On the night of Nov. 11, the phenomenal all-student cast of the Humans gave us their first of four performances and it did not disappoint.
What may not seem like a very interesting premise, simply watching a family gathering at Thanksgiving, took me by utter surprise as I found myself fully immersed in the emotions of each character. There is no way to describe how well it captured the feeling of a family gathering other than to watch it yourself.
The play begins with the family of Brigid Blake (Maribella Arguello) coming to see her and her boyfriend Richard's (Jude Johnson) new apartment. They are hosting Thanksgiving dinner there for the Blake family. As the play unfolds we hear sarcastic and playful remarks between the characters which indicate that there is a slight tension between the characters because of past incidents. As the play goes on, things get worse and worse between the family members and the apartment itself does not help, as there are weird noises, the walls are paper thin, and light bulbs go out at random. Tensions are very high by the end as a very sensitive piece of information is revealed.
Throughout the whole play, I felt like a fly on the wall, almost as if I was watching a real family gathering unfold. Many of the mannerisms of the different characters reminded me of some of my own family members, and I am sure it did so for many others.
I want to commend all of the actors for their captivating performances. Everyone seemed to capture their characters incredibly well, and for a moment I almost forgot they were regular college students. The grandmother Momo (Leiana Carrasco) has dementia and the way Carrasco portrayed it was done very well. At different points throughout the show, some of the characters would raise their voices and it would trigger an outburst from Momo, where she'd repeat phrases over and over as if she was trying to communicate that she was feeling upset. However much talent and practice it takes to get that repetition to sound realistic, Carrasco certainly met it. She had so many little details to focus on and from the way her hands would fidget to her head nodding to her repetition, she nailed it.
In addition, we watch Bridgid's parents express concern about the location of her new apartment and the little things wrong with it. This reminded me a lot of my own family and how they care about me so much that sometimes they worry a little too much. I'm sure most of us have had that experience with family before. I don't think I would have been reminded of my own family members nearly as much if they hadn't done such a good job of capturing the way each character was meant to act.
The actors truly made each of their characters come to life. To do that they would have all had to master each character's mannerisms and viewpoints, which takes lots of hard work and skill. I was truly blown away by their talent.
The next showtimes are Nov. 17, at 11 a.m., and Nov. 19, at 7:30 p.m.
The cast list can be seen here:
Brigid Blake – Maribella Arguello
Erik Blake – Thomas Velisaris
Deirdre Blake – Wendy Acosta
Momo Blake– Leiana Carrasco
Amie Blake – Max Rue
Richard – Jude Johnson
Understudies – Soraya Ledesma and Logan Gonzalez
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