Familiar

"By the end of this engrossing comedy-drama, deep fissures within the family have been exposed, fresh wounds are rubbed raw and long-buried secrets are unearthed...Ms. Gurira weaves issues of cultural identity and displacement, generational frictions and other meaty matters into dialogue that flows utterly naturally. Her engaging characters are drawn with sympathy and, under the crisp direction of Rebecca Taichman, 'Familiar' stays firmly on course even as the complications pile up." Full Review

"It's a good old-fashioned comedy, set during the run-up to a wedding, featuring mistaken identity and last-minute plot twists. It's tremendously enjoyable, drawing us into the characters and their stories...Gurira knows how to spin a good yarn, however, so we accept this lack of brevity, as we do with Shakespeare's best comedies. Director Rebecca Taichman's production is commensurately thorough...The most heartwarming new comedy of the season." Full Review

“'Familiar' has a well-worn plot...But the family — inspired by Gurira’s own — is Zimbabwean-American and the playwright’s good ear for dialogue helps make this a sharp look at assimilation...Gurira sets up some expectations — that the white groom will be a problem, for instance — only to smartly deflate them, and the show barrels through at high comic velocity. Even the sentimental ending can’t spoil it." Full Review

"With the combination of Gurira's well-drawn and interesting characters and director Rebecca Taichman's sterling production, which flows ever-so-smoothly from funny to charming to grippingly emotional, 'Familiar' feels rather fresh...The comical spirit of the first act gradually gives way to serious matters of self-discovery in the second half after the revealing of a family secret...There's a lovely warmth and sweetness about 'Familiar', and engaging balance of humor, social politics and love." Full Review

"Although Rebecca Taichman has directed her superb ensemble cast to find the humor in these all-too-human disputes, the darker aspects of their conflicting values are clear enough, too...Sorry to say, the warm feelings generated by this open-hearted play turn cold in the second act. Seemingly unsure of where to go with all the plot possibilities she raises, Gurira makes the worst possible choice of darkening the narrative by revealing unbelievable and out-of-character family secrets." Full Review

"With the stage thus set for maximum culture clash, Gurira lets her characters loose. Do things get crazy or messy? Yes and thank goodness....A less committed cast or a director lacking Rebecca Taichman’s wit and verve might have let 'Familiar' descend into ethnic-sitcom territory or suffered whiplash from the second-act dance between rom-com and identity crisis. But the piece works, throwing red meat to an excellent cast and offering plenty of emotional hooks for the audience." Full Review

"Fantastically well-realized...I’m sure that Gurira knew that her story risked falling into cliché unless she did what she so brilliantly does here: stay within the reality of the characters and their voices...Gurira has a nearly unerring ear for how to make popular theatre without compromising authenticity...Gurira, like her director, has an incredible sense of comedy and how it plays against pathos. But Tippett takes it to another level; he is one of the best actors I’ve seen in ages." Full Review

"Danai Gurira’s often absorbing, uneven 'Familiar' is a story about Americans, about immigrants, about assimilation and its discontents...Gurira clearly shares some of Tendi’s emotions and under Rebecca Taichman’s direction, these elements of the play are finely wrought and personal. Elsewhere the tone is patchier, as is the acting, which shifts between naturalism and comic caricature...Even in its inconsistencies, it suggests that she is a playwright to honor and cherish." Full Review

"'Familiar' tries so hard to domesticate its characters with the recognizable rhythms of punch-line dialogue, while at the same time addressing very large issues of assimilation and repatriation, that it winds up doing neither very well, even as it remains improbable throughout...For all its worthy questions, its frequent big laughs, and a few good performances, this is a play that leaves you feeling, in more ways than one, unsure where to look." Full Review

"Funny, insightful play about a Zimbabwe family living in Minnesota...Gurira’s perceptions go far deeper. Her unfolding of the family dynamics feels like genuine insight, and it is not limited to the issues facing immigrants...Not every moment works in 'Familiar'...But on the whole, as directed by Rebecca Taichman with a uniformly able cast, 'Familiar' presents the story of these specific immigrants as a familiar stew flavored with some sharp and special spices." Full Review

"A warm and often hilarious family comedy with a number of serious ideas on its mind. Even when it starts to get a little top-heavy with subplots, it remains an engaging work filled with characters we rarely see on our stages...Gurira has so much going on narratively that she struggles to keep track of it all. But director Taichman proves remarkably skillful at keeping all the narrative balls in the air, and she has the help of a very fine cast." Full Review

"'Familiar' is not a perfect play. It is uneven and rangy. The position of a central character appears to change from moment to moment. There are more plots than you can shake a stick at. Still, through all of that there comes a clarion call. These people are us and we are them...Gurira’s specificity is so refined that ultimately this story reaches across barriers of race and clutches us…We are more familiar to one another than we know. It is this vantage point from which Gurira writes." Full Review

