The artwork linking to this post is from the original Playwrights Horizons production of the play, which Jobsite does not own. We are working quickly to have our designer create original artwork for our production.
Jobsite Theater has announced the replacement for Man in Snow, cancelled a few weeks ago. They are thrilled to offer the absurd, subversive family comedy HIR (pronounced “here”) by Taylor Mac, March 9 – April 1, 2018 in the Straz Center’s Shimberg Playhouse, where they are resident theater company.
Somewhere in the suburbs, Isaac has returned from Afghanistan to help take care of his ailing father, only to discover a household in revolt. The insurgent: his mother. Liberated from an oppressive marriage, and with Isaac’s newly-out transgender sibling Max as her ally, she’s on a crusade to dismantle the patriarchy. But in Mac’s sly, subversive comedy, annihilating the past doesn’t always free you from it.
“a remarkable, audacious, uproarious black comedy with a daring combination of realism and madcap absurdity.” – Charles Isherwood, The New York Times
“without a question, a major dramatic work of the 21st-century American theater.” – Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune
The title, HIR, (again, pronounced “here”) refers to a popular gender-free pronoun in the genderqueer community. “It’s not simply a reference to the character of Max,” says David M. Jenkins, “but a commentary on what it is all four of these characters are trying to do with masculinity. Mac sets up a very traditional, very familiar-feeling kitchen-sink play – one that is positively hilarious — and then spins it on its axis, or maybe better stated tries to burn it all down.” Jenkins goes on to comment that “I can’t wait to start casting. Paige, the mother, is a complete barn-burner of a role. I guarantee that whomever we find will have people talking for quite a while. The father does so much with very few words, and of course the siblings Max and Isaac offer great opportunities for two young actors, one of whom is trans. The style is described as “absurd realism,” but the emphasis here is on the real. Mac requires that any absurdity in the show be driven by the reality of the situation, only moving to an absurd level because of the extreme circumstances.”
Taylor Mac (whose preferred gender pronoun is “judy”) is a playwright, actor, singer-songwriter, performance artist, director, and producer considered to be one of the world’s leading theater artists. Taylor is considered a “critical darling of the New York scene” (NY Magazine), and has performed at Lincoln Center, Chicago’s Steppenworlf, the Sydney Opera House, the Spoleto Festival, and MOMA. Mac is a MacArthur Fellow (commonly referred to as the “Genius Grant”), a Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Drama, and is the recipient of multiple awards such as the Kennedy Prize, the NY Drama Critics Circle Award, a Guggenheim, and two Obies.
HIR runs Mar. 9 – Apr. 1, 2018. Single tickets start at $29.50. A season pass for the remaining three shows in the season (HIR, 1984, Dancing at Lunaghsa) is available for 20% off the price of single tickets with no added charges. If available, rush tickets for students, persons 65+, military/veterans and their dependents (Jobsite is a proud Blue Star Families theatre), Theater Communications Group, and Theatre Tampa Bay members are $15 off as of 30 minutes to curtain with cash and ID at the Straz Box Office window. Special preview performances are Mar. 7-8 with all seats priced at $15.
For information about HIR casting, please check this call.
