HiRBY
TAYLOR MAC DIRECTED BY BRIEN LANG JANUARY 18 -
FEBRUARY 4, 2024 |
"A disarmingly audacious reflection of a rapidly changing America...as pungent as it is powerful, and well worth the visit."
- The Boston Globe "Transfixing...The Wilbury Theatre Group’s taut production of the play animates these questions with unsettling humor and rising tension, creating a theater experience that rivets and challenges its audience."
- Broadway World "Dysfunction never looked so satisfying...a production unlike anything you've ever seen before!"
- MOTIF Magazine "Shocking dark comedy...The acting is excellent."
- Warwick Beacon |
"Wilbury's HIR is a disarmingly audacious reflection of a rapidly changing America - The play by Taylor Mac was first produced in 2015. With all that has transpired in the country since, it‘s still funny in 2024, but so much more tragic, and powerful as ever....and well worth the visit." - The Boston Globe
*RHODE ISLAND PREMIERE*
HIR
BY TAYLOR MAC
DIRECTED BY BRIEN LANG
JANUARY 18 - FEBRUARY 4
Somewhere in the suburbs, Isaac has returned from the wars to help take care of his ailing father, only to discover a household in revolt. The insurgent: his mom. Liberated from an oppressive marriage, with Isaac’s newly out transgender sibling as her ally, she’s on a crusade to dismantle the patriarchy. But in Taylor Mac’s sly, subversive comedy, annihilating the past doesn’t always free you from it.
SPECIAL EVENT!
Join director Brien Lang and the cast of HIR following the 7pm performance on Saturday, February 3 as they are joined by dramaturg Am Wyckoff and health and equity expert Lauren Nocera for a discussion detailing the process of bringing Hir to the Wilbury stage. Saturday’s talkback will also touch on the many issues explored in Taylor Mac’s intense, groundbreaking work.
SPECIAL EVENT!
Join director Brien Lang and the cast of HIR following the 7pm performance on Saturday, February 3 as they are joined by dramaturg Am Wyckoff and health and equity expert Lauren Nocera for a discussion detailing the process of bringing Hir to the Wilbury stage. Saturday’s talkback will also touch on the many issues explored in Taylor Mac’s intense, groundbreaking work.
"Wilbury's HIR is a disarmingly audacious reflection of a rapidly changing America - The play by Taylor Mac was first produced in 2015. With all that has transpired in the country since, it‘s still funny in 2024, but so much more tragic, and powerful as ever....and well worth the visit."
- The Boston Globe
"In HIR — a transfixing dark comedy by Pulitzer finalist Taylor Mac — the boundaries in question have been drawn by the patriarchal structures that define gender roles and confine us to them. It asks what happens when these structures falter: Do we salvage the shattered pieces? Burn them in a fire of hurt and revenge? Or try finding a different way of being — one that moves beyond a binary of power and powerlessness, creating space for compassion without category, identity without compromise?...The Wilbury Theatre Group’s taut production of the play animates these questions with unsettling humor and rising tension, creating a theater experience that rivets and challenges its audience."
- Broadway World
"Shocking dark comedy...The acting is excellent, especially Zach Gibb, who makes you feel his raging anger and confusion. Author Mac has him vomiting a bit too much, but in another scene a moment of violence resulting in a bloody nose is as realistic as I’ve ever seen on stage...Director Brien Lang has caught the essence of this challenging play."
- Warwick Beacon
"Imagine a typical dysfunctional family drama—on steroids—delivering social commentary on subjects that are so topical right now. Playwright Taylor Mac, named “One of the most exciting theater artists of our time” by Time Out New York, bursts through the ceiling and breaks all the rules to give us something completely off the spectrum. Director Brien Lang has risen to the challenge of bringing this saga to life at Wilbury Theatre in a production unlike anything you’ve ever seen before."
- MOTIF Magazine
"Directed by Wilbury resident artist Brien Lang, Mac's play is a tight show that demands a talented cast, which it gets here. Gibb is appropriately tightly wound and turns in a fantastic performance, his Isaac is equally horrified and traumatized not only by his return home, but his wartime experiences. O'Brien is amazing - his stroke-addled Arnold is a performance to be seen. Mischley is over the top, almost like a soccer mom on speed; and she's fantastic to watch. And Malloy is appropriately awkward as Max, trying to navigate a gender change amongst the chaos of this incredibly dysfunctional family unit. "Hir" is like a car crash; no, a trainwreck with much collateral damage."
- EDGE Providence
- The Boston Globe
"In HIR — a transfixing dark comedy by Pulitzer finalist Taylor Mac — the boundaries in question have been drawn by the patriarchal structures that define gender roles and confine us to them. It asks what happens when these structures falter: Do we salvage the shattered pieces? Burn them in a fire of hurt and revenge? Or try finding a different way of being — one that moves beyond a binary of power and powerlessness, creating space for compassion without category, identity without compromise?...The Wilbury Theatre Group’s taut production of the play animates these questions with unsettling humor and rising tension, creating a theater experience that rivets and challenges its audience."
