Friday, December 1, 2017

Day 252 Humans-Pittsburgh Public Theater-Family Together for the Holidays



One of my Blog inspiration books, Everything I Learned about FAMILY I Learned From a Little Golden Book reminds us that, “Family life is made of moments, big and small, moments that bind us over time…times that give us a sense of belonging”.  The play The Humans is about the dynamics of a middle class family that gather for Thanksgiving dinner. Brigid Blake invites her parents, sister and grandmother ”Momo” from Scranton PA,  to  join her and her boyfriend in New York  City’s Chinatown. 


When families come together during the holidays there is usually laughter and some serious drama at the table. I was excited to see how this Irish Catholic family compared to my Italian Catholic family as they gathered together for the holidays.  


Reflection 
 The Humans reminds us of our own real life drama that occurs when we get our family together.  As I watched the play I remembered many of my own past Italian family Thanksgiving meals where we argued about so many things but in these memories, I  loved  so many things! That is what families do we fight, love, and laugh.
Mom (Deirdre Blake) and Boyfriend (Arash Mokhar)

Brigid Blake (Valeri Mudek) entertains  Thanksgiving with her mother (Deirdre Blake),father (J.Tucker Smith), sister (Courtney Balan) and grandmother, Momo (Ceclia Riddett) in her  NYC apartment. Her boyfriend (Arash Mokhtar) gets to experience them all and the continued jabs about getting married.

I laughed as I related to Ms. Blake  when she attempted to place the Virgin Mary statute in her daughter's apartment for protection.  Like Brigid, I have a similar statue given to me by my mother that is  hidden in the basement on  a bookshelf.

This family, like so many, struggled with  a  love/hate relationship as they cared for Momo who had dementia. I teared up along with many in the audience, when the Blakes shared around the table their feelings of thankfulness. They tried to give Momo a voice by reading the last letter given to her family before her mind failed. What a tear jerkier moment.    



We are all human with our own shortcomings and with  good and bad life experiences. This well acted drama with a mixture of  humor, helped us to remember this. As the Dad said, “it is times like these that  we have our family that we can always come home to”.

Enjoy your family during this season and catch the Humans  which reminds us of our  past  and  to enjoy our experiences  together when we come home  for the holidays.  

 (The Humans runs November 9 through December 10, 2017 at the O’Reilly Theater. For  tickets go to trustarts.org) 

Spiritual Reflection
Listen, my son, to your father's instructions and do not forsake your mother's teaching.  (Proverbs 1:8)