Dishonorably discharged Isaac returns from his war-time burden in Mortuary Affairs; he picked up body parts. He finds his family decomposing. His formerly abusive dad has become a tranny clown. His mom has taken over the running the family and his sister is out as a trans- male anarchist. The very large array: adultery, sexual abuse, drug addiction, incest, alcoholism. Does that sound like a barrel of laughs or a slide down the sewer?
This is the focus of Bluebarn’s production of HIR, a comedy by actor, singer-songwriter, performance artist, director and producer Taylor Mac. It placed on the top ten theater of 2015 lists of The New York Times, and New York Magazine. The Times called it “brilliant…sensational…audacious… uproarious” drawing attention to “the flawed and real humanity that simmers beneath” the surreal surface.
No acronym, “hir” is a newly emerging gender-neutral, politically correct pronoun. Mac also wrote Obie Award-winning The Lily’s Revenge and The Walk Across America for Mother Earth, named by the NY Times as one of 2011’s best plays. Mac, aka “judy,” also got major attention for last October’s 24-hour long concert, “A 24-Decade History of Popular Music” exploring such things as racism, chauvinism, homophobia and misogyny in American songs. More about him at http://www.taylormac.org/about/
Adult audience for this? Yes, sir…uh, yes mam…uh, yes hir.
HIR runs Feb.2- Feb 26 at Bluebarn Theatre, 1106 South 10th St. Thurs.-Sat.: 7:30 p.m., Sun. Feb.12, 19, 26: 6 p.m. Tickets: $25-$30. www.bluebarn.org