★★★★

“Felicity Huffman making her UK stage debut is mesmeric as Paige”

HIR pronounced “here” is a story about place, and in Pulitzer and Tony-nominee Taylor Mac’s darkly absurdist play it is about home, in this shockingly good production. The brilliant cast is led by the multi award winning American actress Felicity Huffman.

The prodigal son, Isaac (Steffan Cennydd) returns home from the Afghan war. Home is the place that Isaac couldn’t wait to leave when he joined the marines. Home is the place he sent dead soldiers back to in a box. Home is the place he dreamt about, and home is the place he is desperate to return to. But everything about his home is different.

Not him, not her, but hir is the preferred gender pronoun of his teenage younger sister, Max (Thalía Dudek), who is no longer his sister but his transgender / genderqueer sibling. His father (Simon Startin) is no longer his abusive father, but a dribbling stroke victim in a nightie, with a clown face and neon pink wig. And his mother (Huffman), who calls Isaac simply I, has become a not so batty, woke and merciless woman. Their quickfire chat and actions in this claustrophobic home knows no bounds as they try to look to a future.

Felicity Huffman making her UK stage debut is mesmeric as Paige from the moment the lights go up on their filthy, messy, shabby box of a house, menacingly built over landfill. Making her husband “shut the door” is torturous, made hilarious by the amount of times Huffman can make those three words sound so different. Paige’s deep set and sadistic revenge cruelty on her now pathetic husband is at times monstrous; as Huffman sprays him with a water bottle, like he is a disobedient dog, but still you laugh – to begin with. Huffman’s timing is faultless.

“more than yet another play about a dysfunctional family”

The cast play their roles with absolute conviction as: toxic masculinity, identity, mental illness, PTSD, raging hormones, disability, gender fluidity, emasculation, abuse and drugs, somehow all get their moment without being preachy in this firecracker four hander.

Thalía Dudek as the titular Hir is all testosterone and bravado, as hir convincingly proves that the Mona Lisa is transgender. Dudek also shows the character’s vulnerability and desperation to have hir brother’s traditionally masculine approval, again as the audience laughs – to begin with.

Masterfully directed by Steven Kunis who brings Hir to life, making it more than yet another play about a dysfunctional family. Hir might not quite have the shock value regarding identity, that Taylor Mac intended, when it first opened nearly a decade ago, but it still packs a punch. Set and costume designer Ceci Calf creates an extraordinary theatrical moment at the end of act one as the set closes ranks, as the 1960s pop song Little Boxes plays. And let’s not forget the hard working stage management team, who have a massive change to handle during the interval.

There’s no place like home but in Hir everything and everyone is broken.

GWYNETH GOES SKIING at the Pleasance Theatre

★★★

“it is hard to parody something that is so absurd in the first place”

One fateful day in 2016, award-winning actress and Goop-founding entrepreneur Gwyneth Paltrow and retired optometrist Terry Sanderson collided on a ski slope at Utah’s Deer Valley Resort. Three years later, Sanderson filed a lawsuit against Paltrow for the sum of $3,000,000 (ultimately reduced tenfold). In early 2023, the trial kicked off with Sanderson claiming broken bones and life-changing injuries whilst Paltrow lamented a loss of “half a day of skiing” and countersued for $1.

The trial immediately became an iconic pop culture moment and featured many notable moments – from starstruck lawyers to questions about what Taylor Swift is really like. It thus seems only natural that camp-obsessed Linus Karp and Joseph Martin – together, Awkward Productions and fresh from the hilarious Princess Di in Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story – would turn the court case into the cabaret-drag musical Gwyneth Goes Skiing.

The absurdity of the whole affair is made clear before the show even starts. Screens to the side of the stage invite us to take part in a ‘Celebrity Lawsuit Name Generator’ and songs about falling or colliding with the occasional ‘ski’ dubbed over their choruses.

Unfortunately, this is one of the few times where the technology of the show was reliable – mic packs failed, screens had no signal, and the cast were forced to improvise when no lines appear for their participating audience members. Shout out to the two Stage Managers – Lauren Lambert-Moore and Ella Kennedy – for handling these problems so well. Their apparent boredom at the proceedings only added to the hilarity and stupidity of it all.

Karp plays a soft-spoken and self-obsessed Paltrow whilst Martin is Sanderson, an exceedingly awkward old man who leads a miserable life in stark context to his lawsuit rival. The pair – as expected – have great chemistry and are clearly having a lot of fun on stage. The rest of our colourful characters are made up of the audience themselves who are selected as they take their seats. The audience as a whole also has a significant role to play at the end of the show as they vote via QR code on whether Paltrow is Gwinnocent or Gwuilty.

“a fun show, and the pop culture references are rife.”

The main issue in this production is its pacing. The show drags – it is far longer than it ever needed to be. There is some expectation in drag circles that the overly camp will also be a bit rubbish featuring poor props and an ill-rehearsed cast. This, however, only works when the performance is also exceptionally funny which Gwyneth Goes Skiing is unfortunately not.

The audience must endure monumental amounts of filler. We meet The Deer of Deer Valley (a painted cardboard structure), Mrs Rabbit and Mr Squirrel (both puppets) on the slopes. The court scene eventually enters a montage sequence of key moments but not before near 30-minutes of inane chatter. The characters speak slowly – Paltrow understandably so – but it takes all the zing out of all the delivery. There are funny moments – joyously, Paltrow’s daughter Apple is played by an apple – but the largest laughs came from the show going wrong and even from the witty retorts of the participating audience.

The songs are originals by Leland – American songwriter of RuPaul’s Drag Race fame – and they are…OK. The best song is incidentally also the only one that is sung live by Martin via an appropriately absurd puppet of Sanderson’s attorney Kristin Vanorman. It is a shame that Karp and Martin opted for a lip-synced musical – especially as the voices do not match the gentle Swedish tones or gruff brutish voice of their respective characters.

The staging is fine. The revolve is used well to simulate skiing and the court scenes of the second half have a nice aesthetic to them. The audience is treated to recreations of Paltrow’s court-side outfits though Karp’s wig should really be the thing on trial here.

Gwyneth Goes Skiing is a fun show, and the pop culture references are rife. However, Karp and Martin don’t quite capture the camp of the original trial and it is hard to parody something that is so absurd in the first place. This is unfortunately not the duo’s strongest show.

HIR at the Park Theatre

★★★★

“Felicity Huffman making her UK stage debut is mesmeric as Paige”

“more than yet another play about a dysfunctional family”

HIR at the Park Theatre

Reviewed on 21st February 2024

by Debbie Rich

Photography by Pamela Raith

Previously reviewed at this venue:

HIR

HIR

GWYNETH GOES SKIING at the Pleasance Theatre

★★★

“it is hard to parody something that is so absurd in the first place”

“a fun show, and the pop culture references are rife.”

GWYNETH GOES SKIING at the Pleasance Theatre

Reviewed on 7th February 2024

by Flora Doble

Photography by Jonny Ruff

Previously reviewed at this venue:

GWYNETH GOES SKIING

GWYNETH GOES SKIING

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