden, has seen it. We’re

already in design conversations, of course, and so on. And she was saying it’s always a little hard

when you’ve seen a production to just try to - not blank it right out of your head - but not let it

affect your initial decisions.

CT: How would you describe The Humans to someone who’s not familiar with the play?

JM: I think The Humans is absolutely what it’s titled – it’s human. It really is a brilliant mixture

between comedy – and some of it’s very, very funny – and a kind of very current drama about class

and what it’s like to be living in North America today, what it means to be working class, lower-

middle-class today. It’s a family drama, so I think that people can really relate to it. Interestingly,

it also has a slightly … there’s a bit of a mystery around it, as well. If you said to somebody, ‘It’s a

comedy-drama-mystery,’ they’d go, ‘Wow. It’s got to make up its mind.’ But, in fact, I think it

does. It’s a story of a family today and what that means. It’s very relatable, too. It’s also

provocative, at times. I don’t want to give away the plot but really, it’s not a huge plot – a family

meets for Thanksgiving dinner. As we all know, anyone who has done that or Christmas or whatever,

anything can happen in those situations. So, in that sense, I think people will be very … it’s like

going to see a piece where you get pulled in. I think the characters are eminently likeable but

flawed, of course. I think it’s a play that will get under your skin in the best kind of way.

CT: The play is a single act, with no intermission, and it all takes place in a duplex apartment in

Chinatown in New York. What are some of the challenges of staging a play like this?

JM: It’s going to be fun. It reminds me a bit of having a doll’s house – you know, when you get a

doll’s house when you’re a kid and you open the entrance to it. It’s kind of like a duplex sliced in

half and we get to see four rooms. The fascinating thing about that, in terms of the actors,

normally, in a play, a scene takes place in a room and when you leave the room, you’re no longer in

the play. But, in this case, everybody is on the stage all the time. Even if a scene is happening

downstairs in the kitchen, you still have an action, a narrative that’s happening upstairs in a

different room. You have to work out the narratives. A lot of it is in the script. But the thing that

you have to do is make sure that everything all times out. If the father is upstairs, for example,

trying to get cell service out the one window, and there’s an argument going on downstairs. He

comes into that argument at a certain point, so he has to know how long he’s doing what he’s doing

before he comes down and interrupts the argument. (Continued on the next page)

9

THE HUMANS

An Interview with the Director Continued

(Continued from the previous page) If you multiply that by six [actors], that’s a lot of narratives that

you have to pull together, so it’s going to be a very interesting rehearsal process.

CT: The Humans includes a wide spectrum of feelings: fear, love, terror, resentment, weariness,

heartbreak, etc. but there’s also a lot of humour and sarcasm throughout the script. How will you work

that balance between the sadness of this family’s reality and the humour they manage to find in their

situations?

JM: I think in most cases, you work to understand what are the problems and the issues. And, as in

most cases, the humour is how to almost cover that. In a sense, it plays on a level of comedy. But,

because we start to know things – people make fun of their situations or they are sarcastic or they hide

in their situation through humour. You have to work in parallel. You have to find out exactly what’s

going on, exactly what the problems are. Then, you have to understand how they are covering it by

humour or how they are using humour to deflect or using humour because they want to forget about it

for a while.

CT: How do you decide which productions you want to direct? What attracts you to a project?

JM: Humanity, funnily enough. I love all sorts of different plays. If I just look over the last year, I just

finished doing a Jacobean tragedy at the Stratford Festival, called The Changeling, which is a lot of

sex, blood and death. Before that, I did a Lillian Hellman play at Arena Stage in Washington, DC, which

was really quite a tense drama. Before that, I did Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, and Sweeney Todd. I’m only

giving you that list because through that list, you go from a musical to a Chekhov to a Jacobean tragedy

to a drama. What I would say is in common with all of those pieces is that, first of all, they rely on

actors really giving of themselves and committing to it. I love being with a group of actors in a room

and really, really digging in to find the world and how far we can commit to it and examine it. I love

that; I love working with good actors, especially on really good parts. I think also the fact that I do like

to think that there is a beacon of hope somewhere [in the plays]. It was a little hard to find that in the

Jacobean tragedy. I think the notion that a play has to have a way forward out of it. I always like to

think to myself, ‘I wonder what happened after the play? I wonder what happened next?’ and I like

plays that make you want to ask that question, as opposed to just leave the theatre running for the

hills.

