Stephen Karam’s
The Humans was a Pulitzer nominee and Tony winner; if your preconception of plays that New York critics go crazy for means you’re picturing a family sitting down to a lavish Thanksgiving dinner, only to have all their problems, secrets and lies exposed, and the family’s finances turn out to be in dire straits nobody suspected, then shame on you for stereotyping: The dinner isn’t actually all that lavish. Brigid (Sarah Steele) has just moved into a split-level basement apartment in New York’s Chinatown with her boyfriend Rich (Ariyan Moayed,) and although they’re still in the process of unpacking they’ve invited her Irish-American family to visit from Scranton, Pennsylvania for the holiday. Her father Erik (Reed Birney) has been working at a Catholic private school for 28 years, part of his benefits package being that his daughters could study there for free, so they’ve had an education that allowed Brigid to become a musician and her sister Aimee (Cassie Beck) a lawyer.
