Hir - Belvoir

Overview

When Isaac returns from an unspecified war, he's not expecting it to have followed him home. His house is a battlefield, his mother and newly transgender sibling are soldiers marching to secure the downfall of the patriarchy. His father, an abusive disciplinarian, has suffered a stroke and now shuffles about the house in strange clothing, seemingly lost.

Struggling to piece his life back together, Isaac has to reacquaint himself not only with civilian life, but a family too different for him to know or remember. He is still a son and a brother but his tribe are on the warpath and he represents the very thing they've vowed to destroy.

Playwright Taylor Mac has said the Hir manifested from memories of his hometown, Stockton in California, a place he was bursting to leave as a young man and clearly does not remember fondly. The central question, he says, is, "What responsibility do we have to something that has been abusive to us?"

Its setting may classify it as a kitchen sink drama, but make no mistake — a ticket to Hir is a ticket to war.

Image: Rehearsal shoot, Helen Thomson. Photo by Brett Boardman.