CT: One thing that comes up a lot when discussing the Broadway production of The Humans is that the

ending is sort of ambiguous. It’s one of the those plays that makes you wonder what happened next.

JM: I like plays that are open-ended in the sense that they don’t end neatly; they aren’t tied up with a

little bow. To me, theatre has to last well after you’ve seen the play. You have to be able to go to the

bar, get a drink and have a really good conversation about what you saw. Or maybe even an argument

about what you saw. I’ve always believed that. The saddest thing you can hear in a lobby is, ‘Ok, where

do you want to go have dinner?’ You want people to go, ‘I want to keep talking about the play and

thinking about the play’ because it’s how we find that – I think ... (Continued on the next page)

10

THE HUMANS

(Continued from the previous page) … that theatre can explain things to us or at least show us

examples of things and it certainly can provoke us to try to understand other people’s points of view or

to see how other people live. I like the idea that people will definitely go out humming the tune, so to

speak.

CT: When you were a youth in Belfast, you got into acting, and studied theatre at the University of

Manchester. You made the switch to directing when you moved to Canada. Why the change?

JM: I think to be an actor, you have to have a very, very deep core belief in yourself as an actor

because you’re constantly dealing with rejection and it’s a hard road, and there’s always a lot of actors

for every part. I had acted when I was quite young. I was one of those kids that always played “the kid”

in the local theatre’s plays. But, after a while, as I got older and I went through university, which I

loved, and I found out more about theatre, I started to find that I didn’t have necessarily that core

belief. So, in the end, I knew that I wanted to be in theatre – I’ve never really wanted to be in anything

else but theatre. But I was lucky. I got a job at the National Arts Centre as an assistant to the artistic

director. I ended up assisting on all sorts of different plays with different directors. As I watched that, I

thought, ‘This makes more sense to me now.’ For directing, you have to be able to keep the big picture

in your head; you also have to be able to zero in on details. I realized that it was closer to how my

brain worked.

CT: What qualities make you well suited for directing?

JM: I think directing is both an overrated and underrated job, in that people often think that a director

is someone who has an idea or a concept and just kind of delivers it from on high. Whereas I think it’s a

very collaborative job. I certainly am a very collaborative director. I love collaborating with my design

team and my actors. I think you have to be a good psychiatrist. You have to understand how to work

with actors. You have to understand that every actor can work very differently. You have to be able to

go into detail and then stand back and see the bigger picture. I enjoy that. I have a multi-tasking kind

of brain, so I can keep a lot of things in my head at the same time, which certainly helps, when I’m

trying to build a world. I like to have fun in rehearsals. I like to enjoy them, even if it’s a more serious

play. In fact, sometimes the more serious the play, the more giddy you get because people have to

really go far down into a dark place so you have to create a safe environment for them to do that.

CT: You recently left the Shaw Festival after 14 seasons as Artistic Director. What’s next?

JM: Yeah, I’ve got lots of plans for the future. I’m going to move to Toronto and move into an

apartment. I have two great daughters who now live in Toronto, so I want to be close to them. As a

freelance artist, which is now what I am, it’s a much better place - Niagara-on-the-Lake is not really a

base to operate from. It’s a retirement community that happens to have a beautiful theatre in it. I’ve

got some really interesting projects coming up. I want to travel more; it’s something that I love. One of

my presents to myself right after I finished [at the Shaw Festival] was to go to Spain for a month. Now

that I’ve got the time, I can do that. But I love directing. Even when I was an artistic director, if people

would ask me what I did, I would say, ‘Well, actually, at heart, I’m a director.’ I loved running the

Shaw. I loved running Factory Theatre when I ran it. But, to me, the real joy is being in a rehearsal hall

with a group of actors. And I’ll continue doing that until they drag me out, feet first, I guess.

