REVIEW: The Humans, Roundabout at Laura Pels Theatre ✭✭✭

The Humans. Roundabout Theatre Company at the Laura Pels Theatre

There are two ways in which Karam’s work steps up to the mark: the dialogue is believable and genuine, splendidly touching in places; the narrative is uncompromising, as families so often are. There are no pat solutions or happy endings here – just a slice of suburban transitional life. This has the result that if the play is to achieve any momentum or purpose, it is the cast which must embellish the material with remarkable, penetrating and utterly believable performances. Happily, the cast with which Mantello animates Karam’s work is, without exception, first rate.

REVIEW: Fun Home, Circle In The Square ✭✭✭✭

Fun Home on Broadway

Universality is the key to the success of Fun Home. Fundamentally, it is about family and the undisclosed natures and secrets of those who are our family. Children discovering themselves and their own truths and coming to realise that their parents are human and make mistakes, don’t necessarily tell the whole truth all the time and may, in fact, not be quite who they thought they were. Both Judy Kuhn and Michael Cerveris take a back seat to the real star of the production: Sydney Lucas, who plays Small Alison.