"Laughter, tears, anger, and misunderstandings are the components...So are the ultimate revelations of long-kept secrets...These latter, in fact, turn the play too sharply in the direction of melodrama, and, while appealing in the way hidden facts about characters we care about always are, nonetheless smack too strongly of dramatic contrivance...Also familiar is the thematic issue of assimilation..But Ms. Gurira deploys these elements with...masterful skill." Full Review

"Given the potential of its subject matter, it saddens me to report that 'Familiar' is so familiar...Ms. Gurira has rehashed all the clichés of this well-worn genre as if they hadn’t long since been worn out...I expected much better from the author of 'Eclipsed' than a play whose fundamentally serious plot is smothered in lazy sitcom-style jokes and heavy-handed, creakily didactic dialogue. Fine though the 8-person cast is, the talented actors can’t bring 'Familiar' to life other than fitfully." Full Review

"The uneven play is stronger on amusing setup than turbulent follow-through, its second-act dramatic turn relying on forced revelations. But the characters and performances keep you glued through to the moving conclusion...All this often hovers with a wink on the edge of sitcom...Gurira draws the fractured family back together and has them reaffirm their roots in an affecting final scene that helps to minimize the structural bumps that precede it." Full Review

"Under the direction of Rebecca Taichman, this all moves with a lively fluidity, the serious issues underlying the rather frivolous plot emerging gently...In Act II, Gurira all but abandons the creative understatement that defines the first act...She transforms a lovely, sincere piece about the long-lasting difficulties of assimilation into one that is rustily mechanical and stunningly emotionally false." Full Review

"The cast lead by Ms. Tunie, is excellent. Each shines in their own way...The direction by Rebecca Taichman, is flawless...'Familiar' is one of the best plays of the year. It is touching, heartfelt, deals with displacement, cultural identity, loss, the struggle between a mother and her daughter, the feeling of not being good enough, longing for what is past, war, poverty and human connection. In the end we connect with these very human characters and relate...A must see." Full Review

"The play’s first half is dominated by laughs — some too easy — sparked by culture clashes. But after a big reveal things get serious — and a bit too pointed to be persuasive...The play’s mood swings are extreme enough to merit a Zoloft prescription. And the dialogue can get too clever for its own good...Still, director Rebecca Tachman skillfully guides the fine-tuned ensemble through the various curves, highs and lows. Like family, 'Familiar' is messy and resilient." Full Review

"Though not flawless, it's fun, funny and often moving. The current cast and design team make for a Class-A theatrical experience, though it would be even more so with a bit of additional fine turning...The playwright has peppered her script with lots of smart dialogue and generally proves herself to be adept at humor as tragedy...The risky switch from mostly comic scenes to big and more serious revelations is accomplished quite effectively...The actors all inhabit their roles convincingly." Full Review

"This lively, overstuffed new play runs the gamut from sitcom to high drama...The mood gradually darkens and the revelation of a shocking family secret changes everything...Taichman has nimbly steered the actors through the change of tone. The strong ensemble acting succeeds in making the specific seem universal...The humanity and good humor went a long way toward making me willing to overlook some of the holes in the plot. It’s far from perfect, but well worth seeing." Full Review

"The play is busy, and over-populated...but it also takes an amusing, compassionate look at an issue that should resonate with people of many different backgrounds...With so many characters the show sprawls...Toward the end, a shattering revelation is tossed in from left field, abruptly darkening the tone of the play. 'Familiar' certainly has its flaws. But, well-acted and exuberant, it does capture the possibilities for fun and fury when you’re a hyphenated American." Full Review

"A well-told immigrant-family drama... It’s not just familiar names that make this two-act story about assimilation, tradition and identity comforting and rewarding—it’s how universal the story, finally, seems...The gold in Gurira’s relatable immigrant story is an insistence on even-handedness and a dexterous way of introducing characters who gradually blossom into complex individuals, with motives anyone can appreciate and respect." Full Review

"'Familiar' is affecting...What makes this play special is that Gurira constantly throws in little twists that turn what could have been caricatures into more complex characters...The acting under Rebecca Taichman's nimble direction, is all-around fine...This is one case where I'm celebrating the play more than its players. For Gurira has shone a light on parts of both the black and the immigrant experiences that too often get overlooked." Full Review

"'Familiar' is a brilliant ode to family life. Extremely well written, its pacing is unbroken and a pleasure to follow. Playwright Danai Gurira is a superb storyteller, matched with formidable director Rebecca Taichman, they have created something special…'Familiar' [is] one of the best productions on family life I've seen in a long while." Full Review

"It’s a smart, oft-profound work that leaves one with more questions than answers, but it’s a welcome breath of fresh air as well...For as much as its premise might touch on genre conventions that make it sound like 'My Big Fat Zimbabwean Wedding', there’s much more to 'Familiar' than that; from its elaborate tableaux depicting upper middle class, to its sensitive, but transgressive takes on race and immigration, it’s a play that serves food for the soul and thought alike." Full Review