Hir Questions

How does the play illuminate the roles within the home?

It is hard to think of home without thinking of the roles that the family inside the home plays. This play shows the destruction and chaos that may take place when those roles transition and change. The play also introduces the idea of rebirth and karma. New roles are formed. New identities are created. New habits. New dynamics. Karma is mentioned in the play in regard to Arnold—the custodian of cruelties and head of the family is now carelessly mis-cared for, no longer holding any power within the home. Isaac clings to the memories of a more stable, though abusive, childhood, fearing change. His home, nor the roles within, is no longer recognizable. Paige and Max have embraced change, reversing their traditional roles completely. Paige has taken her former household, domestic mother role and adopted an uncaring attitude. The home is a mess – the dishes unclean, the laundry undone, nothing has a “place” anymore. Max transitions to Hir, a transgender. The play presents home as a concept that needs to be redefined, not a place itself but a combination of the roles and relationships that hold (or in this case, do not hold) the home together. We live in a changing world, and we are struck harshly with change as the play harks back to a time where traditional gender and family roles were the rule, not the exception.

Would you consider Paige cruel?

The play opens and we find a home that looks like the aftermath of a destructive hurricane. I suppose this is true, after all hurricanes are named after people. This play introduces Paige, a mother in a gleeful revolt against everything her abusive husband stood for: power, control, and masculinity. She has stopped cleaning, doing the laundry, and all other things expected of her as her former role as housewife. I would not describe her as overtly cruel, rather I see a person desperately trying to escape a past she could no longer bear. She escapes through Max, taking up agency with hir education and being supportive of hir transition. She escapes the traditional female role as dotting, submissive, and domestic mother figure. I see a victim turned vigilante. I see a person who is done with tradition. I’m okay with that. This is theatre, not real life. In the play, karma comes for you in the shape of a frilly white nightgown. Let the message be that empowerment can take many forms, and cruelty is a matter context.

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