An Interview with the Director Continued

11

THE HUMANS

An Interview with the Director Continued

CT: One of the other directors coming to the Citadel this season, Ashlie Corcoran, mentioned that

she really looks up to you and that you taught her a lot when she was an intern director at Shaw

Festival. Is mentoring female directors something that you consciously set out to do?

JM: I find it very, very important. When I ran the Shaw, I made a point of hiring female directors –

not just female directors, but many more than most people did at that time. I was the only woman

to run a really major institution. There are other women running theatres, of course, but maybe not

as many as there should be. I really believe in that. I believe that I have experience that can be

helpful. I’m always happy to talk to any young artist, but especially a young female artist or a young

female director. I’m always open to that. How do you learn? That’s one of the ways you learn. By

the time you get to having several years of experience, it’s good to share that.

CT: Even though The Humans is set in New York, it seems like the family’s situation is something

Canadian audiences will relate to.

JM: Oh, totally. [The playwright, Stephen Karam] has said that he feels like this could be a family in

many, many places. He happened to have family in Scranton and New York. But I believe it will be

eminently relatable to Canadians.

CT: What do you hope audiences will take away from seeing the play?

JM: I hope, first of all, they will have had a very full evening in the theatre. I think they’re going to

take away a sense that sometimes you have to be more careful when you think with the people you

love. I think people may find or see that what seems to be on the surface often isn’t when you

probe a little deeper. And that a lot of the time, even though people may not always treat each

other perfectly, that usually in these situations there is love – it’s just that people don’t know quite

how to behave.

CT: The opening of The Humans is in January 2018 but auditions were in February 2017. Is there

anything you can share with us about casting and what you looked for in an actor?

JM: It’s a true ensemble, in the sense that they really do – there is no one star. Everybody is there,

and they are there all the time. I’m really happy. It’s a real mix of Edmonton and Toronto actors,

which I always think is interesting. So I’ve got some people I know and some people I don’t, who I

really admire. I think we’ve all got to get together and be in that room and make it happen.

The Humans runs January 6-28, 2018, at Citadel Theatre. For

more information or to purchase tickets, call 780.425.1820 or

visit www.citadeltheatre.com.

12

THE HUMANS

SCRIPT REFERENCES

There are six basic fears, with some combination of which every human suffers at one time or

another…

The fear of POVERTY

The fear of CRITICISM

The fear of ILL HEALTH

The fear of LOSS OF LOVE OF SOMEONE

The fear of OLD AGE

The fear of DEATH

—Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich

The subject of the “uncanny”… belongs to all that is terrible — to all that arouses dread and

creeping horror … The German word [for “uncanny”], unheimlich, is obviously the opposite of

heimlich, meaning “familiar,” “native,” “belonging to the home”; and we are tempted to conclude

that what is “uncanny” is frightening precisely because it is not known and familiar … [But] among

its different shades of meaning the word Heimlich exhibits one which is identical with its opposite,

unheimlich … on the one hand, it means that which is familiar and congenial, and on the other,

that which is concealed and kept out of sight.

—Sigmund Freud, “The Uncanny”

Cassie Beck (Aimee), Jayne Houdyshell (Deirdre), Reed Birney (Erik), Arian Moayed (Richard), Sarah Steele (Brigid)

and Lauren Klein (Fiona “Momo” Blake) in the Broadway production of The Humans.

Photography by Brigitte Lacombe.

