The Humans in 2012, soon after the Occupy Wall Street movement forced the discussion of income inequality onto the front page. He kept writing, even as it appeared that Occupy had stricken its tent cities and vanished without an impact. And he kept writing before Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump launched presidential campaigns that, in almost irreconcilable ways, gave vent to populist resentment and rage.
The Blakes do not rage. Yet in the spikiest bits of Karam’s dialogue they give voice to people who are teetering on the edge of the elevator shaft. An exchange like this one makes Karam’s audience gasp with both humor and somber recognition.
BRIGID
I’m spending most of my nights bartending—you guys don’t even know how much student debt I’m stuck with—
ERIK
Yeah, well, I do know who refused to go to a state school.
As we learn, Erik has been stuck as a high-school maintenance man for twenty-eight years. Deirdre, an office manager, laments, “I’m working for two more guys in their twenties, and just ’cause they have a special degree they’re making five times what I make, over forty years I’ve been there.” With the family affluence that supports his graduate-school studies in social work, Richard abrades the Blakes’ fragile esteem all the more by his sincere efforts at kinship. At one point, recounting his bout with depression, Richard tells Erik how grateful he is for being able to “re-boot” his life. To which Erik responds, “Doing life twice sounds like the only thing worse than doing it once.”
Karam is too much a humanist to reduce the Blakes to the sum of their victimization. As strapped as the parents are—Erik cuts his own hair to save money—Deirdre volunteers to help Bhutanese refugees whose poverty touches her conscience. And the most crushing blow in the Blakes’ lives, and thus in the play, comes from a personal failing (not to be revealed here). But with his great heart and expansive social vision, Karam understands, and makes an audience understand, that while anyone can commit such a mistake, people from the nation’s many Scrantons don’t have the security to survive it whole. And, forget about the zombies, a life without any margin for error is its own kind of waking, walking death.
Samuel G. Freedman is a columnist for the New York Times, a journalism professor at Columbia University, and the author of eight books.
The Humans was commissioned by the Roundabout Theatre Company and received its world premiere on November 18, 2014, at the American Theater Company (PJ Paparelli, Artistic Director) in Chicago. It was directed by PJ Paparelli; the set design was by David Ferguson, the costume design was by Brittany Dee Bodley, the lighting design was by Brian Hoehne, the sound design was by Patrick Bley; the production stage manager was Amanda J. Davis, the production manager was Markie Gray and the assistant stage manager was Abigail Medrano. The cast was:
| ERIK BLAKE | Keith Kupferer |
| DEIRDRE BLAKE | Hanna Dworkin |
| AIMEE BLAKE | Sadieh Rifai |
| BRIGID BLAKE | Kelly O’Sullivan |
| “MOMO” BLAKE | Jean Moran |
| RICHARD SAAD | Lance Baker |
The Humans received its New York premiere at the Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director; Harold Wolpert, Managing Director; Julia C. Levy, Executive Director; Sydney Beers, General Manager) on October 26, 2015. It was directed by Joe Mantello; the set design was by David Zinn, the costume design was by Sarah Laux, the lighting design was by Justin Townsend, the sound design was by Fitz Patton; the artistic consultant was Robyn Goodman, the literary manager was Jill Rafson, the production stage manager was William Joseph Barnes and the associate stage manager was Devin Day. The cast was:
| ERIK BLAKE | Reed Birney |
| DEIRDRE BLAKE | Jayne Houdyshell |
| AIMEE BLAKE | Cassie Beck |
| BRIGID BLAKE | Sarah Steele |
| “MOMO” BLAKE | Lauren Klein |
| RICHARD SAAD | Arian Moayed |
The Humans opened on Broadway at The Helen Hayes Theatre on February 18, 2016. The producers were Scott Rudin, Barry Diller, Roundabout Theatre Company, Fox Theatricals, James L. Nederlander, Terry Allen Kramer, Roy Furman, Daryl Roth, Jon B. Platt, Eli Bush, Broadway Across America, Jack Lane, Barbara Whitman, Jay Alix and Una Jackman, Scott M. Delman, Sonia Friedman, Amanda Lipitz, Peter May, Stephanie P. McClelland, Lauren Stein, The Shubert Organization; Joey Parnes, Sue Wagner, John Johnson, executive producers. The artistic team and cast remained the same as the Roundabout production.
ERIK BLAKE, sixty
DEIRDRE BLAKE, Erik’s wife, sixty-one
AIMEE BLAKE, their daughter, thirty-four
BRIGID BLAKE, their daughter, twenty-six
“MOMO” BLAKE, Erik’s mother, seventy-nine
RICHARD SAAD, Brigid’s boyfriend, thirty-eight
NOTES
1. A slash ( / ) means the character with the next line of dialogue begins his or her speech.
2. Dialogue in brackets [ ] is expressed nonverbally.
3. The Humans takes place in one real-time scene—on a two-level, four-room set—with no blackouts. Life continues in all spaces at all times. While this is difficult to render on the page, the noting of “UPSTAIRS” v. “DOWNSTAIRS” is a reminder of the exposed “dollhouse” view the audience has at all times. Throughout the journey, the audience’s focus may wander into whichever room it chooses.
There are six basic fears, with some combination of which every human suffers at one time or another . . .
The fear of poverty
The fear of criticism
The fear of ill health
The fear of loss of love of someone
The fear of old age
The fear of death
—NAPOLEON HILL, THINK AND GROW RICH
The subject of the “uncanny” . . . belongs to all that is terrible—to all that arouses dread and creeping horror . . . The German word [for “uncanny”], unheimlich, is obviously the opposite of heimlich . . . meaning “familiar,” “native,” “belonging to the home”; and we are tempted to conclude that what is “uncanny” is frightening precisely because it is not known and familiar . . . [But] among its different shades of meaning the word heimlich exhibits one which is identical with its opposite, unheimlich . . . on the one hand, it means that which is familiar and congenial, and on the other, that which is concealed and kept out of sight.
—SIGMUND FREUD, THE UNCANNY
The mask. Look at the mask!
Sand, crocodile, and fear above
