Hir
Hir by Taylor Mac
Belvoir
Isaac has come home from the blood and horror of a foreign war to look after his sick Dad, only to find a family home that looks like a bomb has gone off. The insurgent: his mum. Liberated from an oppressive marriage, with Isaac’s newly out transgender sibling as her ally, she’s on a crusade to dismantle the patriarchy. But in Taylor Mac’s sly, subversive comedy, annihilating the past doesn’t always free you from it.
Awards
Sydney Theatre Awards - Best Production
Sydney Theatre Awards - Best Director – Anthea Williams
Sydney Theatre Awards - Best Supporting Actor - Michael Whalley
Sydney Theatre Awards - Best Design – Michel Hankin
Nominations
Sydney Theatre Awards - Best Actress – Helen Thompson
Sydney Theatre Awards – Newcomer - Kurt Pimblett
Reviews
“Belvoir’s holistic approach to Hir is what allows it to succeed. It’s an outlandish black comedy, but it’s grounded in realism, and Williams cultivates a real sense of empathy for every character…Hir is an unstoppable, overwhelming, genuinely exciting play. It’s a family story for the 21st century, a riot of ideas, a socio-political tragicomedy. It’s unmissable.”
“Directed by Anthea Williams, Hir – pronounced “here”, the preferred gender pronoun of the play’s protagonist Max – reminds us of theatre’s potential: to be a brilliant conduit that makes ideas alive and accessible. Hir doesn’t merely explore themes of gender fluidity, queer theory and the subversion of toxic masculinity, because that would be dull. It lightens the weight of concepts that many find foreign or fraught, places them in a family setting and detonates them. Shrapnel flies everywhere.”
“This production brilliantly keeps changing form in Taylor Mac’s writing and Anthea Williams’s direction. It starts out like an absurdist farce, becomes at times a serious family drama, then feels like a madly gothic revenge tale. The script and performance are by turns outrageously funny and absorbingly real. Williams has a great cast that plays the shifts seamlessly.”
“The play itself is blisteringly well written, while Anthea Williams directs a searing production for Belvoir, with a sharply observed design by Michael Hankin. Helen Thomson gives an astonishing performance…Whalley and Stone are also outstanding, with newcomer Pimblett making an impressive debut as Max.”
Credits
Writer Taylor Mac
Director Anthea Williams
Set & Costume Designer Michael Hankin
Composer & Sound Designer Steve Toulmin
Lighting Designer Sian James-Holland
Associate Artist Lucky Price
Voice / Dialect Coach Paige Walker
Movement Director Scott Witt
Design Assistant Jeremy Allen
Stage Manager Isabella Kerdijk
Assistant Stage Manager Keiren Smith
Cast
Kurt Pimblett
Greg Stone
Helen Thomson
Michael Whalley
All images by Brett Broadman