13

THE HUMANS

SCRIPT REFERENCES cont…

The Chinatown Apartment Erik’s reasons for not liking Brigid’s new apartment in Chinatown comes down to its location and its proximity to two historic events: the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the widespread damage of Hurricane Sandy, also known as Superstorm Sandy. September 11, 2001 On September 11, 2001, 19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda hijacked four airliners and carried out suicide attacks against targets in the United States. Two of the planes were flown into the towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, a third plane hit the Pentagon just outside Washington, D.C., and the fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. Often referred to as 9/11, the attacks resulted in extensive death and destruction, triggering major U.S. initiatives to combat terrorism and defining the presidency of George W. Bush. Over 3,000 people were killed during the attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., including more than 400 police officers and firefighters. In The Humans, we learn that two of the characters, Erik and his daughter, Aimee, happened to be in New York on the morning of September 11, 2001, even though neither of them lived there. Aimee had a job interview in the city that morning, and Erik came with her. He was going to visit the observation deck at the World Trade Center, but it did not open until 9:30 a.m., so he was across the street at a Dunkin’ Donuts when the planes intentionally flew into the twin towers (the first plane hit the north tower at 8:46 a.m.; a different plane hits the south tower at 9:03 a.m.). Erik spent several hours separated from Aimee after the attacks, neither of them knowing if the other one was alive. This major event comes up multiple times throughout the play, and it is eventually revealed to be the source of Erik’s nightmares. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, were a life-changing moment for many Americans, especially New Yorkers, so it is not surprising that it comes up repeatedly in a play set in Manhattan. Many New Yorkers experienced Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) after the attacks. Brigid, however, does not share Erik’s fears or concerns about living so close to the site of the attacks that happened more than a decade prior to her moving there. It isn’t mentioned if Brigid lived in New York in 2001, or if she was still in her hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania at the time. We do know that Brigid moved from Queens, another borough of New York, to her new apartment, with Richard, and that Aimee currently lives in Philadelphia, while their parents remain in Scranton. Hurricane or “Superstorm” Sandy

When Erik tell Brigid: “Chinatown flooded during the last hurricane,” he is likely referring to Hurricane Sandy, also known as Superstorm Sandy, which ravaged the east coast of the United States in the fall of 2012. Chinatown, in the southeastern section of Manhattan, was one of the hardest-hit areas during the storm. At least 147 people died in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean as a result of the storm, and millions were without electricity for days. Then-president Barack Obama declared a State of Emergency in Connecticut, Washington, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island. The New York Stock Exchange suspended operations, and remained closed for two consecutive days, the first time that has happened due to weather since 1888. New York City Mayor Bloomberg estimated the total public and private losses to New York City to be $19 billion.

14

THE HUMANS

SCRIPT REFERENCES cont...

Family Traditions

Irish Blessing Song — The Parting Glass

The Blakes, who are Irish, sing a traditional Irish song as part of the ritual of blessing the new

apartment. Deirdre tells Richard that the family has been singing the same song for generations. The

song the family sings is called The Parting Glass, a very popular Irish song with a rich and long history.

The Parting Glass belongs to a family of songs that can be traced back to the 17th century.

Bob Dylan used the song The Parting Glass as the model for his own Restless Farewell (1963, on The

Times They Are A-Changin'). He used the “song's harmonic structure and sentiment,” varied the melody

a little bit and - following in the footsteps of Burns, Boswell & co - wrote his own words. It's surely not

among his best songs and only two live performances from the ‘60s are known. But Frank Sinatra liked

this song and asked Dylan to perform it at the concert celebrating his 80th birthday in 1995. Bob Dylan

then only played it live one more time - in 1998, a day after Sinatra's death.

The Peppermint Pig Smash

For centuries, pigs have been good luck symbols. It is not unusual for antique

Victorian postcards to be adorned with pigs, along with shamrocks and

horseshoes. A Christmas tradition that originated in Saratoga Springs, New

York, in the 1880s, was to smash a Peppermint Pig to bring good luck in the

New Year. This tradition lives on today. The pink candy pig is made from hard peppermint candy. After

the holiday dinner, the pig is placed in a cloth bag and broken into pieces, to be shared by all dinner

guests in hopes of having good fortune in the coming year. Grandparents have been handing down this

good-luck tradition for generations. The Blakes also partake in the peppermint pig smash (it’s one of

their many family traditions) — although it is Thanksgiving, not Christmas, in the play.

Photo credit: AP Photo/Jim McKnight

15

THE HUMANS

SYNOPSIS

The entire play takes place in a turn-of-the-century ground floor/basement duplex apartment in New

York City’s Chinatown. Brigid Blake has just moved into the apartment with her older boyfriend, Richard

Saad. Brigid’s parents, Erik and Deirdre Blake, and grandmother, Momo, have driven from Scranton,

Pennsylvania, to New York for Thanksgiving. Brigid’s sister, Aimee, has come from Philadelphia for the

holiday.

