Initiated by the Huntington Theatre, the Ufot Family Cycle is a massive undertaking by the Boston theater community. Across nine plays and three generations, Mfoniso Udofia’s series examines both the intimate life of one family and the expansive reach of the African diaspora. The artistically and logistically complex effort began last season and is slated to conclude this season. This citywide collaborative undertaking will have given five of the nine plays their premieres by the time the theatrical epic reaches its conclusion.
Amy Resnick, Will Conard in Huntington’s ‘We Had A World’. Photos by Annielly Camargo
‘We Had A World’ — Written by Joshua Harmon. Directed by Keira Fromm. Scenic Design by Courtney O’Neill; Costume Design by Izumi Inaba; Lighting Design by Tyler Micoleau; Sound Design and Original Music by Melanie Chen Cole, Presented by The Huntington at Wimberly Theatre, Calderwood Pavilion, 527 Tremont St., Boston through March 15.
By Shelley A. Sackett
Joshua Harmon covers a lot of ground in the arresting We Had A World. On its surface, the 100-minute one-act play is a deeply personal disinterment and examination of the complicated dyad relationships among his grandmother (Nana/Renee), his mother (Ellen), and Josh, Harmon’s autobiographical self. Equal parts loving requiem and vicious vendetta, the playwright fleshes out these complicated characters, channeling the emotional messiness and magnificence of a family where acrimony, blame, selfishness, and self-destruction share the stage with humor, love, gratitude, generosity, self-sacrifice and honesty. Spanning 1988-2018, the story is told in a nonlinear fashion, a patchwork quilt of episodes where each square is one person’s version of the same event. As the colors and patterns shift, so do our impressions of the three characters.
Chicago-based director Keira Fromm is no stranger to the work of playwright Joshua Harmon, author of Bad Jews, Significant Other,Admissions, and Prayer for the French Republic. Fromm is also a no stranger to premiering memorable work, having directed everything from Tanya Barfields’ lesbian romance Bright Half Life for About Face Theatre and David Auburn’s The Columnist at American Blues Theater to Halley Feiffer’s A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Gynecologic Oncology Unit at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center of New York City for Route 66 Theatre Company, all in their Chicago premieres, not to mention the U.S. premiere of British playwright Debbie Tucker Green’s harrowing hang for Chicago’s Remy Bumppo Theatre Company.
Caleb Levin, Odin Vega, Lyla Randall in ‘Fun Home’ at the Huntington. Photos by Marc J Franklin
‘Fun Home’ — Music by Jeanine Tesori. Book and Lyrics by Lisa Kron. Based on the graphic novel by Alison Bechdel. Directed by Logan Ellis. At the Huntington Theatre, Huntington Ave., Boston through Dec. 14.
By Shelley A. Sackett
In less capable hands, the multiple Tony Award-winning Fun Home, at the Huntington through Dec. 14, could have been a disaster. Adapted from Alison Bechdel’s graphic novel memoir, the storyline follows a family’s journey through sexual orientation, gender roles, suicide, emotional abuse, grief, loss, and lesbian Bechdel’s complicated relationship with her tightly closeted father. To boot, the title refers to the family funeral parlor, where her father worked and she and her siblings played.
Doesn’t sound like the raw material for one of the year’s outstanding Boston area productions? Think again.
Ryan Jinn, Esther Chung, Ins Choi, Kelly Seo, and Brandon McKnight in Kim’s Convenience at the Huntington Theatre
“Kim’s Convenience”, by Ins Choi. Directed by Weyni Mengesha. Adam Blanshay Productions presents the Soulpepper Theatre Company production in association with American Conservatory Theater, Calderwood Pavilion, 527 Tremont Street, Boston, through November 30th.
by Michele Markarian
“Is it over?” asked my friend, a huge admirer of the “Kim’s Convenience” television series (which, admittedly, I’ve never seen, but judging from the crowd at the Huntington Theater, the series has a lot of enthusiastic fans). Indeed, the ending of the play, which ties up a lot of the show’s loose ends, feels abrupt and, to a large extent, unearned. The talented cast, however, makes “Kim’s Convenience” a sweet and enjoyable theatrical experience despite the compressed plot points.
