First family of stage craziness
Gender politics blur lines between sympathy, detest
Dysfunctional families have been a staple of theatre since the age of Greek tragedies. Yet the likes of Medea and Oedipus have nothing on the Connor family at the heart of Hir.
New York playwright Taylor Mac’s creations have raised the bar and smashed through the glass ceiling, with characters so mad they dare you to try and match it.
The brilliant staging sets the scene for this perfectly, the lights rising on a tsunami of clothes and clutter. It’s an instant warning sign for eldest son Isaac (Arlo Green), returning home from war, that all is not right.
He discovers the gender politics his family have crafted in his absence. Mother Paige (Rima Te Wiata) has taken charge after father Arnold (Nathaniel Lees) suffered a stroke, dressing him in a nightgown and forcefeeding him oestrogen as revenge for years of abuse. Her spiteful self has emerged
Theatre review What: Hir Where & when: Silo Theatre, until August 25 Reviewed by: Ethan Sills
since gender-transitioning youngest child Max (Adam Rohe) began homeschool, opening Paige’s mind to gender theory and transforming their home from one ruled by toxic masculinity into this frosty take on female emancipation.
The subversion and weaponisation of gender identity theories becomes obvious and the complexities of the implementations are unpacked. Hir truly shines when the characters’ flaws are laid bare, blurring the lines between sympathy and detest.
It is a testament to director Sophie Roberts and the cast that these nuances are fairly balanced and fully explored. Rohe is petulant perfection as Max; Green finds the compassion in Isaac’s heterosexual anger.
Yet it is Te Wiata who owns the stage, her presence so powerful that even when she leaves you can sense Paige grimacing and smirking in the corner.
She says so much with a single squawk and a raised eyebrow, turning this caricature into a fully fleshedout modern-day icon.
While the chaotic climax does not wrap things up as neatly as it seems to think, Hir is powerful, provoking theatre, a working-class manifesto of liberation and matriarchy that creates new theories as it dissimulates old ones.
Hir is powerful theatre, a workingclass manifesto of liberation and matriarchy.