Erik sits alone upstairs, next to Momo’s empty wheelchair. He begins to hear loud noises from the

apartment above them, leaving him feeling unsettled. The family is in the process of getting

Thanksgiving dinner ready in Brigid and Richard’s new apartment. Throughout their conversations,

Momo, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, mumbles, mostly incoherently. What she says that can

be understood is vaguely eerie or threatening. Brigid, Aimee, Erik and Deirdre discuss the new

apartment, Momo’s health, and the bad cell phone reception while bustling back and forth between the

top and bottom floor of the apartment. Erik, who didn’t sleep the night before, is constantly distracted.

Aimee, who has ulcerative colitis, goes back and forth between the group and the bathroom. Eventually,

she reveals that she will have to have surgery for her condition.

Richard, who has been downstairs keeping an eye on the turkey, brings a bottle of champagne and

plastic cups upstairs to toast the new apartment. The family sings a traditional Irish song while Richard

listens, amused. Momo does not join in, which is new. Afterwards, they move downstairs to eat

appetizers while the turkey cooks. Throughout their conversations, we learn more about the family and

their struggles: money is tight; Aimee has recently been dumped by her long-time girlfriend; Brigid’s

parents hate that she is living in New York and think it’s ridiculous that her and Richard aren’t married;

Aimee’s health problems are getting worse and have caused her to go off the partnership track at her

law firm; and more. Moments of tension and family quibbling are interspersed with happy moments.

As the evening continues, and the liquor continues to flow, more family tensions rise to the surface, and

secrets begin to come out. Brigid lets it slip that Richard, still a student at 38 years old, will inherit a

family trust at age 40 — which, of course, causes some tension with the cash-strapped Blakes, especially

Erik. Erik also brings up the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and we learn he and Aimee were in

the city that morning and narrowly avoided being at the Twin Towers when the planes hit them.

After dinner, the family pulls out the peppermint pig, a Thanksgiving tradition. Everyone takes turns

saying what they are thankful for and smashes the pig with a small mallet, then eats a piece of the

peppermint. Deirdre reads an emotional email Momo wrote to Brigid and Aimee four years prior, when

she was first starting to show symptoms of Alzheimer’s.

The night’s most explosive reveal? Erik confesses to his daughters that he had an affair, causing him to

lose his job at a Catholic high school — and that Deirdre knows but is staying with him. The family begins

to fight again. Brigid leaves to yell at the loud neighbour upstairs just to get away from everyone.

Meanwhile, Momo has an intense fit, Aimee leaves to walk around the neighbourhood, Erik realizes his

nightmares are connected to Sept. 11, and a car arrives to pick up the Blakes to take them back to

Scranton (Erik and Deirdre are too drunk to drive). Erik goes into the basement to look for something

and all of the lights go out. He sees what looks like a tunnel. He hesitates, then walks through it.