Logan Ellis. Director of Fun Home. Photo by Annabel Clark
Rising theater director Logan Ellis has become a director who bridges worlds — between classical music and theater, between scrappy DIY companies and regional powerhouses, and between personal vulnerability and political urgency. Fresh out of school, he and some friends founded Theatre Battery in Kent, Washington, turning vacant mall storefronts into free community art spaces in one of the state’s most culturally diverse areas. Fifteen years later, Ellis has earned his MFA from Yale School of Drama, become Associate Producer at Skylight Theatre Company in Los Feliz (a neighborhood in Los Angeles), continued as Producing Artistic Director and Co-Founder at Theatre Battery, and pivoted into film.
Playwright Ins Choi was born in South Korea and emigrated to Canada with his family as an infant. Taking to theater at an early age, he participated in his high school’s plays and later graduated from York University with a degree in theater, then worked with Toronto’s fu-GEN, self-described as an “Asian Canadian Theatre Company.” Turning to writing, he authored Kim’s Convenience, a play about a family of Korean immigrants in Toronto headed by a stubborn patriarch, with an understanding mother (Umma) and two adult children — the artistic, still-single Janet, and estranged son Jung — rounding out the family. The play explores a clash of cultural expectations, as Appa — “Dad” or “Daddy” in Korean, the only name he’s given in the play — attempts to assert his authority not only in the store (where he’s quick to discern which customers are likely to shoplift, his profiling inevitably veering into problematic territory) but also in the lives of his offspring. Stubborn, but ultimately loving, Appa is the pillar around which the family centers, despite the estrangement between himself and Jung.
Chris Grace in ‘Sardines’ at The Huntington. Photos by Eric Michaud
‘Sardines (a comedy about death)’. Written and performed by Chris Grace. Directed by Eric Michaud. Kevin Becerra, Associate Director of Artistic Programming and Activation. Kendyl Trott, Production Coordinator. At The Maso Studio at The Huntington Theatre, 264 Huntington Ave, Boston, through November 16.
By Linda Chin
At The Huntington Theatre, attendees of Sardines (a comedy about death) will be treated to sixty minutes of the sweet sounds of Amazing Grace. Not the comforting hymn that’s popular at funerals, but the words and voice of playwright-actor Chris Grace (NBC-TV’s Superstore) in a solo stage show about family, grief, and loss that he’s written and performs.
Chris Grace in ‘Sardines’ at The Huntington. Photos by Eric Michaud
You might know comedian Chris Grace from his role on Superstore or his appearances on Broad City, Pen15, and other TV shows. But beyond the screen, he’s a busy standup comedian with such a packed itinerary that, he tells Theater Mirror, he hasn’t been home since July… and he won’t be back until just before Thanksgiving.
One of Grace’s most recent stops was the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where he created new material nonstop — a show every day, he says, for each day he was there. Now he’s getting ready to come to Boston, bringing his solo show Sardines (a comedy about death) to the Huntington Theatre for a six-week run, Sept. 30 – Nov. 16. (Find out more at https://www.huntingtontheatre.org/whats-on/sardines/ .)
Meghan Carey, Kate Fitzgerald, Alison Jean White, Chloé Kolbenhyer, Nicole Mulready (on floor) in Huntington’s ‘The Hills of California’. Photos by Liza Voll
“The Hills of California”, by Jez Butterworth. Directed by Loretta Greco. Presented by The Huntington in association with Berkeley Repertory Theatre, The Huntington, 264 Huntington Avenue, Boston, through October 12.
By Michele Markarian
Full disclosure: I love Jez Butterworth’s writing – psychological without being heavy-handed. I saw Jerusalem with Mark Rylance in 2011; it was magnificent, as was The Ferryman. The Hills of California is no exception – it is a remarkable and moving work that skillfully weaves the lives of four sisters and their mother through their shaky past and fractured present and makes them whole again.
