"The Humans" at the Pittsburgh Public Theater

Trivia Question: What won the Tony Award for Best Play the year that "Hamilton" won Tony Awards for everything else?

Answer (which you can tell from the photo above): "The Humans" by Steven Karam.

"The Humans" is currently playing at the Pittsburgh Public Theater, and Marilyn and I attended this show last night, and we both liked the play very much.

The concept of the play is not an unusual one for drama.  A family (a mother and father, a grandmother with dementia, two sisters, and one sister's live-in boyfriend) comes together for dinner, Thanksgiving dinner in this case, at the New York City apartment of the Brigid and Rich (the daughter and boyfriend).  All is light and jovial at first, but before long, animosities, some long-buried and some recent, come to the surface, followed by a  lot of "hey-she-knows-I'm-just-kidding" types of comments.  

It is a play that makes you laugh, makes you think, and sometimes makes you uncomfortable, which, I believe, is precisely what good drama is supposed to do.  As always, the production by the PPT is first rate, and the performances of the six actors are all terrific.

An interesting sidelight of this play revolves around the dinner itself.  One of the actors spends much of the time preparing the Thanksgiving meal itself...fixing and serving a vegetable tray, pouring drinks, and, finally, carving a fully cooked turkey.  Our seats were in the first balcony to the right of the stage, right above where the turkey was being carved, and I've got to tell you, it smelled really, really good!  Made us  really hungry as we watched.

"The Humans" at the PPT gets three stars from The Grandstander.