16

THE HUMANS

THEMES

Family Family is obviously an important theme in this play that takes place during the Blake family’s Thanksgiving meal. Richard, while not technically a family member, is warmly welcomed into the family and its holiday traditions (although Deirdre never quite lets him and Brigid forget that they aren’t married). Momo, while not all that coherent, is still a part of the family and is still present at the dinner — or at least her body is. It’s clear that the family wouldn’t think of leaving Momo out of a family holiday, no matter how troublesome it may be to look after her. There are also repeated references to Deirdre and Erik taking care of Momo, and how they won’t put her in an assisted living facility until they absolutely can’t care for her anymore, even though it is causing them a great amount of stress (financially and emotionally). The importance of family seems to override all other concerns for the Blakes, which is why it isn’t surprising that Deirdre wants Brigid and Richard to have a more traditional relationship (i.e. marriage instead of living together) or that Deirdre is willing to stay with Erik even after he has an affair. This tight family bond also shows in the family’s support of Aimee, who is a lesbian and recently broke up with her partner. Deirdre and Erik are traditional in many ways and religious, but they never once express concern or anger about Aimee’s sexual preferences because their family bond — and being a supportive family — is the most important thing. Even when the family members are fighting, we still see signs of their love and support for each other, whether it be with inside jokes, adherence to family traditions or sticking up for one another. Traditions Traditions play an important role in The Humans, with several family traditions occurring in the script. The fact that it is Thanksgiving, a holiday, allows us to see the Blakes at their best and worst, as they drink and eat too much, but also lovingly embrace the traditions they’ve followed for years. The family members go out of their way to explain their traditions, such as the pig smash and the Irish toasts, to Richard, allowing the audience to learn about them, as well. Richard is happy to take part in the traditions, although we get the sense that his family doesn’t have many — or any — traditions of their own (or at least none that he shares with the Blakes). The fact that Brigid and Richard are moving into a new apartment also allows for family traditions to take place, such as the Irish blessing song, and blessing both floors of the apartment. These traditions may seem odd to those of us who aren’t familiar with them, but the Blakes embrace traditions, as it strengthens their family bond. These traditions provide a sense of continuity for the family — even when many things are changing, they still can follow the same traditions that they’ve embraced their entire lives.

Sarah Steele (Brigid Blake), Cassie Beck (Aimee Blake) in the Broadway production of

The Humans. Photography by Brigitte Lacombe.

17

THE HUMANS

PRODUCTION ELEMENTS

PROSCENIUM STAGE

A proscenium theatre is a specific style of theatre. Several features define a proscenium theatre, and this particular

theatre layout is extremely common; if you have ever been to see a live performance, especially in a high school

auditorium, chances are high that you have seen a proscenium theatre. In addition to proscenium style theatres, it is

also possible to find black box theatres, theatres with thrust stages, theatres in the round, and numerous other

configurations of stage and audience.

The classically defining feature of a proscenium theatre is the proscenium arch, which frames the stage for the

audience. In addition, the audience faces the stage directly, with no audience on the sides of the stage, and the stage

in a proscenium theatre is typically raised, allowing the audience to see more clearly. Modern proscenium theatres

sometimes lack the proscenium arch, but they are still called “proscenium theatres” because they retain the other

characteristics of this style of theatre.

Proscenium theatres originated in the 1600s, and became immensely popular by the 1700s. There are certain advantages

of a proscenium theatre, such as the fact that the stage doesn't have to be as open, allowing people to conceal props,

sets, and orchestras in the wings or near the stage without having these things visible to the audience. A proscenium

theatre also creates a sense of staged grandeur, with the proscenium arch acting almost like a picture frame, giving the

audience the sense that they are looking into a scene.

18

THE HUMANS

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

Why do you think The Humans is set during Thanksgiving? Why are family gatherings a rich source

of dramatic material?

What are other holidays that bring families together? Why are family gatherings a rich source of

dramatic material for writers and actors?

The family has a tradition of breaking a peppermint pig. What holiday traditions does your family

celebrate? How do you feel about these traditions? How do you think your parents feel about

these traditions?

Are there any holiday traditions that you wish you still did that you no longer do? Why do you

think traditions change, disappear or shift?

Have you ever participated in a new holiday activity/tradition with a family other than your own?

How did you feel about it? Were you nervous or excited? Why or why not?

The Humans is about family, including siblings. How realistic was the relationship between the

sisters? Do you have siblings? How is your relationship with them different from the one in the

play? How is it the same?

The Humans is about family, including parents and their children. Were those relationships

realistic? How?

As a guided discussion or a personal writing activity, ask students the following questions: In

what ways are your values different from your parents’/family’s values? What conflicts can you

imagine happening between generations with different values?

Have you seen any other plays that take place at holiday times? What are they?

The Humans is also about secrets. How are secrets damaging to relationships? Have you ever

been hurt by a secret revealed? How did that affect your relationship with the secret-keeper? Do

you know any other books or plays that are about secrets?

The meaning of dreams is a recurring theme in The Humans. Brigid’s father Erik and boyfriend

Richard each reveal images from their “weird dreams.” Dreams often tell us our ‘secret wishes’ –

pick another character and tell what you think their dreams would be about. Write a monologue

of that character telling us about their dream.