- Broadway World
"Shocking dark comedy...The acting is excellent, especially Zach Gibb, who makes you feel his raging anger and confusion. Author Mac has him vomiting a bit too much, but in another scene a moment of violence resulting in a bloody nose is as realistic as I’ve ever seen on stage...Director Brien Lang has caught the essence of this challenging play."
- Warwick Beacon
"Imagine a typical dysfunctional family drama—on steroids—delivering social commentary on subjects that are so topical right now. Playwright Taylor Mac, named “One of the most exciting theater artists of our time” by Time Out New York, bursts through the ceiling and breaks all the rules to give us something completely off the spectrum. Director Brien Lang has risen to the challenge of bringing this saga to life at Wilbury Theatre in a production unlike anything you’ve ever seen before."
- MOTIF Magazine
"Directed by Wilbury resident artist Brien Lang, Mac's play is a tight show that demands a talented cast, which it gets here. Gibb is appropriately tightly wound and turns in a fantastic performance, his Isaac is equally horrified and traumatized not only by his return home, but his wartime experiences. O'Brien is amazing - his stroke-addled Arnold is a performance to be seen. Mischley is over the top, almost like a soccer mom on speed; and she's fantastic to watch. And Malloy is appropriately awkward as Max, trying to navigate a gender change amongst the chaos of this incredibly dysfunctional family unit. "Hir" is like a car crash; no, a trainwreck with much collateral damage."
- EDGE Providence
CONTENT WARNING: This production includes discussions of topics that may be difficult for audiences, including profanity throughout, racial, homophobic, and transphobic slurs, discussions of houselessness, sexual and family violence, and discussions and depictions of drug use and addiction, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and ableism. The production also contains simulated vomiting and blood. Audience members are encouraged to take care of themselves, including stepping out if needed. If you need additional support, please call or text 988.
PRODUCTION MEDIA:
CAST + CREATIVE TEAM
Zach Gibb
Jennifer Mischley
|
Will Malloy
Jim O'Brien*
|
HIR
by Taylor Mac directed by Brien Lang Scenic Design by Monica Shinn Lighting Design by Alexander Sprague Costume Design by Matt Oxley Videography by Robert Isenberg Puppet Design by Jason Miller Technical Direction by Dave Carney Dramaturgy by Am Wyckoff Stage Manager James Kane* Assistant Stage Manager Kerin Hagin Costume Assistant Arianna C. Davey Front of House Management by Christine Treglia Volunteer Management by Renee Bessette Production Photographer, Erin X. Smithers Press / Media Inquiries: Niki Healy, Bright Publicity |
*Appears courtesy Actors' Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
Taylor Mac (who uses “judy”, lowercase sic, not as a name but as a gender pronoun) is a playwright, actor, singer-songwriter, performance artist, director and producer. “A critical darling of the New York scene” (NY Magazine), TimeOut NY has called Mac “One of the most exciting theater artists of our time” (naming judy a future theater legend). Judy’s work has been performed at New York City’s Lincoln Center, The Public Theatre and Playwrights Horizons, Los Angeles’s Royce Hall, Minneapolis’s Guthrie Theater, Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre, the Sydney Opera House, Boston’s American Repertory Theatre, Stockholm’s SodraTheatern, the Spoleto Festival, San Francisco’s Curran Theater and MOMA, and literally hundreds of other theaters, museums, music halls, opera houses, cabarets, and festivals around the globe. Judy is the author of seventeen full-length plays and performance pieces including HIR (placed on the top ten theater of 2015 lists of The New York Times, New York Magazine, and Time Out NY; published by North Western University Press and in American Theater Magazine), THE LILY'S REVENGE (Obie Award), THE WALK ACROSS AMERICA FOR MOTHER EARTH (named One of the Best Plays of 2011 by The New York Times), THE YOUNG LADIES OF (Chicago’s Jeff Award nomination for best solo), RED TIDE BLOOMING (Ethyl Eichelberger Award), THE BE(A)ST OF TAYLOR MAC (Edinburgh Festival’s Herald Angel Award) and in collaboration with Mandy Patinkin, Susan Stroman and Paul Ford, Mac created THE LAST TWO PEOPLE ON EARTH: AN APOCALYPTIC VAUDEVILLE. Mac is the recipient of multiple awards including the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, a Guggenheim Award, the Herb Alpert Award in Theater, the Peter Zeisler Memorial Award, the Helen Merrill Playwriting Award and an Obie. An alumnus of New Dramatists judy is currently a New York Theater Workshop Usual Suspect and the Resident playwright at the Here Arts Center.
ABOUT
An award-winning*, not-for-profit professional theatre company, the Wilbury Theatre Group engages our community in thought-provoking conversation through new works, reimagined classics and adventurous playmaking. We are idealistic, ambitious, and stubborn in our resolve to create theatre that entertains, enlightens, and inspires.
*WINNER of the 2018 National Theatre Company Grant from the American Theatre Wing (The Tony Awards).
*WINNER of the 2018 National Theatre Company Grant from the American Theatre Wing (The Tony Awards).