The set is designed so that we see action all over the apartment. How do you choose what to

focus on? How does this layout add to the experience of watching the play?

19

THE HUMANS

REFERENCES/FURTHER READING

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/26/theater/review-the-humans-a-family-thanksgiving-for

-a-fearful-middle-class.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/19/theater/review-the-humans-depicts-a-family-and-a-

country-under-pressure.html

http://variety.com/2016/legit/reviews/the-humans-review-play-broadway-1201709685/

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/stephen-karams-humans-theater-review-834446

http://www.npr.org/2016/02/18/467118705/family-drama-meets-existential-horror-in-the-

humans

http://www.stephenkaram.com/

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/may/31/stephen-karam-playwright-tony-nominee

-the-humans

http://deadline.com/2016/06/reed-birney-tony-nominee-the-humans-house-of-cards-

1201762273/

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/15/theater/in-the-humans-jayne-houdyshell-embodies-

mom.html?_r=0

http://theatertalk.org/the-humans/

https://charlierose.com/videos/28026

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/13/theater/onstage-the-pain-behind-the-political-

posturing.html?ref=theater&smid=tw-nyttheater&smtyp=cur

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-decline-of-white-middle-aged-

america-onstage

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3386850/

The Irish Blessing song: http://www.justanothertune.com/html/partingglass.html

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/peppermint-pigs-smashing-tradition-ny-article-

1.1217611

20

THE HUMANS

CURRICULUM ALIGNMENT

Curriculum Connections:

Participation as an audience member at the Citadel Theatre aligns with the Alberta Education Curriculum. We outline be-

low some (but not limited to) objectives which are developed through the viewing of live theatre:

Drama (Elementary)

Third Goal

To foster an appreciation for drama as an art form

Objectives The child should:

1. develop an awareness of an respect for potential excellence in self and others

2. Develop a capacity to analyze, evaluate and synthesize ideas and experiences

3. Develop an awareness and appreciation of the variety of dramatic forms of expression.

Specific Learner Expectations:

Intellectual—develop and exercise imagination; develop concentration

Emotional—explore emotion; control emotion; express emotion

Social—understand others; discipline self; develop appreciation of the work of self and others; cope with emotional re-

sponses

Integrative—learn to respond to stimuli; e.g., music, pictures, objects, literature; test and reflect on the consequences of

dramatic decisions

Drama (Junior High)

GOAL I

To acquire knowledge of self and others through participation in and reflection on dramatic experience.

Objectives The student will:

• strengthen powers of concentration

• extend the ability to think imaginatively and creatively

• extend the ability to explore, control and express emotions

extend the ability to explore meaning through abstract concepts

develop the ability to offer and accept constructive criticism

develop the ability to offer and accept constructive criticism

GOAL III

To develop an appreciation for drama and theatre as a process and art form.

Objectives The student will:

develop awareness of various conventions of theatre

develop awareness of drama and theatre by viewing as great a variety of theatrical presentations as possible

develop the ability to analyze and assess the process and the art

develop recognition of and respect for excellence in drama and theatre

21

THE HUMANS

CURRICULUM ALIGNMENT

Drama 10-20-30

GOAL I

To acquire knowledge of self and others through participation in and reflection on dramatic experience.

Objectives

The Student will:

extend the ability to concentrate

extend understanding of, acceptance of and empathy for others

demonstrate respect for others — their rights, ideas, abilities and differences (S)

demonstrate the ability to offer, accept, and reflect upon, constructive criticism.

GOAL II

To develop competency in communication skills through participation in and exploration of various dramatic disciplines.

Objectives

The Student will:

demonstrate understanding of integration of disciplines to enrich a theatrical presentation.

GOAL III

To develop an appreciation of drama and theatre as a process and art form.

Objectives

The student will:

• explore various conventions and traditions of theatre

• broaden knowledge of theatre by viewing as great a variety of theatrical presentations as possible (

• demonstrate the ability to assess critically the process and the art

• demonstrate recognition of and respect for excellence in drama and theatre

• develop an awareness of aesthetics in visual and performing arts.